Slaughter to Prevail vocalist Alex Terrible has revealed why he moved to the United States and left his native Russia in a lengthy new explainer video on his YouTube channel.
Terrible now lives in Florida, which is where he and the deathcore band moved in 2022 after a protracted process complicated by that year’s Russian invasion of Ukraine, which Alex maintains he is against.
But he’s glad that Slaughter to Prevail relocated to the U.S. — “I finally found that place that feels like fuckin’ home,” the rocker says.
See the video further down this post. Loudwire has transcribed portions of it, edited for clarity, below.
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Why Alex Terrible Moved to U.S.
“When I lived in Russia, I was looking for a perfect spot,” Alex explains. “I was traveling a lot in Russia, and I tried to live in Sochi, [Russia], because it’s warm; it has mountains. It has better roads. I’m a car guy; I love cars. For me, it’s important to have those fuckin’ perfect roads near the area where I live.”
He continues, “So I moved to Sochi [and] lived there for a few months. Then, I changed my mind [and returned] to my hometown, Yekaterinburg. Then I tried to move to St. Petersburg. I lived there for a bit but didn’t like it. Then I moved to Moscow. I tried to live in Moscow. I kind of love that city. It’s a busy city — good infrastructure. Like perfect, perfect. But it’s just not mine.”
It was then that Alex made his bid for the U.S. “I decided to get my tourist [travel] visa to America,” he says, “and maybe try to move to Florida and see what happens. Because back in the day when we toured with Bodysnatcher, we had this stop between the shows … in Melbourne, Florida, and I fuckin’ love that city. I love the state. I fell in love immediately. … And I started this visa process … and I got my passport exactly the day the war started like, Feb. 22, 2022. Like, exactly that day.”
Slaughter to Prevail
The Russian invasion, an escalation of the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian War, prevented the vocalist from traveling for a few months. At that time, he got stuck in Poland, where he was getting his visa.
“I was like, fuck, what am I going to do now?” he recalls. “I could not go back to Russia from Poland, and I was in shock [about the war]. Because before that, everybody started to ask me what I thought about this conflict. Is the war going to happen or not? I was like, What the fuck are you talking about? The war will never happen. Ukrainians are our brothers. It will never happen. And then it happened.”
Ultimately, however, he and Slaughter to Prevail did arrive in the U.S., and they are all the happier for it.
Slaughter to Prevail in America
In the end, Alex says he decided to go to America to “keep my career [going successfully] with the music and stuff. And a lot of people — a lot of Russians — tried to blame me like, Oh, you’re escaping the war, but you go to ‘innocent’ America. I’m not fucking stupid, you know? Of course, I understand that America is not fuckin’ innocent. And America is fuckin’ a bad guy, you know?”
He adds, “I moved to America not just to escape the war. I moved to America because I wanted a better life for myself and my family and my future children. And for my music career. Because I believe this is very important for my career — to be here in America. Because we have so many opportunities just here. And just for the year we’ve stayed here, we’ve [grown] so fuckin’ fast. So, basically, that’s what happened.”
In a subsequent comment under the video, the vocalist summarizes, “long story short. i sold my ass to America and left Russia but i still love Russia. Have a nice day.”
Slaughter to Prevail’s Alex Terrible Explains Why He Moved to U.S. – Dec. 23, 2023
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