Slaughter To Prevail’s New Single “Behelit” Pays Homage to the Berserk Author.

credit @haterzhov

Slaughter to Prevail has been making waves in the modern deathcore scene in the last few years, and their new release Behelit shows they still have different sounds and styles to offer. The song is an homage to the cult classic anime Berserk & its writer Kentaro Miura. After Demolisher, Baba Yaga & Viking, the band is expanding its range with its new singles.

It is not the first time the band has nodded to Berserk, in fact they did it in their last album Kostolom with the song Zavali Ebalo. However Behelit delves way more into the manga’s lore with its lyrics, encompassing crucial elements from the source material. The track opens with frontman Alex Terrible delivering a speech but gets quickly interrupted by massive orchestral elements that are very different to anything they have released before. We can find similarities to some Lorna Shore tracks but this take remains more groove based. However it doesn’t take long for the slamming guitars to take over, followed by Alex’s choppy lines over a nu-metal-esque riff. This really strays away from the last releases without feeling too un-familiar.

But the surprises continue as we reach the chorus and the gravelly and powerful clean vocals take over. It is pretty different for Alex to show off his cleans, especially in a way where they take over the usual deep guttural screams. We heard those during tracks like Your Only or Baba Yaga but they were basically glorified ad-libs rather than full on big anthemic chorus. It does show that the band is willing to experiment and not rinse & repeat their gimmicks. Except for the big swaying violins, the track is pretty simple instrumentally, but drummer Evgeny Novikov manages to push the drumming a bit farther during the breakdown. The said bridge starts with a string section that’s topped with a groovy and rhythm changing patterns, where the vocals culminate at the end.

The music video is also something very nostalgic as it is basically an AMV, akin to what internet users used to do in the early 2000s with Linkin Park or Skillet songs. They would edit anime like Dragon Ball or Naruto along with the music.

It is interesting to see what is shaping up to be Slaughter to Prevail’s next studio album as most of the singles were anti-war songs, like 1984, Viking or even Kid of Darkness. The song premiered on the 15th of October 2024 but the band had already played it live a couple times. It seems the bear wrestling vodka chugging russian band is looking to experiment more with their sound, and their new release “Behelit” is at the forefront of it.