Mike Kaufmann

Defiance is an American thrash metal band from Oakland, California.

They played a technical style of thrash originally evoking bands like Testament, though they would later move on to playing in their own unique, more progressive thrash style.

Defiance was formed in 1985 by guitarist Brad Bowers, drummer Matt Vander Ende, and bassist Mike Kaufmann.

Doug Harrington joined later but left the band not long after due to conflicts with Bowers, and was replaced by Jim Adams.

Eventually the band ousted Bowers and replaced him with Harrington.

In 1987, the band recruited a vocalist in Mitch Mayes.

Now with a stable and complete line-up, Defiance began playing shows in the Bay Area.

With the local thrash scene gaining momentum, the band attained local notoriety.

Their first demo was released in 1987.

Shortly afterwards Mayes left the band and was replaced by Ken Elkington.

With Elkington the band issued their Hypothermia demo in 1988.

This demo caught the attention of the independent metal label Roadracer Records, who signed the band that year.

At Roadracer's insistence, the band traveled to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada to record their debut album with Annihilator guitarist Jeff Waters.

The band's debut, Product of Society was released in 1989.

The band was very unsatisfied with Waters' production job, as he told the band to turn down the volume pots on their guitars, resulting in a very thin riff sound, and the members also claim Waters was acting unprofessionally during the recording.

Nonetheless, the album managed to attract attention in the thrash community, despite the frequent label as a Testament knock-off.

After playing a few dates in the Bay Area, Elkington was fired due to lack of commitment and former Laughing Dead vocalist Steev Esquivel was added to the group and finished the band's tours for the album.

With Esquivel on board, Defiance released their second album, Void Terra Firma in 1990.

Produced by John Cuniberti (best known for producing Joe Satriani's Surfing With the Alien), the production was slightly better, but still a bit sketchy.

The band's overall sound became a little more progressive but stuck to the Bay Area thrash ideals, though many compared Esquivel's singing style to Chuck Billy of Testament.

This was the band's biggest commercial success, featuring a metal hit in its cover of Iron Maiden's "Killers".

The band toured with Vio-lence in support of the album that year.

The band went into the studio with Rob Beaton to record their third album in 1991, but problems arose when Steev Esquivel's drug addictions became over the top and he left the group.

He was briefly replaced by former Militia vocalist Matt Ulrickson, but the band was dissatisfied with the results and fired him.

The now cleaner Esquivel returned to the band, but this led to the delay of the recording of the album.

Defiance's third release Beyond Recognition was finally released in 1992.

Straying away from the band's original thrash trappings, the band explored extremely technical songs with odd time signatures and off the wall song structures, even experimenting with jazz fusion elements, but while remaining true to the thrash metal formula.

This coupled with the much improved production made for it to be considered Defiance's best work by many fans.

It was by far the band's most critically acclaimed album, but due to a lack of support from Roadracer and a shifting musical atmosphere, it suffered in sales especially in America (though sales in Europe and Japan were still substantial).

The personal management for the artist, Defiance, during the period including the albums, Void Terra Firma and Beyond Recognition, was Greg Burnham of FTC Entertainment Group.

Around this time Roadracer began to apparently treat the band poorly.

The band was denied a tour of Europe with Sepultura, where the band still had a substantial audience.

Jim Adams and Matt Vander Ende left the band after the album's tentative single, "Inside Looking Out" (featuring guest vocals from David White of Heathen), was denied single or video release.

They were replaced by Brian Wenzel and Mike Bennet respectively.

In 1993, Esquivel left the band and was replaced by new vocalist David White.

After dissolving in 1995, they reformed in 2005 and released their fourth studio album The Prophecy in late 2009.

Matt Vander Ende briefly joined Laaz Rocket, and later in 2004 he moved to New York City to become the drummer for the Broadway show Wicked.

Jim Adams returned to the band shortly after he left and Mike Bennet was replaced by Tyson Leeper.

The band did a short American tour, with Leeper leaving and being replaced by Paul Palmer in the process.

They broke up once again in 2012, but announced yet another reunion in September 2019.