Author: smngrx01

Hawkwind released 35th studio album The Future Never Waits in April 2023. That year, leader Dave Brock told Prog why the LP explored human life backwards, share an experience with a locked computer that reinforced his thoughts on AI, and explained why he felt cautious about the rising availability of formerly illegal drugs

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Dave Brock is in a very good mood. Unlike our previous encounter with Hawkwind’s founder and sole constant member, that found him bemoaning what passed for his 80th birthday during the pandemic, he’s back where he belongs and who he belongs with.

“We’re all here in the studio,” he says with no small amount of enthusiasm. And who can begrudge him that? The band’s two previous albums – 2020’s Carnivorous (released under Hawkwind Light Orchestra banner) and 2021’s Somnia –having been recorded remotely thanks to the pandemic.

Their 35th studio release, The Future Never Waits, finds Magnus Martin (guitars/vocals/keys), drummer Richard Chadwick, bassist Doug MacKinnon and multi- instrumentalist Tim ‘Thighpaulsandra’ Lewis reunited in the creative environs of Brock’s home studio on his Devonshire farm.

Being in a room together means we can make a song quite easily,” he enthuses. “We can come up with a riff, and from that riff we can get an idea, and then someone else gets an idea and then it comes together.”

He continues: “Sometimes we do 20 minutes on just one riff. Then we record it and everyone goes away. I might spend four or five days fiddling around doing things with it; then, when everybody comes back, it’ll be totally different, and there’s a lot of talking that goes on.”

So putting this album together was more of an organic process then? “Oh, we like organic!” laughs Brock uproariously. “We’re free range!”

In keeping with Hawkwind’s previous two studio releases, The Future Never Waits is a concept album. While Carnivorous and Somnia were inspired respectively by Covid and the intense dream states brought on by the lockdowns, this time around the band tackle the internal cycle of life in their own inimitable fashion.

Perversely, they start with the terminal conclusion of mortality before moving backwards, track by track, through life’s milestones to arrive at the miracle of birth. “It is an unusual concept,” concedes Brock. “It’s back to front.”

He says The Future Never Waits was inspired by the stresses and pressures of contemporary living that’s become common currency the world over. “It’s the state of mind people get in – Tthough your mind is not right you sort of lay in bed and think about all these things, and it’s quite easy to get tormented. So we utilise these topics that befall us, really.”

The 10 tracks feature Hawkwind in full flight. Be it extended and creamy workouts (I’m Learning To Live Today), the characteristic chugging rock of The End or hook-laden acoustic reflections underscored by their innate melodic sensibility, there’s no mistaking who’s at the helm. And with that comes a sense of comfort, as much for the band as it does for the listener. There’s a palpable sense of unity and the sharing of ideas as Hawkwind’s members spark off each other like live wires skimming water.

Curiously, and in keeping with the topsy-turvy nature of the album’s narrative, its conceit developed along with the music that took shape in the studio. Indeed, three of the four sides of the vinyl edition open with hefty instrumentals that variously delve into electronically powered space rock coloured by pulsing beeps and bleeps (The Future Never Waits), jazz- inflected explorations (They Are So Easily Distracted) and undulating psychedelia (USB1).

When LSD was brought to Britain, people would only take it if there was a guru to help if they freaked out… It was regarded as something special

“It wasn’t planned,” Brock explains. “We were going off on the jams that we do. Some of them lasted about 15 minutes before we finally reduced them to about eight or nine minutes. It all depends; sometimes we’ll record stuff and it’s all perfectly okay. Other times we cut things back to the bare essentials.”

In keeping with Hawkwind’s long-standing psychedelic credentials, the visionary author, philosopher and psychonaut Aldous Huxley is given the nod towards the beginning of the album (or the end of life). “That one’s about taking LSD, actually,” reveals Brock.

Huxley’s wife, Laura Archera, famously administered him with two doses of the psychedelic chemical on his deathbed in November 1963; their sampled voices run through the track. Given Huxley’s proselytising of the psychedelic experience, does Brock view him as a sort of prophet? “Yes,” he replies. “I suppose you would call him a brave explorer. You could say the same thing about Timothy Leary.”

