By Laura Jane.
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On the 17th January 2026, Get Heavy UK descends on Manchester’s O2 Victoria Warehouse for the brutality of Slaughter to Prevail’s Grizzly Winter Tour. With Slaughter to Prevail, Suicide Silence, Dying Fetus and Annotations of an Autopsy on the bill. With the venue having a 3,500‑cap show is a complet sell out and the venue was bustling.
Manchester’s O2 Victoria Warehouse tends to split opinion on whether it’s a ‘good’ venue, but personally I like it as a venue. . Some of the best bands I’ve seen have played here, and they’ve both looked and sounded amazing.
The only negative I can personally state about O2 Victoria Warehouse is it's location in comparison to some of the other major venues in Manchester. O2 Victoria ware house sit's in the heart of Old Trafford off Trafford Wharf road and although is easily accessible by tram and car any other form of transport can be slightly tedious to use in order to access the venue.
Before we go any further, the elephant in the room needs acknowledging. There’s no ignoring the controversy around Slaughter to Prevail, and the bands backing them have taken their fair share of online fire but this review is staying neutral and focusing purely on the music and the event—not the surrounding debates or personal views.
First up were Annotations of an Autopsy. As soon as they hit the stage, they made it clear their set would be short — and they weren’t kidding. With only four songs, it wrapped up so quickly that it felt like it was over before it had even started. Featuring some of their iconic songs such as "Gore Gore Gadget" and "Welcome to Sludge City", the place went absolutely feral, and you could feel everyone craving just one more track.
Despite delivering a phenomenal performance the only thing that I could have wished for was a longer set. The last time I personally caught them was around 2010 with Job for a Cowboy and Whitechapel, and with the scene shifting so much since then, I was eager to see how a modern crowd would greet a veteran band returning to the stage with such a heavy-set line up.
It’s great to see these bands stepping back into the scene, and with any luck we’ll see more acts from that era resurfacing alongside what looks like a promising future for Annotations of an Autopsy.
Once Annotations of an Autopsy finished their brief but brutal set, Suicide Silence were up to take the spotlight. To me, Suicide Silence seemed a bit too low on the lineup — they felt more suited to the spot before Slaughter to Prevail. Logistics might explain it, but there was a lot of barrier talk from fans who were taken aback that they were second instead of Dying Fetus. The question also I guess that comes out of this is "Does it really matter these days where a band is on the line up?". Lineups used to signal a clear hierarchy — the higher the slot, the bigger the band. These days, that structure isn’t always as strict. Logistics, production needs, and shifting popularity meaning running orders don’t necessarily reflect status the way they used to but it was interesting hearing what people had to say and felt about the line up running order.
It was a delight to hear a mix of Suicide Silence's discography including tracks such as "Unanswered", "Disengage", "Love me to Death" and closing highlight of the set "No Pity For A Coward". It was also an honour to see Suicide Silence deliver such a powerful performance — one that kept the band’s legacy burning and carried forward the spirit Mitch brought to their sound, now channeled through Eddie Hermida with genuine love for the music. Suicide Silence are a band I’ll always enjoy listening to, and with Alex Terrible from Slaughter to Prevail recently acknowledging how much they influenced his sound and the band’s overall vibe, they couldn’t have been a more fitting addition to tonight’s lineup.
If you’re a deathcore fan and somehow haven’t caught Suicide Silence yet, they’re a band you owe yourself to experience at least once in your life… after all, you really do ‘only live once.’
After Suicide Silence, the spotlight shifted to Dying Fetus. What can I say... Dying Fetus hit the stage with the kind of precision and brutality that reminds you why they’ve held their place in extreme metal for decades.
Within the first song, there was an incident where a fan was noted to suffer from an epileptic seizure. I’ll admit, I felt a bit on edge at this point after seeing an unconscious body dragged over the front barrier. Whether a band should stop playing when they witness an incident is a tricky one — some will halt everything to make sure the crowd is safe, while others choose to push through unless they’re directly told otherwise. The question to pose is "Did they see this happen?" as there was a lot of movement and attempts from the crowd to signal there was an issue . In addition, I would have liked to say that, once the song ended, there’d be some kind of check‑in — even just a quick shout to see if the guy was alright, along with the usual reminder to have "fun" but look out for each other. Instead, nothing was acknowledged and no awareness was raised, which felt like a missed moment to reinforce that sense of crowd care that’s so important at shows that can get this intense. Luckily, the person who had been unconscious was fine and the situation was able to be controlled by security/medical intervention. During this incident, it was genuinely heartening to see the crowd pull together, making sure the person was protected and got the help they needed. It’s one of the things I love most about the metal scene—how instinctively people look out for one another.
