Slaughter to Prevail – Born to Die U.S. Tour 2018 Review

Slaughter to Prevail – Born to Die U.S. Tour 4/24/18 Review |Venue: The 1720

Slaughter to Prevail has undergone a lot of hardship in terms of touring over the past year. This amazing deathcore band from Russia was supposed to come to the United States three times last year for tours, but were only able to come a total of one time due to issues getting visas processed through fully. Thankfully, they could get it all processed through and came out to the US for a headlining tour that would last almost two months, spanning from mid-March to early-May. The only catch was that they are the only band on the tour, with local support on each date. Taking all of this into account, I knew with the local support on this date that it would be one hell of a night.

The first band up was The Prevalent Reaping, who are from Fontana, CA. I saw this band once before, when they opened for the Summer Slaughter Tour in Anaheim, CA., after winning the battle of the bands to get onto the date. I will say that out of the two times I’ve seen this band, they seemed more comfortable and together the second time around. They have a true groove to them and a tightness that is undeniable. This is for sure a band to keep an eye on. I cannot wait for them to release some music so people can truly hear their talent.

The second band to perform was Blood For Our Brothers, hailing from Compton, CA. This four-piece band has the perfect mixture deathcore, hardcore, and some technical death metal, and have a very commanding stage presence. Their debut album came out in 2014 titled “…And God Had Horns”, which they released independently via bandcamp. This is another band that has a lot of potential and is certainly worth checking out.

The third band up was Throne of Tyranny, coming to the stage from Pomona, CA. This band had some of my favorite elements, like the dueling guitar solos, a hell of a lot of energy, and songs that flowed very well. They were cohesive, and did a very good set. One of my favorite parts was vocalist David Forster’s energy. He would run from side to side on the stage, commanding the entire stage. While it was somewhat hard to shoot, it certainly was amusing to watch him do this. Their debut EP “Ashes of Mankind” came out in 2015, and is a true showing of the amount of technicality this band has in their music. They fit perfectly in the technical death-core genre and were a perfect fit for this lineup.

The biggest supporting act of the evening was So This Is Suffering, who are locals to Los Angeles, CA. I saw this band once before on the Whitechapel tour in December of 2017 and I must say, they put on one hell of a set. They played a 7-song set, most of which came from their newest album “Palace of the Pessimist”, which was released in 2017 via Unique Leader Records. Vocalist Rudy Flores brings a wide range of vocal variety to the band, with some seriously deep gutturals and high shrieks. Guitarist Robert Brown truly shreds and gives some amazing solos and technicality to the band’s sound, which truly brings them to a whole new level. Drummer Steve Guerrero helps set the sound up by giving the fast-paced foundation with fast double bass kicks and blast beats. This band quickly rose up as being one of my favorites in the Death-core genre, thanks to their kindness, as well as their incredible stage presence. They always look like their having fun, and they are so approachable. Definitely a band to check out.

The headlining band, Slaughter to Prevail put on one hell of a set. However, I must say I did feel a bit underwhelmed by the length. As a headliner, bands are expected to prepare a lengthier set than that of a supporting band. So, around 8-10 songs minimum would be expected for a headlining act, and that is still a rather short set for a headliner. Slaughter to Prevail played a total of 6 songs during their set, but those songs surely shredded on stage. Vocalist Alex Terrible wore his iconic white mask for the first 3 songs before taking it off. For this tour, they introduced the addition of a new drummer and had a touring guitarist with them, which may have been their reasoning for having such a short set. The part that truly surprised me was when they came back on to do their encore, they just played one of the six songs they had just played for a second time. Again, I truly love this band and had been waiting to see them again, after seeing them on 4/20 last year with Oceano. Their newest album “Misery Sermon”, released in 2017 via Sumerian Records, is truly amazing. I was just disappointed I didn’t get to hear more of their songs this time around.  I’m still so happy I could see them again after waiting a year since the last time.

Overall, the night was hella fun, even with the underwhelming length of Slaughter’s set. I truly loved getting to see so many local Californian bands, which led me to see how talented our locals are. Go check each of these bands out.

Review courtesy of Jamie Kaufman

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