It should be noted that there were clear demarcation lines between the two enthusiasts when it came to endorsing LSD. While Huxley favoured a selective approach as to who should take and benefit from it, Leary’s “turn on, tune in, drop out” attitude saw him lose his job at Harvard. His subsequent arrests for marijuana possession resulted in custodial sentences.

With this in mind, it does sound as if Brock is siding with Huxley when he says: “LSD would change huge amounts of people’s lives. And it was very creative. But as days and years went past, it all became corrupted as usual. Basically that’s what humans are like; they always end up being corrupted.”

The computer wanted a password; we’d forgotten it. This is us relying on machines – If they go wrong, none of us knows how to get our songs

Given the ongoing legalisation of pot and magic mushrooms across the world, it might come as a surprise to some that Brock expresses caution regarding their change in legal status. “Marijuana is used for many sorts of ailments, like backache,” he says. “Science has realised – which lots of doctors were saying in the 60s – these substances are helpful to relieve people who’ve got mental health problems and so on.”

It’s here he becomes wary of freeing the weed. With licensed growers in parts of the US setting up huge marijuana farms, there’s the fear that pot will become another product owned by big business, which in turn will lead to financial corruption.

“You know what humans are like,” he says with a sigh. “They always have to over-indulge. When LSD was first brought over to Britain, people would only take it if there was someone there like a guru to help if they freaked out – there’d be someone who would talk them down. It was regarded as something special, you know? And then there were parties with people getting pissed and taking LSD, and mixing speed with LSD and so on. And it became so corrupted.”

This talk leads to musings about artificial intelligence. If recent news reports concerning the development of AI are to be believed, not only are writers, authors and poets are under threat from machinery that can ape their styles and idiosyncrasies, but also musicians. Is this another pointer to dystopia?

“No, it’s cheating!” Brock retorts. “People have brains; they should start using them instead of becoming like the machines that they’re trying to play.”

You could write 20 tracks over the course of the year and hopefully three will be catchy. That’s the way we look at things

For him there are more prosaic concerns when it comes to technology. “We couldn’t get into our computer,” he says. “It wanted a password and we’d forgotten it, and we could not get anything off the fucking thing! In the end we had to send it to an expert to sort it for us. I mean, this is us relying on these machines. If they go wrong, none of us knows how to get all of our songs and stuff.”

Nevertheless, Brock is confident of Hawkwind’s continued survival if the metaphorical plug gets pulled. “We’d be alright, because we can play our instruments still!” he chuckles. “And we can get a generator. All you need is diesel or some petrol. Or I could have someone on a bicycle pedalling like mad. Or a lot of people pedalling – that’s the answer!”

Recently, former Hawkwind sax player and early co-songwriter Nik Turner passed away. Did his passing give Brock cause to reflect on the past? “We hadn’t seen each other for about 25 years,” he says. “I really can’t remember the last time I saw him.” He pauses before adding, “It’s not worth talking about, really.”

He’s more concerned with losing those from the friendships he’s maintained: “When you get older in life, lots of your friends die off; it’s quite sad. You cross various people’s names off with their telephone numbers. And that’s life.”

But Brock and, by extension, Hawkwind, are about looking forward, not back.“We’re constantly playing,” he says. “I mean, we’re actually working on another album.” Really? “Yeah, we do a lot of tracks. Obviously, you get rid of the boring ones.

As we go into the ground, there will be something else growing from it. This is the way life is

“At the end of the day, you could write 20 tracks over the course of the year and hopefully three will be catchy. That’s the way we look at things – we constantly carry on.” He pauses and then erupts laughing: “That’s what we should call the next album: Carry On Constantly!”

It’s difficult not to admire his lust for life as he presses on. And though, by his own admission, he doesn’t hold humanity with the highest regard, he maintains a modicum of optimism. “The way things are going at the moment is just ridiculous,” he says.

“But things go full circle; there will be another blossoming of a rose again. As we go into the ground, there will be something else growing from it. This is the way life is.”

Brock has it right: the future never waits.

Julian Marszalek is the former Reviews Editor of The Blues Magazine. He has written about music for Music365, Yahoo! Music, The Quietus, The Guardian, NME and Shindig! among many others. As the Deputy Online News Editor at Xfm he revealed exclusively that Nick Cave’s second novel was on the way. During his two-decade career, he’s interviewed the likes of Keith Richards, Jimmy Page and Ozzy Osbourne, and has been ranted at by John Lydon. He’s also in the select group of music journalists to have actually got on with Lou Reed. Marszalek taught music journalism at Middlesex University and co-ran the genre-fluid Stow Festival in Walthamstow for six years.

