Metal, Hardcore, Indie, Rock
Although leader Alex Terrible once had a tattoo of a symbol taken from far-right hate groups, guitarist Jack Simmons of Slaughter To Prevail asserts that the band does not have Nazi sympathies, as loudersound reports. In 2014, Simmons and Terrible co-founded their Russian-American deathcore band. The guitarist discusses the continuing controversy surrounding his singer, who got a tattoo of the Black Sun on his right elbow before covering it up, in a recent interview with Ultimate Guitar.
The Black Sun, or sonnenrad is one of a number of ancient European symbols appropriated by the Nazis in their attempt to invent an idealised ‘Aryan/Norse’ heritage. – Anti Defamation League
However, because “sonnenrad imagery is used by many cultures around the world,” the organization contends that the emblem is not a clear indication of white supremacist views. Simmons acknowledges that the conversation around Terrible and the band is their “own fault” and the outcome of “poor choices in the past.” He does, however, add that they do not support “radical shit” and asserts that the Black Sun’s context differs in Russia, Terrible’s home country, and Eastern Europe.
I would say, actually, it is our own fault, of bad decisions in the past. And as far as navigating it, there’s going to always be a group of people, we can’t change their minds, and we’re not really out here to change their minds. We just want to make music. If you actually come to our shows, there’s a lot of love, there’s no fights. We don’t want any radical shit or people or anything to be pulled into our show. It’s about connecting, for us music is about connecting people, that’s why we’re talking right now, that’s why everyone’s here right now. I think that can be lost when all this shit goes a bit crazy online. I’m not going to speak on Alex, I know he had a different past. All I would say is that, in that part of the world, there’s context. There’s a lot of context about symbolism.
Simmons goes on to say that the grandmother of his girlfriend, who resides in Ukraine, has carpets in her home that bear the Black Sun sign.
I would tell her [Simmons’ girlfriend], ‘You know, that’s a Nazi symbol, right? It’s racist’. And she laughed at me like I’m being disrespectful, she’s like, ‘Are you saying my grandma’s a Nazi? She was under Nazi occupation. She’s not a Nazi. This is our symbol. It means heritage and family,’ but that’s lost.
