Live Review: Slaughter to Prevail - Victoria Warehousem Manchester
17th January 2026
Words: Dan Barnes
Photos: Tim Finch
Possibly the biggest tour in Europe at the moment – certainly one of the hottest tickets, at least – makes the second of three British stops this weekend at the Victoria Warehouse, right next door to Old Trafford football stadium. It’s derby day in Manchester and walking to the venue there are still a few happy United fans wandering about. My fears of excessive congestion due to the two events in such close proximity are thankfully unfounded, and the walk from the car is dominated with thoughts of what carnage awaits.
The Victoria Warehouse is a sell out for this show, the controversial Russian Deathcore wrecking machine, Slaughter to Prevail, is in town and, if rumours from Brixton’s show last night are anything to go by, this is going to be down-right dangerous.
The press liaison warns the photographers of impending pyrotechnics and the very real possibility of finding folk flying overhead. As merely a scribe, I retreat to a safe distance and await the lighting of the first touchpaper.
On-again / off-again Suffolk crew, Annotations of an Autopsy, have been called out of hiatus at the behest of the headliner and have but a short time to fire up the swiftly growing crowd. World of Sludge’s title tune begins the evening’s entertainment, arriving with pig squeals, brutal rumbling and slamming breakdowns. Prosthetic Erection is an oldie but still hits with a messy precision; both Gore Gore Gadget and Welcome to Sludge City sees the formation of the first of many pits tonight, as well as being greeted like old friends. Annotations make the most of their limited time on stage and are heartened by the size of the early crowd and their rambunctious reaction. Clearly there’s an appetite for more from this band, and on this form it’s easy to see why.
Shifting gears slightly – though no less abrasive in their approach – come Riverside, CA’s Suicide Silence; one of the genre’s original exponents, and leading lights, their star was in the ascendancy until the tragic passing of charismatic frontman, Mitch Lucker in 2012. Former All Shall Perish blaster, Hernan Hermida, stepped into Mitch’s shoes in 2013 and has been there ever since.
Using Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody as a sort-of intro, Suicide Silence oldie, Unanswered, bringing in some early beatdowns and getting those pits flowing, ready for the battering to come. Hernan is a genial host, even with his finger-in-the-air introduction to Fuck Everything. The audience oblige and bodies flail and fly, with the floor of the Victoria looking like a host of insects on a heated skillet.
Disengage opens with a wall of death, whereby two opposing forces collide, leading Hernan to mention the match earlier in the day. The old-school deathcore of You Only Live Once is dedicated to all those who never lost their faith, and those in the crowd respond by singing back to the stage. Closer, No Pity for a Coward, again from the debut, proves that deathcore is enjoying something of a renaissance of late: a sold-out Victoria Warehouse show would attest to that statement.
On paper, Maryland’s Dying Fetus might appear to be the square pegs in tonight’s round holes; but it was a little over a year ago that they brought both Despised Icon and Chelsea Grin out on tour. They use Village People’s YMCA as a pseudo-intro tape, with much of the crowd joining in on the action – ironically, no doubt, if challenged.
It’s a tour through the band’s back catalogue with songs played from six of their nine studio albums, and a newbie. In the Trenches is an appropriate opener, especially given the carnage afoot in front of the stage. Oddly, it’s more measured brutality than will be heard elsewhere tonight: technical and with a laser precision. It’s not pretty, it’s not kind; it’s Dying Fetus doing what they do.
Unbridled Fury follows, bringing us up to date with album material, fat chugging and maybe a little groove to blunt the cutting edge ever so slightly. If there’s a song to encapsulate what the band are about, then it Wrong One to Fuck With, which attracts some sublime pit action.
Guitarist John Gallagher and bassist Sean Beasley combine, like the old professionals they are, sharing frontman duties, and it’s Sean who introduces recent single, Into the Cesspool, another fine addition to their repertoire. Old school blasts come with Grotesque Impalement; Kill Your Mother, Rape Your Dog could challenge Wrong One to Fuck With as being Dying Fetus most on the nose song title, and the short set ends with the technical proficiency of Praise the Lord (Opium of the Masses) in which John encourages some final surfing practice before the main event.
The opening bands were shorn of space on the Victoria’s stage to accommodate Slaughter to Prevail‘s set. The curtain drops to reveal a multi-layered stage, the rear of which was adorned with a huge logo banner and two, red-glowing-eyed bears, one at either side. Like every overly aggressive musical performance, the aural scene is set with Neil Diamond’s Sweet Caroline [Da-Da-Da], before the controversial Russian band hit the stage.
It's a set heavily culled from the latest album, Grizzly, a record that almost made it onto my Top Five Albums of 2025 list – if it would have been a round half-dozen, Grizzly would have been there. Opening with Kostolom’s Bonebreaker sees the band take the stage, all wearing the standard Slaughter to Prevail masks; the lights are retina-scorching, the sound is ear-splitting and the initial salvos are worthy of the venue and the crowd.
Alex ditches the mask for Banditos, with ex-Katalepsy drummer, Evgeny Novikov, carving out complex rhythms and guitarist Jack Simmons and Dmitry Mamedov imbuing their riffs with sharp, stabbing notes. Both men occupy raised platforms either side of the stage, beneath the bear’s heads, leaving bassist, Mikhail Petrov alone to prowl the floor of the stage.
Smoke cannons and pyrotechnic blasts of flame accompany Russian Grizzly in America and Viking, the singalong chorus of Imdead gets voices raised, as does the grooving Babayka. In contrast the second visit to Kostolom, Baba Yaga, is a more direct representation of Slaughter’s earlier deathcore musings.
The set itself is quite short, at a Baker’s dozen thirteen tracks, but there’s enough energy coming from the band to fill most act’s two-hour show. Conflict, Kid of Darkness and set closer Behelit bring the show to an end with a grandiosity only a ultra-confident act could pull off. It’s reminiscent of Parkway’s punchy and symphonic work, maintaining the aggression as they give it an air of refinement.
One more final trip to Kostolom, in the shape of the devastating Demolisher, leaving Manchester in no doubt that Slaughter to Prevail have not abandoned their confrontational approach. Bodies are pushed one final time before curfew, bloodied, broken, but unbowed.
In all it was a superb night of aggressive death metal-adjacent extremity, with the three support bands playing their parts, but unable to unseat the headliner’s sheer spectacle of a show.
Next UK stop for Slaughter to Prevail is the Saturday headliner slot at Bloodstock Open Air and, baulk that the band isn’t big enough to top the bill, or that other factors should prevent them from taking such a position, the truth is simply - on this form – that show will be immense.
Photo Credits: Tim Finch Photography