Brian Johnson singing Toto? On paper, it sounds like one of those AI-driven mashups, where a familiar song is manipulated to feature vocals from an unexpected, often unlikely source. But it’s real.

In September 2001, two months after AC/DC‘s Stiff Upper Lip tour wrapped up, the frontman played a short tour with Geordie II, named in tribute to Geordie, the band he was in before hooking up with Angus & Co in 1980 in the wake of Bon Scott’s death.

They booked six shows in the North East of England, playing in Newcastle (twice), Hebburn, Stanley, South Shields and Middlesbrough, with the opening night of the tour coming at Newcastle’s 1200-capacity Opera House, where 800 lucky punters watched Geordie II perform a mix of covers and originals.

Johnson was joined onstage by guitarist Derek Rootham, bassist Dave Robson and drummer Dave Whittaker, none of whom played in the original Geordie lineup. But they did play some songs associated with the old band, including the traditional folk song Wor Geordie’s Lost His Liggie, which appeared on their debut album, 1973’s Hope You Like It, and Can You Do It, released as a single the same year.

Otherwise, it’s covers all the way. The setlist mixes songs Johnson grew up with (The Animals’ We Gotta Get Out Of This Place, Nina Simone’s Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood) with the kind of hard rock classics you might expect given his daybob (Led Zeppelin‘s Rock And Roll and Black Dog, Rainbow‘s Since You’ve Been Gone, AC/DC’s Whole Lotta Rosie). But one song stands out as an unlikely choice for the famously gravel-throated frontman: Hold The Line by Toto.

Rather than attempting to replicate Bobby Kimball’s original vocal, Johnson – bedecked in a Newcastle United football shirt – opens up the throttle on Hold The Line, giving it the full Back In Black treatment, and it’s surprisingly effective. And, in 2025, it’s resurfaced, being shared widely on TikTok and reappearing on YouTube.

Johnson and Geordie also entered the studio during their short time together and recorded two songs. The first was a new version of Wor Geordie’s Lost His Liggy, and the second was Byker Hill, another traditional folk tune, this one dating back to the early years of the nineteenth century. The former is a folksy terrace singalong – it would work brilliantly as an AC/DC intro tape – while the latter returns the sound to the hard rock of Geordie, albeit with an ending that veers into sea shanty territory (both are embedded below).

The songs – both credited to Johnson alone – appeared on a pair of compilation CDs released in late 2001, The Northumbria Anthology – From Tees To Tyne and The Northumbria Anthology – From Tyne To Tweed, alongside contributions from Roxy Music frontman Bryan Ferry, Eurythmics man Dave Stewart and David Clelland, then-member of parliament for local constituency Tyne Bridge.

The full Geordie II set from the Newcastle Opera House performance is available on YouTube.

Online Editor at Louder/Classic Rock magazine since 2014. 39 years in music industry, online for 26. Also bylines for: Metal Hammer, Prog Magazine, The Word Magazine, The Guardian, The New Statesman, Saga, Music365. Former Head of Music at Xfm Radio, A&R at Fiction Records, early blogger, ex-roadie, published author. Once appeared in a Cure video dressed as a cowboy, and thinks any situation can be improved by the introduction of cats. Favourite Serbian trumpeter: Dejan Petrović.

The White Stripes, Soundgarden, Bad Company and Joe Cocker have been confirmed as members of the Class of 2025 at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

OutKast, Cyndi Lauper and Chubby Checker will also be inducted during the ceremony, while late singer-songwriter Warren Zevon and pioneering rappers Salt-N-Peppa will be recognised in the Musical Excellence category.

Wrecking Crew bassist Carol Kaye, late Philadelphia soul legend Thom Bell and pianist Nicky Hopkins – who died in 1994 – will be recipients of the Musical Influence Award.

“Each of these inductees created their own sound and attitude that had a profound impact on culture and helped to change the course of rock’n’roll forever,” says John Sykes, chairman of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. “Their music gave a voice to generations and influenced countless artists that followed in their footsteps.”

