Old-school Florida death crew Brutality had a prolific run from 1988 to 1996, releasing a slew of demos and full-lengths. They then reunited in the early 2000’s before splitting up again, but they couldn’t be deterred, reuniting with the lineup from their debut album, Screams of Anguish. From 2012 to present, they’ve issued a number of re-recordings, box sets, an LP (Sea of Ignorance) and now a new 7-inch, Antecedent Offerings. Longtime vocalist Scott Reigel spoke with Decibel about the release (buy it here), becoming an independent band and Brutality’s next full-length.
You have new music. Can you tell us about it? One of the songs, “Artistic Butchery,” is a re-recording of a song from 1994, right?
Yes, “Artistic” is a song off When the Sky Turns Black LP. The 7” EP will also have “Crushed” from our debut album, Screams of Anguish. We are currently working on our 5th full-length album with our current lineup. We think we are at our highest level of talent and drive to write memorable music for metal fans. We expect it to be right up there with our other 4 albums.
Brutality has now been active for the longest period of time since splitting in up in 1998. What do you think has contributed to the band being able to exist again for more than a few years?
First, because of our fans! Then I think it was our decision to not sign a contract with a label. We have done more on our own since 2011 when we decided to reform with the original Screams lineup and create our own label, Ceremonial Records LLC. We have been able to handle our own merch, re-release all of our albums on CD/Vinyl, record 2 EPs and our latest album, Sea of Ignorance. Once again, we owe this to our fans that continue to support us.
As a veteran band, what do you think about the state of death metal right now? Are you playing with and hearing a lot of interesting or exciting new bands? Are you into the OSDM revival?
OSDM—to be honest, we really try not to put ourselves in any genres. We just think of all metal [as] extreme music. As far as the move goes, it’s cool to see the younger generation keep that era of metal alive.
Lately our live shows have been at festivals where there are far too many bands and most of them all sound the same to my ears. But every once in a while you hear pure perfection when it comes to music writing. Death metal isn’t what it used to be!
You’ve got a new 7-inch, Antecedent Offerings, out. It features new drummer Ron Parmer; how’d you meet him and how did he come to be a part of the band?
Ronnie contacted us, he heard we were looking for a live drummer to do shows. After meeting and jamming a bit, we felt he would be a great fit to our style and sound so we brought him into our band of friends.
He’s a great musician all around, him and his family are great supporters of what we do! The 7” is going to be a great memorabilia for our fans we are only releasing 500 copies worldwide and half of them have already been pre-sold.
Will there be a tour or live dates to support Antecedent Offerings?
Touring isn’t in our cards; our personal lives are too busy. We have been doing festivals on the east coast and we just played Houston for the first time on Oct 27 at Building Temples from Death fest. Our next live show will be Maryland Deathfest 2019.
Is there more new Brutality on the horizon? Can we expect more re-recordings, or new music?
Yes, we are currently writing all-new material for our next release. We are expecting to have it out next spring/early summer 2019. We have not yet titled it because we keep coming up with different theme ideas and all the songs are not yet complete.
