Markov Soroka is certainly a busy man. The Ukrainian musician has three current projects he releases music under. They include the cosmic black metal of Aureole, the aqueous funeral doom of Slow, and most recently, a frenzied death metal hybrid known as Tchornobog. The deadly endeavor made its debut over a week ago. The self-titled introduction is a surely a lot to unpackage. It tracks four songs, all of which run anywhere between 12 and 20 minutes long.
However, Soroka rewards the time investment of his listeners with a captivating composition. Not to slight Markov's other projects, but, personally, Tchornobog represents his most complete work to date. The densely layered guitars almost blur together once they mix with saxophones, trumpets, cellos, and pianos. At times, it becomes a swirling, chaotic mass of chords. At other times, it becomes a crawling display of death-doom. It is as much Abyssal or Portal as it is disEMBOWELMENT. Soroka has an immense prowess when it comes to metal, even for his relatively young age. He rivals many great up-and-coming talents in death metal with this debut of his self-reflective project. Tchornobog's self-devouring and disemboweling cycles are firmly planted amongst the best examples of death metal this year.
Check out the album now. Digital copies and CDs are available through Tchornobog's Bandcamp page and I, Voidhanger, respectively. Other physical copies are also due out in the coming months from Fallen Empire (LP) and Auditory Hallucinations (CS).
