With such a simple, direct and, well, appropriate name, it’s pretty likely that a death metal band such as Brutality laid claim to their moniker decades ago, before there were a bazillion extreme metal bands clogging up the bandwidth over at Metal Archives. Sure enough these Tampa, Florida stalwarts can trace their origins all the way back to the genre’s nascence in the late ’80s, though there have been several break-ups and reunions since their first demo was issued in 1988. The band issued three albums for Nuclear Blast in the ’90s before bust-up number one. There have been a couple more reunions, though none that produced much in the way of new material, until their latest for Emanzipation Productions, Sempiternity.
Even this new full-length, however, comes as something of a (possible) swansong. The quintet—Scott Reigel (vocals), Jeff Acres (bass/vocals), Jay Fernandez (guitar), Jarrett Pritchard (guitar) and Ronnie Parmer (drums)—apparently decided to call it quits in late 2020, but were encouraged by Emanzipation Productions to issue one final full-length documenting the last incarnation of Brutality (which may or may not continue on . . .). Four songs recorded live at Maryland Death Fest in 2019 (“These Walls Shall Be Your Grave”, “Cries Of The Forsaken”, “Cryptorium” and “48 To 52”) anchor Sempiternity, and are augmented by two tracks previously issued on a 7″ in 2018 (“Crushed” and “Artistic Butchery”) that were re-recordings of ’90s cuts, as well as two new recordings (“Orchestrated Devastation” and “Fluent In Silence”). We’re premiering the lyric video for “Orchestrated Devastation,” a prime slice of Florida DM, um, brutality.
Sempiternity is set for release in digital, CD and LP formats via Emanzipation Productions on May 27. You can preorder it here, including the numerous limited vinyl color variants.
Here’s what Scott Reigel had to say about the track:
“The title came from a short bio written about us for Milwaukee Metal Fest in 1996. Since then it’s been out motto about our music. We later used the title for our compilation album that was released in 2014. In 2018 we started writing a song and used it once again. Lyrically the song is about how our world leaders have a plan to use fear, war, religion and social media to keep humanity under control for their self preservation.”
