Slaughter To Prevail + Dying Fetus + Suicide Silence + Annotations Of An Autopsy @ O2 Academy Brixton 16th January 2026

Brixton is primed for mayhem tonight as mainly Russian-born deathcore giants Slaughter To Prevail descend on the O2 Academy as part of their Grizzly Winter Tour, which takes in London, Manchester and Birmingham. With Dying Fetus, Suicide Silence and Annotations Of An Autopsy stacked beneath them, this feels less like a standard headline show and more like a touring deathcore summit.

Formed in 2014 in Yekaterinburg, Russia, Slaughter To Prevail were founded by vocalist Alex Terrible (real name Aleksandr Shikolai) and British guitarist Jack Simmons, later relocating and operating largely out of Orlando, Florida. Line-ups have shifted over the years, but Terrible and Simmons remain the band’s immovable core. With this being the first of just three UK dates, the sense of occasion is obvious, and Brixton fills early with battle-jacketed diehards, gym-built pit warriors and seasoned metal lifers ready to absorb punishment.

Annotations Of An Autopsy

Annotations Of An Autopsy kick off proceedings with a no-nonsense, twenty-something-minute blast of dense, sludgy extremity. There’s no easing the room in here — this is straight to the throat. Despite a lengthy absence, they’re greeted like a band who never really left, their set locking in the tone for the night: heavy, uncompromising and utterly without apology.

Suicide Silence

Suicide Silence shift things up a gear immediately, unleashing a surge of crowd surfers and movement from the off. Frontman Hernan “Eddie” Hermida is a commanding presence, switching between guttural lows and scalding screams with ease as the band tear through a set of modern deathcore staples. Fuck Everything lands exactly as intended, with Hermida demanding a sea of raised middle fingers — and getting them — as Brixton obliges in full. It’s chaotic, cathartic and crushing.

Setlist

• Unanswered
• Wake Up
• Fuck Everything
• Love Me to Death
• Disengage (wall of death at the beginning)
• You Only Live Once
• No Pity for a Coward

Dying Fetus

By the time Dying Fetus take the stage, the pit is already alive, and bodies are flying before a single note is played. Security barely has time to reset before the next wave comes over the barrier. As ever, the trio make technical brutality look effortless, their tightly wound riffs and precision drumming triggering relentless circle pits and violent forward surges. This is death metal as physical force — the kind that rattles your ribcage and leaves you grinning through the sweat.

Slaughter To Prevail

The air is palpable, and the buzz of the crowd becomes deafening as the band’s intro music kicks in. The temperature spikes, and when they launch into Bonebreaker, accompanied by bursts of pyro, the crowd goes absolutely wild.Technical issues abruptly cut the track short, but rather than killing momentum, Alex Terrible steps forward to address the crowd, thanking them sincerely for the support. It’s a rare moment of calm before the storm, and when Bonebreaker is restarted, it hits even harder, fuelled by frustration and renewed intensity.

What follows is pure controlled chaos. A solid mass of black shirts, flying limbs and sweat-soaked bodies slams together as the pit fully ignites. Somewhere above the carnage, what appears to be the Cookie Monster briefly crowd-surfs, because of course it does. The stage set is suitably imposing: the drum kit sits high on a riser, flanked by raised platforms for guitars and vocals, all watched over by a gigantic grizzly head with glowing red eyes looming above the band like a warning.

Lighting pulses violently with the music, strobes snapping across the room in blinding bursts that freeze moments of impact mid-collision. Alex Terrible is in monstrous form, his inhuman lows sounding less like vocals and more like something torn from deep underground. Pits open and collapse in rapid cycles, with a constant stream of crowd surfers pouring forward, feeding the barrier like clockwork.

There’s a real sense of fury and unity in the room tonight — the kind deathcore crowds thrive on — and the band are locked in throughout, with plenty of interaction from the muscle-bound frontman. Every riff lands with chest-thumping weight, the bass physically punching through the room as the band plough through a bludgeoning setlist dominated by material from the latest release. Viking brings a huge moment as Slipknot’s V-Man joins them onstage, drawing a massive reaction. A savage Baba Yaga and encore Demolisher leave the venue in absolute ruins.

Only a few years ago, this kind of show would have been confined to a sweatbox like Camden’s Underworld. Now, Slaughter To Prevail command thousands at O2 Academy Brixton, and it still feels faintly unreal. Deathcore has arrived at this level in the UK, and judging by the carnage tonight, it’s not going anywhere. This felt less like a gig and more like a full-scale sonic assault — a mini-festival of brutality.

Setlist

• Bonebreaker
• Banditos
• Russian Grizzly in America
• Viking
• Imdead
• Babayka
• Bratva
• Baba Yaga
• Koschei
• Conflict
• Kid of Darkness
• Behelit
• Demolisher

You can catch Slaughter To Prevail later this year, headlining Saturday night at Bloodstock!

WORDS & PHOTOS: CRIS WATKINS