Given that for many of us it is the holiday season, it’s almost cliché to say that we’re being given a true gift with any given album. Most of us who do reviews and run websites covering the new releases in the world of metal tend to find ourselves wrapped up in crafting our end of the year lists with there rarely being anything in the last few weeks that would offer something that would genuinely cause a stir simply because the odds of such an event aren’t that great. And yet, that doesn’t mean the underground refuses to provide us with madness the likes of which is truly unpredictable. That was more than the case with how Tchonorbog and Abyssal have returned to us for a joint release that’s nothing short of cataclysmic in nature with it surely being one of the last great stops for excellence in 2022.

Without having to really even think about it, the very concept of this split is something that inspires supreme confidence and wild imagination given the talent that’s at work here, doesn’t it? Seperately, the names of both Tchornobog and Abyssal have found themselves engrained in the minds of tens of thousands across the vast underground to the point that anything with those names attached instantly garners attention and rightfully so, but it’s together that these acts are poised to craft something truly exceptional. In the smallest of ways, that’s precisely what has happened here! One track per band with each clocking in over 23 minutes, this is the sort of split that many can only ever dream about for all that it brings to the table as not only do we see some of the best of what the more demented reaches of the underground has offer but we’re able to see Tchornobog and Abyssal in top form in such a way that cannot be seen as anything less than viciously compelling. An ever-expanding maw seeking to consume as much of creation as it possibly can before finally taking to its own flesh, there is clear excellence and morbidity to this creation that feels downright intoxicating for those of us that are only ever looking to find more instances of such darkness to lose ourselves in with the only salvation to be found ever deeper within.

It’s tempting to try and describe the many different facets of this creation in mere words but to do so would be to only just barely scratch the surface of what’s been accomplished here as not only do both bands achieve greatness the likes of which we’re only granted maybe a few times in a year, there’s dark magnificence here of a sort that we’re only treated to on the rarest of occasions. The reputations of Tchornobog and Abyssal didn’t need any sort of boosting before the release of this grand collaboration, yet it is with all that’s been brought to the table with this creation that I can’t help feel as though it’s now more than ever that both names have been more than integral to the very fabric of the best of what the deep underground has to offer.

LISTEN to “Tchornobog / Abyssal” on Bandcamp here.

LIKE Tchornobog on Facebook here.

LIKE Abyssal on Facebook here.