Improvisational jam band Phish, who won the fan vote convincingly, will have to wait at least another year to be recognised. Other acts to lose out included The Black Crowes, Oasis, Billy Idol, Joy Division/New Order, Mariah Carey and Maná.

The induction of Chubby Checker, which comes more than 60 years after his global smash The Twist made him a household name and nearly 40 years after he was first eligible for Hall of Fame recognition, is the latest example – in addition to Zevron, Bell and Hopkins – of posthumous awards being given to artists who could have been recognised while they were still alive.

The Class of 25 will be inducted during a ceremony at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles on November 8. The events will be broadcast on Disney+.

Online Editor at Louder/Classic Rock magazine since 2014. 39 years in music industry, online for 26. Also bylines for: Metal Hammer, Prog Magazine, The Word Magazine, The Guardian, The New Statesman, Saga, Music365. Former Head of Music at Xfm Radio, A&R at Fiction Records, early blogger, ex-roadie, published author. Once appeared in a Cure video dressed as a cowboy, and thinks any situation can be improved by the introduction of cats. Favourite Serbian trumpeter: Dejan Petrović.

It’s a beautiful day in the neighbourhood, and Alex Terrible is arguing with a bear. The Slaughter To Prevail frontman is standing shirtless and tattooed on a suburban street corner in Los Angeles, confronting a grizzly that stands nearly three metres tall. Suddenly, he begins grappling with the beast, burrowing into its thick brown fur.

The bear and the Russian-born singer stagger in a death-grip on the sidewalk until the monster shoves Alex down onto a neatly trimmed lawn. That’s when a tall, blond figure appears behind the bear. This is Alexander Volkov, a Russian UFC heavyweight fighter. Volkov taps the animal on a shoulder, and it runs away in terror.

Thankfully, there isn’t a real-life bear running wild on the streets of LA. Alex is shooting a video for Russian Grizzly, a single from Slaughter To Prevail’s upcoming third album, Grizzly, with a Russian/Ukrainian camera crew. The bear is an elaborate costume with an animatronic head that grimaces and growls on command. The scene is played for comedy, but Alex is quick to point out the reality.

“In Russia, when you see a bear, it is not fucking funny,” he says with a laugh. He should know. This bear may be fake, but he has experience of wrestling the real thing back in Moscow – specifically a lumbering brown bear named Tom. Alex Terrible is that kind of guy.

Grizzly represents a big step up for Slaughter To Prevail. Since releasing their debut single, Crowned & Conquered, in late 2014, they’ve risen through the deathcore ranks. Each successive release, including their two previous albums, 2017’s Misery Sermon and 2021’s Kostolom, has taken them further out of the underground and closer to metal’s mainstream.

By at least one metric they’re the biggest deathcore band around right now, with more than 1 million monthly listeners on Spotify – almost 200,000 more than Lorna Shore, 400,000 more than Whitechapel, and nearly twice as many as Suicide Silence. In 2024, they played Download, a welcome shot of brutality at an event headlined by Fall Out Boy, Queens Of The Stone Age and Avenged Sevenfold. It’s a trend Alex hopes to continue, following the likes of Knocked Loose and Turnstile onto such US festivals as Coachella and Bonnaroo.

“This underground music is becoming like pop – mainstream,” says the singer. “I love that, because it was my goal to bring that shit outside.”

Where Slaughter To Prevail music videos have typically been low-budget DIY productions made by a friend with a camera, the video for Russian Grizzly steps things up. Yesterday, the band shot performance footage at the Whisky a Go Go on the Sunset Strip, with the bear in a circle-pit. This morning, the band and film crew were on the boardwalk of Venice Beach, facing off again with the bear and lining up for gut punches from Volkov’s gloved fists. For atmosphere, the video production team have rented an old Lada wagon, a boxy little Soviet-era car painted utilitarian beige. In one scene, Alex struggles and fails to squeeze the bear into the backseat.

Between takes, Alex and Volkov stand on the street to test each other’s toughness. At 6’ 7, the golden-haired fighter is a full head taller than the singer. Alex braces himself as a smiling Volkov sends his fist into the singer’s stomach, landing with a loud thud. Alex immediately doubles over with a genuine groan of pain. He then returns the favour, firing a punch right into Volkov’s abs. The fighter doesn’t flinch.

