Slaughter To Prevail - Misery Sermon album review

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.