Slaughter To Prevail remain unshackled by expectations, embracing their identity as metal’s most unpredictable force with Grizzly. Love it or hate it, you won’t forget it…

Words by Felix Bartlett | July 15, 2025

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Slaughter To Prevail’s Grizzly is not an album for the faint of heart. It’s a mauling 50-minute onslaught of guttural roars, bone-shattering breakdowns, and unrelenting aggression. But beneath the controversy of frontman Alex Terrible’s bear-wrestling antics, the band’s strained ties to Russia amid geopolitical turmoil lies an album that’s as technically impressive as it is vicious. If you can look past the murky past, Grizzly is an epic blood-soaked reflection of the band’s identity and the genre’s extremes.

From the opening seconds of ‘Banditos’ comes an eruption of machine-gun percussion and Terrible’s now notorious growls, a visceral introduction that feels like your drunk mate throwing you into a mosh pit mid-breakdown. The sudden mariachi interlude (absurd yet oddly fitting) is a tantalising taste of Terrible and co.’s willingness to toy with expectations, a theme that recurs throughout the album. ‘Russian Grizzly In America’ follows, a chaotic anthem featuring UFC fighter Alexander Volkov in its music video, blending pig squeals and militaristic rhythms into a track that’s as much a spectacle as it is a song.

The collaborations here are strategic triumphs that pay off exceedingly well. ‘Imdead’, featuring Ronnie Radke of Falling In Reverse, is a standout, merging Radke’s melodic hooks with Terrible’s demonic vocals into a chorus that’s bizarrely catchy. Even more unexpected is ‘Song 3’, a partnership with BABYMETAL that juxtaposes kawaii-metal sweetness against Slaughter To Prevail’s brutality. It shouldn’t work, but it absolutely does and is sure to be hanging at the top of my playlist for the next month.

Yet Grizzly isn’t just about shock value. Tracks ‘Viking’ and ‘Rodina’ reveal surprising depth, weaving folk-inspired chants and acoustic intros into the chaos. ‘Rodina’, in particular, is a haunting ode to Terrible’s conflicted relationship with his homeland, its orchestral strings offering a rare moment of respite before the storm resumes. The closing ‘*1984*’, named for Orwell’s dystopia, is a scathing critique of war, its lyrics a stark departure from the band’s usual mythic violence.

Production-wise, Grizzly is pristine. The guitars eviscerate, the drums hit like a sledgehammer, and Terrible’s vocals once again steal the show. It’s a polished chaos, a contradiction that defines the album. You can argue that deathcore’s tropes are recycled here, but Slaughter To Prevail’s execution elevates them. The genre’s limits are stretched, if not shattered, by the band’s willingness to fuse deathcore with everything from Latin rhythms to J-pop.

Is Grizzly flawless? No. Some tracks (‘Lift That Shit’, ‘Koschei’) blur into the album’s relentless pace, and the uninitiated will find little to grasp beyond the brutality. But for fans, this is Slaughter To Prevail at their peak. A band unshackled by expectations, embracing their identity as metal’s most unpredictable force. Love it or hate it, you won’t forget it.

Verdict: 💀💀💀💀

For fans of: Lorna Shore, Whitechapel, Paleface Swiss

Grizzly is released July 18 on Sumerian Records.