The Russian deathcore band Slaughter to Prevail received unanimous praise from critics during their recent Grizzly Winter Tour across the UK and the European Union. However, the group from Yekaterinburg was not the only one drawing acclaim during the 18-date run, which concluded on February 8 at Prague’s Forum Karlín.
Music critics from Bristol to Berlin also highlighted the design by Alex Mungal, which supported the band throughout the tour. “Slaughter To Prevail’s ‘Grizzly Winter’ tour rolled into a sold-out O2 Academy Birmingham and delivered a show that was as visually imposing as it was sonically brutal”, wrote one reporter. “Lighting pulses violently with the music, with strobes snapping across the room in blinding bursts that freeze moments of impact mid-collision”, added another.
However, Mungal and his team were not seeking praise on the tour; their goal was more direct: to create a design capable of translating the crushing power of the band’s aggressive, in-your-face music — performed by its menacing masked members — into an equally fierce visual aesthetic.
This show was built to emphasize the monstrosity that Slaughter to Prevail has already created with its individual members. There are some incredible players on stage wearing terrifying masks. We wanted to bring the themes of their songs to life while keeping the emotions powerful and energetic, recalled Mungal.
Scaling the show up or down depending on the size of each venue, Mungal and his team managed to adapt the production to every stage, creating a striking aesthetic that drew fans into the music.
“We scaled up and down throughout the European tour due to the varying sizes of the venues, but for the most part my crew and I managed to make this beast fit everywhere we went”, he explained. “My crew’s support and flexibility made them the real heroes of the tour”.
To achieve this, Mungal and his team relied on 32 CHAUVET Professional Color STRIKE M fixtures supplied by Victory Event Stage & Tour.
Of these, 12 units were flown overhead and used for top washes, snare hits, and major visual impacts during dramatic moments. The other 20 units were used to create layered uplighting throughout the grated stage depth, as well as serving as cyc washes for certain songs.
“We really leaned into uplighting on this show by combining top/key light with under-riser lighting using Color STRIKE M and batten fixtures”, said Mungal. “It was an additional challenge to simplify the light sources due to certain technical trade-offs, but the result also looked very cool”.
The Color STRIKE M fixtures also helped Mungal develop visual narratives for specific songs through color changes.
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Several songs follow Slavic folklore stories, so it was important to use color choices and light source placement to reinforce themes and moods and make the 'characters' stand out. Songs like ‘Babayka’ tell of a creature that comes after children if they misbehave or refuse to go to bed, so we used cold, dark tones to create that nightmarish feeling. Another song, ‘Baba Yaga’, tells the story of the bogeyman, so many of the lighting decisions throughout the show evoke horror, combining effects and the band’s masks to intensify the experience, he explained.
Beyond light angles and colors, Mungal also relied on atmospheric effects and distinctive inflatables to capture the essence of the music on stage. “We used both flames and fog throughout the show”, he said. “There is a certain visual percussiveness that comes with the impact of these moments. We also had inflatables of different sizes that we used depending on the available space. In the end, the show was built out of the music”.
Photo credits: @petrov.visuals and @moonvibesx