“Was it good?” the singer asks in Russian. Volkov nods with a grin, and Alex adds a hopeful, “Hurts?”

“A little bit,” Volkov answers, and Alex laughs out loud. Despite a fearsome exterior and a singing voice from the depths of the netherworld, in person the frontman is quick to laugh at himself and the scene around him. Slaughter To Prevail are built around Alex, a superhuman metal screamer who bounds to the stage like a warrior. He looks like an inked-up Wolverine up there, with his beard and ripped musculature, a deep scar intentionally carved into his face as savage decoration. The fact that his hobbies include bear-wrestling and cagefighting isn’t a surprise.

He’s fiercely ambitious too, and the new album is a signifier of that ambition. Last year’s single, Behelit, was a relentless metal anthem that wore the influences of Rammstein, Pantera and Slipknot. Its lyrics were inspired by the character Guts from the anime Berserk, based on a Manga comic about a warrior fighting his way across medieval Europe.

“When we wrote this track, we were thinking about trying something epic, and maybe change a little bit with the vocals, and put some… not clean vocals, but more understandable, emotional,” says Alex. “We’re not afraid to try something new.”

Another track, 2023’s Viking, was a swirling, intense, bloodthirsty rant, opening with a threatening growl and a military beat.

“I say, ‘I will shed the blood. I prepare for war. I’ll go into war’, and it’s just art,” says the singer. “I’m not a political guy. I’m just a musician and I do music. It depends on my mood.”

That idea of art versus reality is backed up by a statement Slaughter To Prevail released in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022: “No to war! Our band has nothing to do with politics, we do not take sides… We do not accept ANY military action.”

These days, Alex and his Russian bandmates – rhythm guitarist Dmitry ‘Dima’ Mamedov, bassist Mikhail ‘Mike’ Petrov and drummer Evgeny Novikov – live in Florida, where Grizzly was mostly recorded. British guitarist Jack Simmons lives a nomadic life between the UK, Poland and Florida.

Alex first fell in love with the Sunshine State during a stop-off on tour with Florida deathcore act Bodysnatcher. After the war in Ukraine began, he decided to relocate there.

“Palms everywhere, beach, good weather, perfect roads, positive people. They’re not in a rush,” Alex says dreamily. “I like this lifestyle. My town is very grey sky, brutal winter, very dirty roads, very angry people, because all of this shit is around. When I was in Florida, I was like, ‘Wow, this is sick.’”

Grizzly represents a big step up for Slaughter To Prevail. Since releasing their debut single, Crowned & Conquered, in late 2014, they’ve risen through the deathcore ranks. Each successive release, including their two previous albums, 2017’s Misery Sermon and 2021’s Kostolom, has taken them further out of the underground and closer to metal’s mainstream.

By at least one metric they’re the biggest deathcore band around right now, with more than 1 million monthly listeners on Spotify – almost 200,000 more than Lorna Shore, 400,000 more than Whitechapel, and nearly twice as many as Suicide Silence. In 2024, they played Download, a welcome shot of brutality at an event headlined by Fall Out Boy, Queens Of The Stone Age and Avenged Sevenfold. It’s a trend Alex hopes to continue, following the likes of Knocked Loose and Turnstile onto such US festivals as Coachella and Bonnaroo.

“This underground music is becoming like pop – mainstream,” says the singer. “I love that, because it was my goal to bring that shit outside.”

Where Slaughter To Prevail music videos have typically been low-budget DIY productions made by a friend with a camera, the video for Russian Grizzly steps things up. Yesterday, the band shot performance footage at the Whisky a Go Go on the Sunset Strip, with the bear in a circle-pit. This morning, the band and film crew were on the boardwalk of Venice Beach, facing off again with the bear and lining up for gut punches from Volkov’s gloved fists. For atmosphere, the video production team have rented an old Lada wagon, a boxy little Soviet-era car painted utilitarian beige. In one scene, Alex struggles and fails to squeeze the bear into the backseat.

