Alex Terrible has posted a statement addressed to companies and musicians who work with him or are considering it, denying that he is or has ever been a Nazi and setting out his account of the tattoo and associations that have followed him for a decade.
The Slaughter To Prevail vocalist published it on social media on Sunday.
“I want to make something very clear to anyone who works with me, wants to work with me, or is considering doing business with me in the future.”
“I have big plans for my music, my career, and everything I’m building around it. Over the years, some people and companies have chosen not to work with me because of controversies surrounding my past. Some of them have even told me privately that they respect me and support me, but they’re afraid of how being associated with me might affect their reputation.”
“I understand that. Everyone has the right to make their own decision. But I also want people to understand exactly where I stand. I am not a Nazi. I have never considered myself a Nazi, and I never will.”
“When I was a teenager in Russia, I spent time around right-wing people and the football hooligan subculture. I knew what the Black Sun was and I knew its history. But within the specific subculture I was part of in Russia at that time, I did not perceive wearing that symbol as a declaration of Nazism or fascism. To me, it represented something extreme, rebellious, and connected to the environment I was surrounded by.”
“Looking at it now as an adult, I understand that my personal interpretation of a symbol doesn’t erase its history or what it represents to other people. I understand why people see it and immediately make certain assumptions about me. I also understand that choosing to put that symbol on my body was my decision, and I take responsibility for that decision. But it does not mean that I was, or am, a Nazi.”
“At that point in my life, I could barely even leave my house because of panic attacks, depression, and heart problems after an overdose.”
“And I’m saying this clearly right now: I am not right-wing. I am not left-wing. I am a musician, a father, and a husband who is trying to understand himself and become a better version of himself every single day.”
“If you don’t want to move forward with me or work with me because of the controversy surrounding my past, I understand. But I also won’t work with you in the future.”
“A lot of people turned their backs on me in the past, but once I became successful, suddenly they wanted to work with me despite the exact same controversy. No, thank you.”
“And to everyone who has worked with me and continues to work with me — every label, band, company, and every person involved — I truly appreciate you. I understand that sometimes you’re putting your own reputation on the line by standing beside me.”
“Thank you, genuinely, for not turning your backs on me because of the mistakes I made in my past, and for believing in me as a human being.”
What The Allegations Concern
The central item is a tattoo of the Black Sun, or sonnenrad, which Terrible had on his right elbow and has since covered. He has said he did so after protests over the symbol led to the cancellation of a Slaughter To Prevail European tour in 2015, and has acknowledged that he covered it for the sake of his career and did not fully grasp how it was read until some years afterwards. He also has a tattoo of an Othala rune, another symbol with the same associations.
The Anti-Defamation League describes the sonnenrad as “one of a number of ancient European symbols appropriated by the Nazis in their attempt to invent an idealised ‘Aryan/Norse’ heritage”, while noting that it is not on its own proof of white supremacist belief, because “sonnenrad imagery is used by many cultures around the world”.
Separate allegations of homophobia and transphobia, drawn from past social media activity, have also been made against him. He has denied those.
Sunday’s post is the latest in a sequence stretching back several years.
Terrible addressed the subject at length in a video in 2023, which he later deleted, and again in a statement that December. He discussed it on the “Downbeat” podcast in September 2025, and again with Metal Hammer in August, before Slaughter To Prevail‘s Bloodstock headline set, where he said he expected never to escape the accusations. “No, because people try to hate me and find any reason to hate me,” he said then. “Which is fine. No matter what I say, no matter how I say [it]… I get used to it. It is the internet.”
He posted a series of messages over the summer in response to campaigns against the band’s overseas shows, then deleted them. On Friday he posted about the experience of answering online critics, saying he understood Ronnie Radke better than most people.
Guitarist Jack Simmons, who co-founded the band with Terrible in 2014, addressed the subject in an interview with Ultimate Guitar last year. He denied the band holds far-right views, while accepting that the situation is of their own making, describing it as the result of bad decisions in the past.
Slaughter To Prevail formed in Yekaterinburg and are now based in Florida.
