Single Slam – Chronic Slaughter by Slaughter to Prevail (Misery Sermon)

Slaughter to Prevail have released a new single called Chronic Slaughter. It comes from their soon to be released new album, Misery Sermon. Misery Sermon will be released on the 5th May 2017 via Sumerian Records.

Slaughter to Prevail are a Russian deathcore band and Misery Sermon will be their first full length release. It follows on from 2016’s EP release Chapters of Misery.

Slaughter to Prevail are fronted by Alex Shikolai (known as Alex Terrible) on vocals. Jack Simmons is the guitarist and Anton Poddyacht is the drummer. The band affectionately call their fan base the Misery Crew and occasionally wear demonic masks on stage.

Musically their brand of deathcore is up their with the most brutal I have ever heard. It is genuinely vicious and Alex’s dark and disturbing growls and roars are the driving force behind the brutality. At just under 5 minutes long Chronic Slaughter is a reasonably long song for a deathcore track.

Chronic Slaughter is heavy. The drums have a good solid sound to them mixing between booming thumps and fast tapping. The vocals are vicious and demonic. The guitar plays simplistic riffs with little moments of elevation. A little squeal or slide here and there. Unfortunately the guitars are often lost below the booming drums and roaring vocals.

It seems like the vocals and drums are the main components and lead the rhythm and pace with the guitar acting as background rhythm which is a bit of a shame. Chronic Slaughter is quite formulaic overall, moving from breakdown to breakdown throughout the song and while the heaviness is great to hear, the song gets a little tired while listening.

The last minute of Chronic Slaughter switches things up a bit as the blazing drums speed up further but the guitar comes in and starts playing a higher line underneath. That 30 seconds at the end is a welcome relief and freshens the whole track up a bit. I also love the fact that Alex sings in both Russian and English. That is a nice little touch though it isn’t always clear what language he is singing in due to the brutality of the vocals.

While Slaughter to Prevail are unashamedly dark and vicious, and that is great to see. This breakdown after breakdown after breakdown doesn’t quite hit the spot for me. I think I would love to get into one of their pits though – they must be absolutely nuts. There is enough talent on show here, especially in the drums and vocals, to make me interested to see if they have any more variation on the whole of Misery Sermon when it comes out. A little more guitars would be welcome.

Check Chronic Slaughter out for yourself here. Misery Sermon can be preordered from Sumerian Records. Be sure to check out Slaughter to Prevail on Facebook and give them a like too.