When east met west something very special happened; formed over the internet by English guitarist Jack Simmons and Russian vocalist Alex Terrible, Slaughter To Prevail grew from a covers band into a deathcore monster that devoured the world. Their third album, the aptly-titled Grizzly, finds the band arriving fully formed and stomping like the proverbial bear with a sore head.
Let’s get one thing straight; Slaughter To Prevail don’t deal in niceties. Opening track ‘Banditos’ doesn’t so much knock at your down so much as kick it down with a size 10 boot. There’s no fancy introductions or gentle preambles, rather ‘Banditos’ arrives without warning; it’s a surprise hook from a heavyweight boxer or a bullet appearing between eyes, you don’t really see it until it hits you and it is all the more powerful for it. It’s brutal and bombastic, and living up to its title, throws it’s weight around like a bear with a sore head. Yet, this crew are far from one dimensional and the Mediterranean mid-section that punctuates the song can only be described as “surreal”. Slaughter To Prevail throw lots of unusual ideas into their skillet and they work because they all arrive without warning; it’s a prerequisite when listening to this band to expect the unexpected, yet nothing can prepare you for monks chanting along with the music on ‘Babayka’.
Outside of music vocalist Aleksandr “Alex Terrible” Shikolai is a bare knuckle boxer (really!) and he roars just as you’d expect a bare knuckle boxer to roar. As with the grizzly in the title, his vocals are enough to instil terror in the uninitiated, but for those in the know he is high regarded as one of deathcore’s most respected and admired singers. It’s an impressive range, but works best at the more extreme end, and his work on the penultimate ‘Kid Of Darkness’ can only be described as “inhuman”. That makes their collaboration with BABYMETAL all the more intriguing. The two work well together; the gruff and the squeaky clean making the perfect foil for the other. As such, it is a song that constantly repositions the listener and is akin to a ride on a twister that throws about with abandon and the result is fairly dizzying. BABYMETAL have made some interesting collaborations of late, but ‘Song 3’ is the most impactful by far.
Inspired by recent events in Russia and George Orwell’s book of the same name, ‘1984’ is a jaw-dropping closer that successfully captures the horror of both and funnels that trauma into three-and-a-half minutes of pure aggression. It’s a strong conclusion and one which ensures the band won’t be forgotten in a hurry.
- Grizzly is released via Sumerian Records on 18th July 2025.
Track List:
1. Banditos
2. Russian Grizzly In America
3. Imdead (feat. Ronnie Radke)
4. Babayka
5. Viking
6. Koschei
7. Song 3 (feat. BABYMETAL)
8. Lift That Shit
9. Behelit
10. Rodina
11. Conflict
12. Kid of Darkness
13. 1984
