Ελληνικά
Last Updated on 11:43 AM by Nikos Nakos
Genre: Black/Doom Metal
Country: U.S.A.
Label: I, Voidhanger Records/Fallen Empire Records
Year: 2017
Over the past few days, my ears and my mind have been ‘tortured’ by… tons of dithyrambic comments and resonant compliments for this ‘eerie and dark diamond’ (as such many people tried to present it to me), so the logical outcome was to ‘inflame’ my inner spark of curiosity. Of course, as they say, ‘don’t hold your breath, don’t hold out too much hope’ and unfortunately this phrase was sealed once again, at least by half.
Markov Soroka’s solo project’s debut release (who plays everything except the drums, which have been taken over by Magnés Skúlason of Svartidauði, while there are some guest appearances on keyboards and wind instruments), ‘Tchornobog’ was recorded back in 2015 in Reykjavik, Iceland and consists of four long compositions, of a total duration of 65 minutes. The very good production and especially the sound of the guitars give to TCHORNOBOG’s misty and chaotic atmospheric black/doom music style a pretty mysterious and creepy feeling, but beyond that it did not hit the target to make me like it, since from the first to the last second seemed to me quite confusing – even meaningless, I dare to say, in many parts – while I can’t ignore the fact that I often caught myself being unfocused while I was listening to it.
Some of the few things that have carried me are the vocals that are similar to screams of tortured souls wandering at the deepest levels of hell, and Adam Burke’s psychedelic epic artwork on the cover of the album.
But finally, ‘Tchornobog’ is a good or a bad release? I think neither of both. It is quite a good effort to label it as a ‘bad’ album, but not just enough in order to be considered as a ‘good’ one. In effect, it is a difficult piece of music work, one of those that you will either love or write them off without further thought.
3/6
