ALBUM REVIEW: Kostolom – Slaughter To Prevail

Such was the gravitas surrounding lead single Demolisher, Kostolom could have been a potential banana skin for SLAUGHTER TO PREVAIL. With a track that became talk of the deathcore town; made waves on TikTok; and crushed YouTube – the Russian brutes were at risk of accidentally pigeonholing themselves as “the band that did THAT breakdown”. History has shown us that these fads can burn out almost as quickly as they appear.

It’s both a relief, and a shock then that Demolisher (somehow) isn’t even Kostolom‘s crowning moment. Its manic ferocity, and extinction force breakdown is just a peppering of what SLAUGHTER TO PREVAIL offer on this 49-minute flamethrower of deathcore. The five-piece have taken the genre’s extremity boundaries and twisted them into a new, exhilarating offering. Thirty minutes into this record you’ll fancy donning a military jacket and running through a brick wall.

That’s largely down to the percussive onslaught drummer Evgeny Novikov brings to the fight. His snare shots on Agony, Your Only, and Bonebreaker lack forgiveness, but his technical cymbal rolls on I Killed A Man convey his flair. Amidst the unrelenting chaos, he acts as the band’s powerhouse pillar – the cohesion balancing the force. Kostolom is the first record in quite some time that could hold its own in a brawl with SLIPKNOT‘s drum sound.

Of course, vocalist Alex Terrible is undeniable though. His rage intensified low growl is the key to SLAUGHTER TO PREVAIL‘s ‘final deathcore boss fight’ feel. He takes the whirling metal sound of Head On A Plate and makes it his vocal playground: switching pitch, and form, whenever the mood strikes. Bratva‘s intro of “Ladies and gentlemen, you’re listening to Alex The Terrible” oozes charisma, and his more leering approach on the piercing Your Only is a fascinating attack. You’d now be justified in feeling that CJ McMahon‘s position as the face of deathcore is under threat.

But where SLAUGHTER TO PREVAIL really make Kostolom a special record is on both Made In Russia and Ouroboros. The two couldn’t be more different, that’s the point. Made… is so aggro motivated it could start a world war on its own, and with a truly horrifying breakdown to boot – it’s STP‘s angriest, scariest moment (seriously). Ouroboros though takes a more technical approach – its battery is centred around spidery, space riffs and a fluctuating rhythm to boot. SLAUGHTER‘s versatility has never been this evident previously.

Kostolom moves SLAUGHTER TO PREVAIL from hype machine to fully fledged genre leaders. Where you could have been concerned over whether the Russian crew would maintain the intensity, fun, and brutality of Demolisher over 12 tracks – Kostolom is an unstoppable adrenaline rush. We thought deathcore might have peaked in the early 2010s, we were wrong. SLAUGHTER TO PREVAIL are one of the reasons why it has new life, who knows where they take it from here.

Rating: 8/10

Kostolom is out now via Sumerian Records.

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