A Metal Hammer reader put the question to Alex Terrible directly, in a People Vs feature recorded before Slaughter To Prevail’s Bloodstock headline set: will you ever beat the Nazi allegations? His answer was no — and not because he thinks the accusations are true. He then spent the rest of the interview doing something he’s mostly avoided until now: explaining the tattoos, the crowd he ran with in Russia as a teenager, and where he draws the line on what he actually did.
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Scott Penfold gets into the Alex Terrible interview on today’s Metal Breakdown Daily — what he owned, what he disputed, and the story from his own family that reframes one of the accusations entirely. Download the free Loaded Radio App on Apple iOS and Google Play and get it every weekday morning.
His answer to the question
No. He doesn’t think it ever goes away.
His reasoning isn’t that the accusations are unfair in substance — it’s that the internet doesn’t work that way. People who want a reason to hate him will find one regardless of what he says or how he says it. He’s used to it.
Then the detail that’s worth sitting with: he says he never gets hate in real life. Only online. At festivals like Bloodstock he says he gets nothing but respect from other bands and from people generally, and that they tell him the internet isn’t real life.
His conclusion — people read something, build an image of him that isn’t real, and it sticks. Probably forever.
You can accept that or reject it. But it’s the first time he’s framed it as something he’s stopped fighting rather than something he’s arguing about.
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On the tattoos, which he doesn’t dodge
This is the part that’s different from every previous interview.
Asked about the tattoos — the Black Sun and the Othala rune, both symbols appropriated by the Nazis and used since by white supremacist groups — he doesn’t deflect and he doesn’t minimise. He says he’s paying the price for a stupid decision.
His account: he got them while hanging around right-wing guys in Russia when he was young. He describes them as right-wing rather than Nazis, and says they used those symbols to look tough — that it was the culture he was in. He says he understands the hate.
Would he do it again? No. He says his mindset has changed significantly and he doesn’t understand why he got the tattoo in the first place. He’s had the Black Sun covered.
But he also argues the whole of it — good and bad — built who he is, and that he’s a human being who makes mistakes.
Then the line the headline came from: he says he made stupid mistakes, but he didn’t kill anyone, didn’t stab anyone, didn’t bully anyone, and he isn’t a Nazi and never was a racist.
He adds something else, unprompted — that the horrible things he did, he did to himself. He talks about drug use and nearly dying from addiction. And he says whatever else is true, he never went after anybody for their colour or where they came from.
The story about his family
The accusations of homophobia trace back to a since-deleted 2023 Instagram post about rules for real men, and a follow-up comment about brainwashing children that several outlets connected to anti-trans rhetoric.
His explanation is that the brainwashing comment was never about anyone’s identity. He says he was talking about religious education and military propaganda being pushed at Russian schoolchildren — that eight and nine-year-olds are being fed material about the glory of the military, that he thinks the war in Ukraine is bad, and that he wants to handle his own child’s moral education rather than have the state do it.
He states plainly that he doesn’t mind if someone is gay or trans, that it’s their business, and that he supports it.
Then he tells a story that nobody covering this today is going to lead with.
He says that at sixteen or seventeen, sitting with family at breakfast, he listened to relatives talking about having a problem with gay people at a club — calling them disgusting. So he asked what they’d say if he turned around and told them he was gay.
He says he was told he wouldn’t be part of the family anymore. He describes being angry and ashamed that they’d said it.
His point: he grew up around genuine homophobia and pushed back on it as a teenager, and now the same accusation gets levelled at him.
It’s his account, unverified, and people will weigh it how they weigh it. But it’s the most human thing he’s said in four years of this.
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What the record actually shows
Context matters here, and this article isn’t going to pretend the accusations came from nowhere.
The documented flashpoints are specific. The Black Sun tattoo. The Othala rune. A photograph of him in an SS helmet. The 2023 post. Years of social media comments critics have called homophobic and transphobic. And the fact that the band’s 2025 European tour announcement triggered enormous backlash aimed squarely at him rather than at any of the supporting acts.