[Get Heavy UK have reached out to the band’s team for a statement regarding the incident and will update this review should any response be provided.]
Back to the rest of the set...The trio continued to delivered a performance with the confidence of a band who know exactly who they are and exactly what their fans came for playing some of their well known tracks such as "Unbridled Fury", "Into The Cesspoool" and "Grotesque Impalement". The crowd matched the energy pouring off the stage, answering with brutally intense pits and chants back to the stage that echoed around the venue.
Dying Fetus have always stood out to me, and their discography is one I can happily return to any time. Tonight’s performance only reinforced that feeling and reminded me exactly why it’s so easy to keep coming back to their music. If you’re into the more extreme end of heavy music, I’d strongly recommend catching one of their shows whenever you get the chance.
Closing the night, and drawing the biggest anticipation from the crowd, were Slaughter to Prevail. Originally forming in Russia before later relocating to the United States, Slaughter to Prevail are a band unafraid to reign pure domination to any stage they step onto. Musically, they hit the stage with raw grit and energy, and the crowd fired it straight back. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen an audience so completely locked into the moment.
During the set there was a brief time where it was questioned by Alex were there technical issues before the kick into "Bratva" where a wall of death had been requested to be formed in anticipation. There was a stretch of downtime where a backing track looped and Alex, clearly picking up on the tension, called out to the crowd with a disappointed tone ‘no wall of death?’. The pause that followed made it obvious the venue wasn’t keen on the idea, and the set briefly stalled while things were being figured out behind the scenes. Alex eventually addressed it head‑on, telling the crowd:
"The venue don't seem to understand that if we skip this song or not, you guys are going to go hard anyway... You Know what I mean? So I literally don't understand what they mean... let's just fucking play Bratva".
His frustration was obvious, but so was his commitment to the moment. With that, the cue for "Bratva" hit, the energy snapped back into place, and the wall of death erupted exactly as everyone knew it would. The crowd were bursting with energy, and movement across the venue never slowed. Watching from the balcony—since I wasn’t risking an injury tonight, I'm getting to old to be prancing around in a pit and value my limbs these days—it was clear just how much everyone on the floor was loving every second. The energy remained high and channeled right up until the end of the set with the room erupting with applause and cheers at the end of the set.
It’s obvious Slaughter to Prevail absorbed the feedback from their last tour returning with a top‑tier performance and a stage presence that kept the crowd fully engaged. With bands like Slaughter to Prevail paving the way in modern deathcore and so many newer acts drawing inspiration from them and bands similarly, the future of the genre feels genuinely exciting. I can’t wait to see which bands rise out of that influence next.
Overall "The Grizzly Winter" tour brought together a heavy line up bringing bands that have helped shape and define the deathcore together in one evening. The tour as a whole showcased the past, present, and future of the more extreme metal and brought it in front of an audience of all ages and backgrounds.
If you missed the tour and still want to catch Slaughter to Prevail, they’re set to headline Bloodstock Open Air 2026 at Catton Park, running from August 6–9. For anyone unaware of what exactly Bloodstock festival is (If maybe you've been living under a rock for the last few years) Bloodstock is one of the UK’s leading heavy metal festivals, held every August and brings together a strong community of people who share a passion for metal and rock music.
To purchase tickets for Bloodstock Open Air festival visit the link > HERE <.
For all information on bands feature on tonight line up please find them online below:
You can catch the remaining dates for "The Grizzly Winter Tour" below:
25 Jan 2026 – Hamburg, DE
29 Jan 2026 – Oslo, NO
30 Jan 2026 – Stockholm, SE
31 Jan 2026 – Copenhagen, DK
02 Feb 2026 – Frankfurt, DE
03 Feb 2026 – Ljubljana, SI
04 Feb 2026 – Budapest, HU
06 Feb 2026 – Munich, DE
07 Feb 2026 – Leipzig, DE
08 Feb 2026 – Prague, CZ
Photography by Laura Jane Photography on behalf of Get Heavy UK. Images are not to be redistributed, reproduced, or used elsewhere without prior permission.
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