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Having already supported Ingested before releasing a full-length, UK/Russian newbies Slaughter To Prevail clearly felt the ante had to be upped. While Alex Shikolai’s high screams and occasional ‘Bleurgh!’ ad libs are a bit deathcore 101, his guttural vocals are bowel-looseningly powerful, echoing unsung death metal hero Seth Siro Anton. Imagine latter-day Septicflesh robbed of their orchestration, consoling themselves with 666 well-deserved cans of Monster Energy, and you’ve got Misery Sermon. So it’s a shame that Alex’s vocals are way too high in the mix, detracting from tasty titbits like King’s brief melodeath guitar line. A few moments of respite are offered, like Below’s off-kilter, Kornmeets-Rotting Christ intro, but Misery Sermon mainly eschews nuance for full-on brutality. Chronic Slaughter’s barrage of breakdowns might be a bit much if you want your spine to remain intact, but Slaughter To Prevail do what they do to an impeccable standard. It’s fat, meaty deathcore with tech-metal sprinklings, more than filling the space until the next Thy Art Is Murder album.

Alec is a longtime contributor with first-class BA Honours in English with Creative Writing, and has worked for Metal Hammer since 2014. Over the years, he's written for Noisey, Stereoboard, uDiscoverMusic, and the good ship Hammer, interviewing major bands like Slipknot, Rammstein, and Tenacious D (plus some black metal bands your cool uncle might know). He's read Ulysses thrice, and it got worse each time.