In 1985 Bud Mills was the first drummer (if not one of a handful) who took the speed factor up a notch while playing for the old school death metal band Insanity. He came up with a 1-1 drumbeat (as he called it) that was much faster than the 1-2 thrash beat that most bands used at that time. At Insanity’s first show supporting Death at Ruthies Inn in 1985, a huge violent pit broke out within 30 seconds of the first song of Insanity’s set mainly due to Bud’s extreme drumming. A lot of fan mail was also coming in and Insanity was being featured in a lot of fanzines as the bands 85' live demo was being circulated worldwide in the underground tape-trading scene.
At the time it seemed like Insanity had all the potential to rise to the top of the metal scene and Bud would be recognized as a pioneer in extreme drumming. Unfortunately Bud never got the recognition he deserved due to a number of unfortunate events including the death of Insanity vocalist and guitarist Joe De Zuniga in 1987. Just as the band was developing an international underground following and record labels such as Nuclear Blast were offering to sign the band, Insanity was derailed.
Here are a few quotes Matt Harvey from Exhumed wrote for the liner notes of Insanity’s From The Grave CD. “Insanity never 
became legends but they should have… they should have taken a place alongside Death, Possessed and Morbid Angel as a groundbreaking technical Death / Thrash outfit… but it was not meant to be.” Matt goes on to describe the material on the same level as Possessed at their most fearsome, but a lot faster, which reflects Bud’s impact. His drumming was the crucial element that pushed the intensity of Insanity’s music past the boundaries of what most bands were playing at that time. And other musicians such as Jeff Walker from Carcass wrote in saying that Insanity was one of their main influences. Recently Insanity was getting more recognition as death metal pioneers first with Napalm Death covering the song “Fire Death Fate” on their “Leaders Not Followers vol. 2” CD and the release of the Insanity compilation CD “From The Grave” (distributed by Relapse Records) which starts with re-mastered tracks from the 85 demo.
Over the past few years Insanity had started to generate a bit of a comeback and in March of 2007 Bud played an incredible set at the Knitting Factory in Hollywood as Insanity killed at the L.A. Murderfest. Thankfully this was also filmed for an upcoming DVD as the band wanted to document this performance.
Just as it seemed like Insanity was finally taking off from where things derailed, unfortunate news came in. In the summer of 
2007 (as Insanity was preparing to record and play a number of shows on the west coast) Bud was diagnosed with blood clots. During a visit to the emergency room in the following weeks, the doctors found that a blood clot had gone into his lung, in addition his tests also revealed indications of cancer. In late August after a more than a month of tests, blood work and other procedures it has been determined that Bud has esophageal cancer stage 4. The doctors are saying it is too late to operate and they will be starting chemotherapy a.s.a.p. He has been going through an intense amount of pain and other difficulties that come and go such as not being able to digest any food. We are all shocked that things could turn so negative so quickly and we have to keep him positive and in the frame of mind to beat this.
Any words of support and encouragement can be emailed to him through the MySpace, his wife recently made for him: http://www.myspace.com/232275743
Thanks for your support,
Dave Gorsuch
Long time friend and band mate of Bud Mills
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