Slaughter to Prevail is a supergroup after its own fashion formed from members in We Are Obscurity, Hollow Prophet, and Russian death metal titan Katalepsy. Their newest record Kostolom is the second full-length after 2017’s well-received Misery Sermon.
Kostolom translates to “Bonecrusher/Bonebreker” which is conveniently the album opener. Slaughter does not bother with ambient instrumental pieces as many other modern deathcore acts are so inclined to do, and drop us face-first into the action, with a quick NuMetal intro/main riff. Remember this mention of a NuMetal songwriting theme, as it will be an ongoing gripe that will plague many listeners throughout the album runtime. “Bonebreaker” leans heavily into All Hope Is Gone-era Slipknot whose merit is up to the consumer to decide. To STP’s credit, the riffs are beefier owing to possible down-tuned guitars and souped-up drum arrangements. Even so, the motifs and cliches are ever-present and are a heavy departure from a popular expectation of Bonecrushing-ly heavy deathcore. In addition, the tough-guy spoken-word vocal arrangement experiment comes off as extremely infantile, and severely reduces the overall appeal of the track.
As a complete 180, direct follower “Demolisher” released as a single may very well be carrying the major portion of the entire album’s appeal. In particular, the vocal callout before the megaton-nuke breakdown found viral acclaim on “React-tube” and drew many expectant listeners to the band and the record. “Demolisher” remains among the stronger tracks on the record as it does a much better job of fusing the NuMetal reinvention while still having elements of Misery Sermon-era straightforward deathcore. “Baba Yaga” is a direct B-side to “Demolisher” and plays all the same tricks, to diminishing returns. In addition, we have the dreaded return of the tough-guy Dollar Store hardcore vocals that turned “Bonebreaker” sour, but this time with a “Doris”/Slipknot crossover nightmarish scenario with its chorus. Admittedly, the closing melodic section and solo do great work salvaging an otherwise train wreck of a song.
It seems clear from the tracks mentioned above, as well as “Made In Russia”, “Zavali Ebalo” and later in “Bratva” that Slaughter to Prevail is facing a severe “reinvention/innovation” crisis with the sound they are crafting. They are trying to dance the line of NuMetal/Deathcore (NuDeath?) while doing neither of the genre stereotypes much justice and falling in the quicksand of both genres’ weaker aspects.
Fortunately, All Hope is (Not) Gone with Kostolom. As mentioned, when STP leans harder on its deathcore songwriting tricks, the results are truly monstrous. “Demolisher” is clearly a winner, early single “Agony” and later in “Head on a Plate” have stellar guitar solos that would make the folks in Shadow of Intent nod with approval. A near-perfect NuDeathcore track on this record is “I Killed A Man”. Looking past the edgy title, the track opens with a grin-inducing NuBreakdown. Sure, the lyrics are cringeworthy, but deathcore fans aren’t always interested in awe-inspiring lyrics if the vocal delivery is en pointe, and “I Killed a Man” has great vocal arrangements, down to the doom-y clean vocal arrangements. More of THESE kinds of cleans if cleans-you-must, STP!”. The melodic interlude within this track is reminiscent of “The Valley” era Whitechapel and is done to perfection! The drop after the melody is downright cathartic and when overlaid with the melodic riff is delicious! If Slaughter to Prevail wrote a record full of tracks like “I Killed A Man” this record would be a surefire hit!
Sadly, “Your Only”, like “Bonebreaker” and “Made in Russia” and weak album closer “Father” fails at delivering convincingly authentic clean-vocal sections, the former being the worst offender. It is understandable and admirable that these riskier plays are being made, with full knowledge that puritan consumers will immediately scoff at the attempts, but “Your Only” fails miserably at making a convert. A failed experiment, tragically so, because the riffs and hardcore-esque breakdowns are enjoyable!
“Bratva” deserves special mention, which along with the album art leads us to believe that Slaughter to Prevail is slowly transitioning into vocalist Aleksandr “Alex Terrible” Shikolai’s vanity project. Alex To Prevail or Alex And Friends shines through some of the creative choices throughout Kostolom, in particular the lyrics, vocal arrangements, and choruses. Nobody in their right mind would accuse Alex of being less than among the best vocalists in the game right now, but Kostolom displays obvious trepidation of his personal stake overriding more streamlined songwriting. This is a shame because guitarists Jack Simmons (of Arcania and Hollow Prophet fame) and Dmitry Mamedov aren’t slouches. Simmons’s Hollow Prophet elements shine through the deathcore sections with the proficient solos, tremolo-picked sections, and octave chord sections as seen on “Ouroboros”. To my personal dissatisfaction, Kostolom does not appear to have a convincingly Non-NuDeath chorus, which leads me to believe that this iteration of Slaughter to Prevail struggles to write effective choruses, choosing cliched NuMetal choruses far too often!
Special mention must be made of drummer Evgeny Novikov (ex-Katalepsy) who singlehandedly takes simplistic riffs and makes them brutal by writing crushing and intelligent drum sections. Almost every enjoyable section on Kostolom owes itself to his skillful songwriting. More tracks like “Demolisher”, “I Killed A Man”, “Ouroboros” and “Head on a Plate” which feature stronger deathcore/hardcore elements and lesser NuMetal missteps would push Slaughter To Prevail back into majority appeal.
Kostolom is a mixed-bag of high highs and low lows. A record that struggles with an identity crisis between traditional Deathcore and Nu Metal, this record veers dangerously close to a vanity project which may well crumble under the weight of its own hype. Elements of Kostolom also highlight the best and worst aspects of our collective shortening of attention spans. For Slaughter to Prevail to maintain their cache in the genre, heavy-handed modifications will need to be made in future releases.