He addressed a lot of it on the Downbeat podcast last year, where he denied being racist, homophobic or transphobic, said the Black Sun wasn’t political and confirmed he’d had it covered for the sake of his career, and expressed regret over the SS helmet photo. He did not apologise for promoting a band he himself described in stark terms, or for wearing a brand owned by a neo-Nazi activist.
Guitarist Jack Simmons gave his own explanation for a separate tattoo last October, while conceding the controversy is the band’s own fault.
So the list exists. What’s new is that he’s now engaging with it item by item instead of dismissing it wholesale.
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Why this interview lands differently
Two weeks ago, this same man posted a sarcastic apology to the trans community after his Bloodstock set, spent a day firing back at critics in his replies, then deleted the whole thing when one person told him his posts were getting other people piled on.
That was reactive. This is considered.
And whatever you make of him, that’s a meaningful difference in a genre where the standard response to this kind of pressure is either silence or escalation. He’s headlining Bloodstock. Slaughter To Prevail are one of the biggest bands in modern deathcore at exactly the moment the genre is breaking into the mainstream. He didn’t need to answer any of it.
Nothing here settles the argument. Plenty of people will read his explanations and conclude they’re insufficient, and they’ll have the documented record to point at. Others will read a guy who did something stupid at nineteen and has been paying for it ever since.
Both readings are available. That’s the honest state of it.
The full interview is at Metal Hammer, and it’s worth reading in his own words rather than through a screenshot.
TL;DR
- What happened: Alex Terrible answered reader and Metal Hammer questions about the Nazi allegations in a People Vs feature published August 19, recorded before Slaughter To Prevail’s Bloodstock headline set.
- His answer: no, he doesn’t think he’ll ever escape them — because people looking for a reason to hate him will find one regardless.
- On the tattoos: he owns them. Says he got the Black Sun and Othala rune hanging around right-wing guys in Russia as a teenager, that the symbols were used to look tough, and that he’s paying the price. He wouldn’t do it again and has had the Black Sun covered.
- Where he draws the line: he says he made stupid mistakes but never hurt anyone, and that he isn’t a Nazi and never was a racist.
- On the homophobia accusations: he says the brainwashing comment was about religious and military propaganda aimed at Russian children, not identity, and recounts confronting his own family over homophobic remarks at sixteen.
- What’s unchanged: the documented record — the tattoos, the SS helmet photo, the 2023 post — remains on the record, and he has not apologised for all of it.
FAQ
What did Alex Terrible say about the Nazi allegations?
In an interview with Metal Hammer published August 19, 2026, the Slaughter To Prevail frontman said he doesn’t believe he will ever escape the allegations, arguing that people who want a reason to dislike him will find one regardless. He stated directly that he is not a Nazi and never was a racist, while acknowledging he made mistakes.
Why does Alex Terrible have those tattoos?
He says he got the Black Sun and Othala rune — symbols appropriated by the Nazis and used since by white supremacist groups — while associating with right-wing men in Russia when he was young, and that the symbols were used within that culture to appear tough rather than for political reasons. He says he wouldn’t get them again, describes the decision as stupid, and has had the Black Sun covered.
Is Alex Terrible homophobic?
He denies it. He says a since-deleted 2023 post about children being brainwashed referred to religious education and military propaganda pushed at Russian schoolchildren, not to anyone’s identity, and states that he doesn’t mind if someone is gay or trans and supports it. He also recounts challenging homophobic remarks made by his own family as a teenager. Critics point to the original post and to other past comments.
Who is Alex Terrible?
Aleksandr Shikolai, vocalist of the Russian deathcore band Slaughter To Prevail, formed in Yekaterinburg in 2014 and now based in Florida. He’s known for his extreme low-register vocals and separately competes as a bare-knuckle boxer.
The most direct he’s been in four years — but the record hasn’t changed. Does this move the needle for you, or is it too little? Have it out in the comments. And keep it locked on the Loaded Radio stream — follow Loaded Radio for daily rock and metal news.
The post Alex Terrible Was Asked If He’ll Ever Beat The Controversial Allegations Against Him appeared first on Loaded Radio.