Between takes, Alex and Volkov stand on the street to test each other’s toughness. At 6’ 7, the golden-haired fighter is a full head taller than the singer. Alex braces himself as a smiling Volkov sends his fist into the singer’s stomach, landing with a loud thud. Alex immediately doubles over with a genuine groan of pain. He then returns the favour, firing a punch right into Volkov’s abs. The fighter doesn’t flinch.

“Was it good?” the singer asks in Russian. Volkov nods with a grin, and Alex adds a hopeful, “Hurts?”

“A little bit,” Volkov answers, and Alex laughs out loud. Despite a fearsome exterior and a singing voice from the depths of the netherworld, in person the frontman is quick to laugh at himself and the scene around him. Slaughter To Prevail are built around Alex, a superhuman metal screamer who bounds to the stage like a warrior. He looks like an inked-up Wolverine up there, with his beard and ripped musculature, a deep scar intentionally carved into his face as savage decoration. The fact that his hobbies include bear-wrestling and cagefighting isn’t a surprise.

He’s fiercely ambitious too, and the new album is a signifier of that ambition. Last year’s single, Behelit, was a relentless metal anthem that wore the influences of Rammstein, Pantera and Slipknot. Its lyrics were inspired by the character Guts from the anime Berserk, based on a Manga comic about a warrior fighting his way across medieval Europe.

“When we wrote this track, we were thinking about trying something epic, and maybe change a little bit with the vocals, and put some… not clean vocals, but more understandable, emotional,” says Alex. “We’re not afraid to try something new.”

Another track, 2023’s Viking, was a swirling, intense, bloodthirsty rant, opening with a threatening growl and a military beat.

“I say, ‘I will shed the blood. I prepare for war. I’ll go into war’, and it’s just art,” says the singer. “I’m not a political guy. I’m just a musician and I do music. It depends on my mood.”

That idea of art versus reality is backed up by a statement Slaughter To Prevail released in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022: “No to war! Our band has nothing to do with politics, we do not take sides… We do not accept ANY military action.”

These days, Alex and his Russian bandmates – rhythm guitarist Dmitry ‘Dima’ Mamedov, bassist Mikhail ‘Mike’ Petrov and drummer Evgeny Novikov – live in Florida, where Grizzly was mostly recorded. British guitarist Jack Simmons lives a nomadic life between the UK, Poland and Florida.

Alex first fell in love with the Sunshine State during a stop-off on tour with Florida deathcore act Bodysnatcher. After the war in Ukraine began, he decided to relocate there.

“Palms everywhere, beach, good weather, perfect roads, positive people. They’re not in a rush,” Alex says dreamily. “I like this lifestyle. My town is very grey sky, brutal winter, very dirty roads, very angry people, because all of this shit is around. When I was in Florida, I was like, ‘Wow, this is sick.’”

Alex Terrible was born Aleksandr Shikolai in the Ural Mountains of west-central Russia in 1993. His childhood was spent first in a small village called Bolshoy Istok, before he moved to nearby Sysert, where his stepfather, a veteran of the Russian navy, co-founded a military school for boys (Alex’s biological father left when he was six). Most of the students there were kids with no parents. Alex has compared the school to a “prison for children”. It was a tough, angry crowd.

It was there that another student introduced Alex to the music of Slipknot, Bring Me the Horizon and Suicide Silence. “The vocals were so aggressive, but at the same time, it was like art for me,” Alex recalls of the latter’s landmark debut album, The Cleansing. “It was the scream from the bottom of the soul, from the bottom of the heart.”

At 13, he tried singing in that same guttural style, and was serious about it from the beginning. He began to collect tattoos over his arms and chest, paying with the money his mother gave him to buy breakfast every morning. The designs echoed what he saw inked onto the skin of Bring Me The Horizon’s Oli Sykes and Mitch Lucker from Suicide Silence.

“I was like a copycat: I’m gonna do the same because this works,” recalls Alex, who ignored the concerns of his mother, sister and friends that the skulls, snakes and horned demons inked onto his skin would ruin his chances of ever finding a job. “I always said, ‘I will not work for anybody. I will be a big rock star.’ I was sure.”

He adopted the name Alex Terrible, an echo of brutal 16th- century Russian Tsar Ivan The Terrible. His biggest challenge was finding musicians to play deathcore with the same level of seriousness. He began posting videos of himself on YouTube singing cover songs in his bedroom, taking on anything from Nirvana and Linkin Park to the bleakest deathcore songs he could find. One of his earliest clips showed the boyish singer in a red Nike polo shirt, fresh tattoos on his neck, roaring with guttural rage through Unanswered by Suicide Silence. He soon heard from musicians looking to collaborate.

