Deathcore stars Slaughter To Prevail feature on the cover of the brand new issue of Metal Hammer magazine, as part of our New Heavy collection spotlighting five of the most exciting bands in metal right now.
Since releasing their debut album Misery Sermon in 2017, the Florida band, fronted by Russian-born singer Alex Terrible, have risen through the ranks to become arguablu the biggest deathcore band around. Now upcoming third album Grizzly - due for release in the summer – looks set to cement their place as mainstream contenders.
But their success isn’t the only thing that sets STP apart. As well as making his own facemasks and competing in bare-knuckle fights, Alex has an unusual hobby: bear wrestling. Specifically a Russian brown bear named Tom. Videos of his encounters with the animal in Moscow have become part of the band’s myth.
“It sort of became our Eddie from Iron Maiden pretty naturally,” he says.
While footage shows Alex grappling with the beast and roaring into its face, he says part of what he enjoys about wrestling with several hundred pounds of angry Paddington is the genuine sense of terror it instils in him. It’s certainly not something he’d recommend other people do.
“First of all, even if you are a girl, you have to have big balls to do that, because it’s actually fucking scary. Very scary,” he says with a laugh.
The singer is usually shirtless when he approaches the bear, and often has visible scratches on his skin by the time it’s over.
“No shirt,” he explains, insisting proudly that “it looks more dangerous and brutal”.
Alex, who also competes in bare-knuckle fighting, notes the differences between fighting a bear and a human opponent: “When you look into a human’s eyes, you feel emotions, you feel maybe anger or kindness. You feel this soul, right? You look into this bear’s eyes, you don’t see anything in there.”
In those videos, Tom the bear is a formidable opponent, with overwhelming weight and strength. Alex notes that the main challenge is just keeping the bear from grabbing your leg or back, “Because the bear is grabbing all the time.”
But most disturbing might be Tom’s utter silence as Alex struggles to control him.
“The bear stays quiet,” Alex explains. “If the bear started to scream at me, I would shit my pants and run.”
Now around six years old and weighing over 600 pounds, Tom has grown too large to wrestle safely. But when Alex used to make his special visits to the bear, Tom always recognised him and was ready to rumble.
“I hope he is thinking I’m his friend,” Alex says with a chuckle. “All the times he sees me, he knows we will wrestle and play and he got very excited. Very excited.”
Read the full interview with Alex Terrible in the brand new issue of Metal Hammer, onsale now. Order it online and have it delivered straight to your door.
