Formed in 1985 by Brad Bowers (guitar), Mike Kaufmann (bass) and Matt Vander Ende (drums). In 1986 Doug Harrington (guitar) was added to the line up, but due to personal differences between Doug and Brad, they replaced Doug with Jim Adams (guitar) in late summer of that year. After Jim had been in the band for about 5 months he too began to experience 'personal differences' with Brad. The band decided to let Brad go and bring back Doug into the fold.
In early 1987, Mitch Mayes joined the band (vocals). Defiance did several shows with this line up and recorded their first demo. Shortly after the demo was completed, Mitch left the band and was replace by Ken Elkinton (vocals) and soon after they recorded their second demo "Hypothermia".
1989 saw the release of their debut album "Product of Society" and soon after Elkinton was replaced by Steev Esquivel. In 1990 they released their second album "Void Terra Firma" and two years later in 1992 came "Beyond Recognition" which would turn out to be their last.
Members of the band continued to play together in the bands Inner Threshold and Under until the late 90's. Steev has been playing with Skinlab since shortly after he left Defiance in 1993.