The one who stood out was Jack Simmons, a member of UK deathcore band Acrania. Jack reached out to Alex through Facebook, and they soon began writing songs together online. The guitarist constructed instrumental tracks and sent them to the Russian.

“I was so excited to put my own vocals on this new music, our music,” says Alex, who added heavily accented vocals that mixed Russian and English lyrics. “It was not just brutal slam. Jack has these visions for making this sound fresh and interesting. And it always sounds catchy. You start to headbang and the melody has this soul.”

Their first releases were explosive, leading with the Crowned & Conquered single in 2014 and the EP Chapters Of Misery in 2015. The band’s first US tour in 2016 was with Cannibal Corpse, and Alex could hardly believe it was happening.

“I was like, ‘I’m living in The Matrix.’ It was unreal,” he notes of a feeling that continues for him even now. “I didn’t even dream about all of this.”

In those early years, bandmembers came and went, including UK and US musicians, before they settled on a mostly Russian line-up. Alex wore a demonic mask of his own design, inspired by Slipknot and the comic book antihero Spawn, with horns and a moving jaw. At first, only the singer wore the mask onstage for their opening song, but gradually the other members began sporting them. Today, Alex sells the masks for more than $100 each, while their recent single Kid Of Darkness refers to the name of the mask.

Slaughter To Prevail’s second album, 2021’s Kostolom, was a turning point. The flailing, layered track Demolisher represented the kind of growth Alex had hoped for. Then, when Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, the band responded with the punishing single, 1984, named after the George Orwell novel about a totalitarian society. Alex had already expressed opposition to the war on social media, but this put the full muscle of the band behind an antiwar message: ‘Please stop the violence / please stop the bloodshed on Earth!’”

“As a musician, what can I do? I can do only music,” Alex says. “So I write a song about war, and it is just disgusting. I would never go in for war because I don’t want to be killed. I don’t want to kill somebody. I don’t want to see this chaos… But I never say I’m against my own country. I love my country. I love Russian people. I just don’t like this stupid situation.”

That unfiltered approach has also gotten him in trouble. In 2023, he posted an exaggeratedly macho video titled ‘4 Rules for Real Men’, which instructed men to demonstrate heavy metal devotion, enjoy combat sports, eat with their hands, and perform oral sex on women. He’s said it was meant to be comedy, but when he was criticised for it, he responded with a combative note to Instagram: “There are a lot of people who start pointing fingers at me and calling me a homophobe or a women-hater. You’re crazy! If you don’t like that I’m a straight man and have traditional family values, please unfollow me!”

The tone was both aggressive and defensive, and he went on to cloud the issue further in the same statement: “I hate propaganda in any form, especially when trying to brainwash children! I consider it a crime, children absorb everything like sponges and do not realise until they are of a conscious age.”

Some interpreted his words as a sign he agreed with right-wing commentators who don’t want LGBTQ-inclusive education in schools. Alex hasn’t addressed the outcry since. Today, he doesn’t come over as someone who has given much thought to why people were upset, or the challenges facing the LGBTQ community.

“Sometimes it hurts my reputation because I’m an honest guy and I’m not a clever guy,” he says. “I’m from a small village. I never finished high school. I’ve always been in the music industry, so I never learned about politics, business, philosophy or all of this smart shit. At the same time, I’m a very open person. My philosophy is live your life… don’t touch others’ religion, don’t touch others’ opinions about this life, don’t touch others’ morals. But at the same time, I stand up with my morals, with my views, and I’m never propagandist.”

It’s not the only controversy surrounding him. Among the many tattoos on his body was a so-called ‘black sun’, an ancient European symbol later appropriated by the Nazis. The tattoo prompted questions on the internet about his political and racial beliefs.

Alex has made no secret that he fell in with a far right clique in his late teens and early 20s (before that, he hung out with a far left, Antifa-style group), though has insisted that he is no longer that person.

