Slaughter to Prevail - Chapters of Misery [10-inch Clear Yellow & Gold]

Chapters of Misery is where Slaughter to Prevail first bared their teeth, and this reissue of the deathcore EP comes on clear vinyl in yellow and gold.

Formed in Yekaterinburg, the band were barely out of the starting blocks when they made it, yet the template was already in place: punishing breakdowns, surgical riffing and Alex Terrible's bottomless gutturals, a voice that would soon make him one of the most talked-about frontmen in modern metal. Sumerian Records picked the EP up for a wider release, setting the stage for everything that followed.

The structure is brutally simple. After a short "Intro," the band tear through four tracks named for the misery of the title, with "Hell" and "Beast" setting a relentless pace and "Death" grinding everything into the floor. "Crowned & Conquered" brings in guitarist Lucas Mann for a burst of technical fury, and "As the Vultures Circle" rounds things off with a closing assault built for the pit.

It runs short, but there is not a wasted second, and the low end is genuinely seismic, the kind of heaviness you feel in your chest before you hear it.

For fans who came in with Misery Sermon or Kostolom, this is the origin story, raw, furious and impossible to ignore.