Culture
Alex Terrible and Jack Simmons of Slaughter to Prevail talk with WOUB at Louder Than Life 2025
By: Bradley Cunningham
Posted on:
LOUISVILLE, Kentucky (WOUB) – On Sunday at Louder Than Life 2025, I sat down with Alex Terrible and Jack Simmons of the Russian deathcore band Slaughter to Prevail before one of the weekend’s most ferocious sets. With Alex’s thick Russian accent and Jack’s dry humor, the two moved easily between outrage and laughter — perfectly capturing the blend of brutality and humanity that has made Slaughter to Prevail one of modern metal’s most exciting forces.
Find a transcript of our conversation, edited for length and clarity, below.
Bradley Cunningham: What do you want to talk about?
Jack Simmons: You know what? The American tipping system.
Alex Terrible: For real.
What’s going on with that?
Terrible: It’s wrong, man. The American tipping system makes no sense. Tipping should be like, “I want to tip you because you gave good service,” or “I want to give you this amount because I appreciate it.” But here, it’s like, “You have to tip no matter what.” Starting at 18 percent? What is wrong with you guys?
Simmons: I’ve seen some that start at 20, 22, even 25 percent. It’s crazy. The bosses should be paying the wages — not the customers. And they’ve convinced the workers that it’s the customers’ fault.
Terrible: Exactly. Now it’s our responsibility? I understand it’s a hard job — and I’m a people pleaser, so I always leave a tip. I tip big.
Plus, that puts you in an awkward spot, right? You want to be kind, but now it’s part of someone’s home life and bills.
Simmons: Dude, and prices keep going up, so the boss makes more money while pushing the cost onto the customer. And now it’s spreading into Europe. The tipping system is colonizing us — and it sucks.
I’m sorry, Europe. I had nothing to do with this. I’m going next week to Augsburg, Germany. What do I do there?
Simmons: Do not tip. It’s offensive. In Germany, it’s like you’re looking down on them.
Terrible: Tell the story about when you tried to rent that photo studio.
Simmons: Oh yeah — we booked a photo studio for a merch shoot. Totally automated process. No human interaction at all. I filled out a form, paid online, got a door code. No one there — nothing. Then I see a 20 percent automatic tip added. Forty bucks for a studio I unlocked myself.
Like an Airbnb or something?
Terrible: It’s a scam. It’s literally a scam.
I’m right there with you — that’s how I feel about Ticketmaster.
Terrible: Exactly the same. And the band Rammstein solved this problem.
Simmons: Yeah — I think in one of the regions in Germany, they sued Ticketmaster. Basically, you can’t resell tickets there anymore. You can only sell them back to Rammstein through their official site. So no scalpers, no gouging. You even need ID to buy and sell. They shut that whole scam down.
A lot of bands feel commercial or fake now — you guys are authentic. You guys are also wearing masks. Where does that come from if your inspiration lies in the physicality of rock and metal?
Terrible: We used to be a normal band — no costumes, nothing. One day I decided I wanted to stand out. I love Slipknot, so I drew a mask on paper, took it to a sculptor, and they made it. When I started wearing it onstage, fans loved it. Then they started asking where to buy it — and it grew into this metal cult.
Simmons: Alex created something bigger than branding — a genuine cult. You see it in the fans. They collect the masks, hang them up, and wear them to shows. It’s become cultural. Alex created something unique.
Terrible: I wanted to create a face of metal. Something brutal. So I gave that face horns and sharp teeth.
I saw that at Inkcarceration this year — more people wearing your masks than band shirts.
Simmons: When Alex came up with it, I wasn’t sure. But he was right. The mask gives fans something to connect with — a way to escape and belong. It lets people forget about everything else going on in their life for a moment.
Terrible: Yeah, and now a lot of bands are doing it too — and that’s fine. We were inspired by Slipknot; now others are inspired by us. Nothing is truly unique — it’s about making it yours and keeping it high quality.
What I love about your mask is that it’s accessible — fans can afford it, they can be part of it.
Terrible: Exactly. At first, I didn’t want to sell them — too expensive to produce. But fans kept asking. Eventually, I found a way to make it work. I wanted people to feel connected — part of something. A good community.
And I love how you give masks away to kids too.
Terrible: Oh yeah, that’s one of my favorite things. I remember being a kid going crazy at a Bring Me The Horizon show in my hometown. If Oli Sykes had given me something that night, I would’ve never forgotten it. I want to give those cool memories to the kids.
Speaking of Bring Me The Horizon — how does it feel to play the same stage as them here in the States?
Terrible: Right now, I feel we deserve this. It’s our job, nothing special. But at the same time, I am very appreciative of all of these moments in my life. Because I’ve worked hard to achieve this. It’s very difficult to realize that you actually went through all of this. It’s very hard to see where you are right now because there’s so much going on.
Simmons: You lose perspective. Then you get a moment where you stop and think, “Wow, look where we are.”
Terrible: Me and Jack talk about it all the time in the sauna. We’re proud of ourselves — we built this with our bare hands.
Simmons: And we want more. We want to push this genre forward — represent metal on a bigger level. Alex brings metal into mainstream conversations. We’ve had UFC fighters and influencers talk about seeing him throw hands and then checking out our music. That crossover is how you grow the culture.
Terrible: Exactly. Back in the day, you’d hear about bands like Slipknot through friends — working-class guys in masks making metal. And I thought, “That’s me. I can do that.” Now, social media gives us a way to show who we are. People see that we came from nothing — and think, “If they did it, maybe I can too.” That’s respect.