“Of course, I’m not a Nazi”, he told the Rock Feed podcast in 2024, adding: “I’m not regret [sic] about anything, about mistakes in my life or any stupid shit or whatever, because I will never change it, I will move forward. And right now, I’m a different person.”

The tattoo has now been covered up, but his rationale for getting it in the first place – that he was young and stupid and looking for a place to belong – combined with a refusal to completely denounce that period in his life because it’s part of what shaped who he is today isn’t enough for some, and controversy still simmers. But anyone expecting Alex Terrible to back down from a fight will be waiting a long time.

A week after the video shoot, Alex calls us back. He’s back in Yekaterinburg, Russia, where it’s midnight. Most visits back home last a couple of weeks, but this time he’s staying with his parents for a few months so that he can compete in a bareknuckle/mixed martial arts Russian Cagefighting Championship (he won his very first bout in January 2025). He trains hard in the gym every day.

He’ll otherwise be on the road with Slaughter To Prevail for much of 2025, determined to spread his enraged music around the world. He remains thrilled to be playing for the masses and for whatever comes after.

“Maybe in a few years you will go back to smaller venues, because nobody will give a shit about you,” he says with a laugh. “But I’m ready for this, because I’m doing what I love to do, and this is from my heart. If we get popular, it’s cool. If we don’t, I don’t give a shit.”

New Slaughter To Prevail album Grizzly is out July 18 via Sumerian. Order an exclusive red splatter vinyl variant with pop up art via the official Metal Hammer store, where you can also pick up a limited edition Slaughter To Prevail bundle with exclusive Grizzly tee.

Steve Appleford is a Los Angeles music journalist who has also written for Rolling Stone, Revolver and the Los Angeles Times. Over the years he’s interviewed major artists across multiple genres – including Black Sabbath, Slayer, Queens of the Stone Age, System of a Down, KISS, Lemmy, the Who, Neil Young, Beastie Boys, Beyonce, Tom Jones, and a couple of Beatles. 

Korn singer Jonathan Davis will be a guest presenter on an episode of Discovery Channel programme Ghost Adventures next week.

In the episode, which airs at 10pm Eastern and Pacific Time on Wednesday (April 30), the founding member of nu metal’s pioneers joins the Ghost Adventures team in exploring the Glen Tavern Inn, a “haunted” hotel in Santa Paula, California.

Warner Bros Discovery, owners of the Discovery Channel, have shared a brief snippet of the episode to YouTube. In it, Davis joins regular hosts Zak Bagans, Aaron Goodwin, Billy Tolley and Jay Wasley in searching for a paranormal presence at the hotel.

The clip shows Davis sit in a chair in a corner of one hotel room, where he says he starts to feel something supernatural. “I got 100 pounds on my shoulders right now,” he claims, before standing up and saying, “Yeah, bro, I can’t take this anymore.”

A voiceover adds that the singer later claimed to have experienced “visions of women being tortured by very bad men” while sitting in the chair. When Bagans sits down in the same chair, he claims to have a heart palpitation, which Davis then says he also felt.

“This is where it sits,” Bagans concludes. “I feel like I’m back in the dream again, Jonathan, and you’re in the dream again.”

Davis responds, saying the chair makes you feel “kinda high”. “It’s very euphoric,” he describes. “It’s a trip.”

Watch the full, bizarre, two-minute preview below.

Ghost Adventures premiered on the Discovery Channel in October 2008. Its 29th season kicked off on Wednesday, April 23, with an episode set inside San Jose’s famous Winchester Mystery House. Comedian Matt Rife will be a special guest on the season’s May 7 episode.

Korn are currently gearing up for a summer of festival shows, which will kick off at Sonic Temple in Columbus, Ohio, on May 8. The band will headline Download festival in the UK on June 15. See their full list of dates via their website.

Korn’s latest album, Requiem, came out in 2022. Last year, guitarist Brian “Head” Welch said the band are working on a follow-up and that it’s “the best and heaviest Korn stuff in years”.

Louder’s resident Gojira obsessive was still at uni when he joined the team in 2017. Since then, Matt’s become a regular in Prog and Metal Hammer, at his happiest when interviewing the most forward-thinking artists heavy music can muster. He’s got bylines in The Guardian, The Telegraph, NME, Guitar and many others, too. When he’s not writing, you’ll probably find him skydiving, scuba diving or coasteering.