Glassbone – Ruthless Savagery

Glassbone – Ruthless Savagery (EP)
Release Date: 13th February 2026
Label: Iron Fortress Records/Frozen Records
Bandcamp
Genre: Death Metal, Hardcore.
FFO: Kruelty, Dying Fetus, Sanguisugabogg.
Review By: Mark Young

Its quite apt that this should see release on Friday the 13^th. As a possible soundtrack to a yet unmade horror film, it has an incredibly dense, thick sound to it, one that is built from organised chaos. It is the first release this year that I would say is truly essential to me as an avid listener to extreme metal.

Ruthless Savagery is the starting point for what can be described as a 20-minute beat down. It lays down a marker for what the EP is about, and by extension what Glassbone are wanting to do. For me, it’s about going back to the days where the music spoke for itself and a band lived or died on the strength of it. It has everything that you love about this genre, it’s brutal with intelligent arrangements that mean they bludgeon with one hand and slice with the other. It’s an approach that they keep in place for Dryin’ Up Of Their Blood, a pummelling experience that sees them keep that keen balance in place. 

That intent stays at the same level right through, it’s like they sat down and agreed that at no point should the intensity displayed on Ruthless Savagery be any different to that on Driven By Sinister. They must have experienced this as fans coming up and absolutely hated it. And you can tell, as we reach Testimony Of Death, the penultimate track here. Its 2 minutes 58 seconds of proper death metal, where tempos change but not the bone crushing riffs, the most guttural of vocals, and that guitar sound, which is just royal. Driven By Sinister brings the curtain down on a feral 20 minutes of top-class death metal. I’ve said this before that its harder sometimes to write a review where the music is good, it’s far easier to concentrate on the poor or weak points. There aren’t any here, just incredibly strong death metal. 

1. Ruthless Savagery
2. Dryin’ Up Of Their Blood
3. Apostasy Imperium
4. E.K.F.I.V.
5. Testimony Of Death (Ft FULCI)
6. Driven By Sinister

(5 / 5)