Slaughter To Prevail Guitarist Jack Simmons Has Denied The Bands Affiliations With Nazi’s

Slaughter To Prevail’s guitarist Jack Simmons has denied the rumours surrounding the band’s alleged Nazi beliefs, specifically concerning frontman Alex Terrible’s Black Sun tattoo, which he has since covered up.

Slaughter to Prevail has been a lightning rod for controversy for some time.

Speaking to Ultimate Guitar, the Russian and UK metal bands’ own Jack Simmons spoke about some of the band’s more notable controversies, specifically in relation to the rumoured affiliation with Nazi imagery and far-right beliefs.

The controversy started after frontman Alex Terrible was seen donning a Black Sun tattoo on his right elbow, which has since been covered up. The symbol has become a notorious symbol within Nazi iconography in 1991, which former SS officer Wilhelm Landig would go on to use as a substitute for the swatiska. As per the Anti-Defamation League, the Black Sun, or sonnenrad, is “one of a number of ancient European symbols appropriated by the Nazi’s in their attempt to invent an idealised ‘Aryan/Norse’ heritage.”

Simmons was quick to show humility in the interview, admitting that the controversies are the band’s “own fault” and that they consider them “bad decisions in the past”. He was quick to admit that the band does not endorse any extremist ideologies, saying, “We don’t want any radical shit or people or anything to be pulled into our show.”

In reference to the Black Sun tattoo controversy and how it’s affected the band’s reputation, Simmons admitted that they want their music to be about connecting people and believes “that can be lost when all this s**t goes crazy online. I’m not going to speak on Alex, I know he had a different past,” the guitarist said. “All I would say is that, in that part of the world… there’s a lot of context about symbolism”.

Simmons would go on to share an anecdote citing his girlfriend’s Ukrainian grandmother, who displays Black Sun imagery in her home. He admitted that he asked her if she knew if it was a Nazi Symbol and racist, to which his girlfriend laughed at him as if he were 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.”

Terrible himself would previously discoss his now-covered Black Sun tattoo during an appearance on the Downbeat podcast in September. In the interview, he admitted that he got the tattoo while he was associating with “right-wing guys” but denied holding the same far-right beliefs. Despite that, he shared that he got the tattoo covered to protect his career rather than any ideological change, and only recognised why the symbol was offensive years later.

But that’s not the only problematic tattoo that Terrible has caught flak for. In 2020, Terrible revealed an Odal rune tattoo on his left foot in a YouTube video. As the Anti-Defamation League has noted, the Odal rune is yet another symbol adopted by Nazis, and would later become the official logo for the US National Socialist Movement in 2016.

This would blow up into a larger controversy as Slaughter To Prevail would sell merchandise featuring the rune in 2023. Terrible has yet to share any news if he has since covered this tattoo, given its close association with Nazi imagery.

“That’s what my band is having a problem with, because in America, it’s been taken by the far right or whatever, but, you know, there is context to it all, which gets lost, it’s not so attractive, online, to give context to what happens in life.” Simmons would go on to say.

Slaughter To Prevail released their new album Grizzly earlier this year and have been promoting the album heavily on tour. Just last month, the band performed at Louder Than Life in Kentucky to a crowd of 65,000 fans, showing that these controversies aren’t stopping the band from finding fans who are either unaware or can overlook them.

Earlier this month (October 2), Terrible would announce that Slaughter To Prevail will be taking a hiatus through 2027-2028 to focus on writing and prioritise spending time with their family.