RUTHLESS
RUTHLESS “The Fallen”
By Theron Moore
RUTHLESS are truly old school metal heads in the purest sense. They released their first EP “Metal Without Mercy” in 1984 and dropped their debut album “Discipline Of Steel” in 1986. In the last few years they've released “They Rise” in 2015 and “Evil Within” in 2019. Now the band is back with new record “The Fallen” on Fireflash Records released earlier this year in January.
RUTHLESS, for the uninitiated, play a solid style of classic metal in the vein of SAXON, DIO, and MAIDEN as demonstrated with tracks like “The Dark Passenger,” “End Times,” and title track “The Fallen.” A hint of speed metal finds its way into track three “Betrayal” while the MAIDEN influence comes through pretty strong with RUTHLESS rocking a classic metal gallop and shredding guitar attack with“Dead Fall.”
All in all, RUTHLESS are doing what they do best on ‘The Fallen;” playing classic, traditional metal as it was done back in the 80’s: horns up and lots of headbanging. The music is solid and the band is genuine regarding their love and commitment to metal. Most important, there’s not a bum track on here, the entire album rocks. Classic metal can sometimes get bogged down in sentimentality and yearning for the “old days.” This is pure steel made by metal soldiers for metal soldiers without pandering to the past. For these reasons this record is a must buy for me.
4/5 Stars