Ukrainian musician Markov Soroka is, at least in my eyes, one of the best to ever do it. The man is versatility incarnate: be it ‘Tchornobog’, an erratic entity combining black, death, and doom influences; the ambient black metal project ‘Aureole’; or the oceanic funeral doom of ‘Drown’. Every time Mr. Soroka releases something, a part of the musical world pauses and stands in awe. Such was the case with this particular Tycho upon discovering today’s exhibit Subaqueous. It once again draws inspiration from the mostly hidden world of the abyssal sea. Continuing the tragic story of first album’s character deliberate drowning, Subaqueous transports the listener into an abyss of sorrow and mourning. It is, in every sense of the word, crushing funeral doom with a haunting atmosphere. The album’s two tracks, “Mother Cetacean” and “Father Subaqueous,” explore profound sorrow through a deep and immersive sonic landscape.

A Descent Into Grief

“Mother Cetacean” begins the album’s journey with delicate ambience: underwater geysers or distant submarine volcanic eruptions which slowly intertwine with smooth, calming guitar strums. One immediately gets the feeling of being submerged and being gently dragged into the lightless depths of the ocean. As this happens, the music shifts as the guitar introduces a sombre, grief-stricken riff. This marks the transition from the ambient intro into full-on funeral doom. Mighty death growls imbue the track with a sense of debilitating heartache, capturing the grief of the song’s two protagonists: a woman and a cetacean facing the loss of their progeny at the hands of the ocean. This shared suffering, conveyed by the lyrics, forms a poignant parallel between the two characters, uniting them in their sorrow. The guitar riffs are heavy, droning, and drenched with emotion – emphasising the overwhelming, crippling sadness perfectly while adding on more and more weight with each reverberating strum. I have listened to this album a lot since its release, but this still is an emotionally challenging section to get through, never losing any of its severity. The drums in this track are mostly minimalistic, yet they provide the song with an unwavering backbone, never overpowering the other elements but reinforcing the track’s ceremonial, deliberate pace. Midway through the song, they fade – the music takes on an almost meditative character as a calm guitar melody rises to the forefront alongside the ambient underwater sounds. Perhaps paradoxically, it is a remarkably immersive moment with lots of breathing room while intensifying the feeling of being submerged and dragged into the depths of the abyssopelagic zone. Listening to this with a pair of proper headphones, you might find yourself subconsciously trying to hold your breath. As the funeral doom returns shortly after, both mother and cetacean are being seized and propelled into the aphotic darkness by the subaqueous tide – alongside the listener. The song’s intensity rises, mirroring the increasingly unbearable pressure of the ocean crushing the water-filled lungs and, inevitably, bodies of its victims. The song reaches an exquisite crescendo, with the heart-wrenching guitar play engulfing you completely, the vocals adding even more weight, and the drumming escalating as double bass usage further enriches the moment. The final vocal line – the realisation of imminent drowning – shifts the song toward its conclusive fadeout: peaceful and calming strings and violin, played by guest musician Gina Hendrika Eygenhuysen. In the end, these melt into ominous bubbling again, seamlessly transitioning into the next piece.

A Chaotic Response

In contrast to the tranquil, mournful inception of its predecessor, “Father Subaqueous” erupts with heavy guitar riffs right from the start. The melodic elements are overshadowed by the forceful, aggressive sound of the guitars, and the drums come forward with more intensity, driving the track forward with pounding bass drum and snare patterns. The vocals also are more prominent, placing a heavier focus on the chaotic, panicking tone of the track. After its thunderous opening section, the song slows down considerably, making way for a harmonic guitar melody as the drums, while keeping their intensity, return to acting as the song’s backbone alongside the vocals. I will not plunge in at the deep end here but rather carefully douse my toe into it – it appears to me that an organ is also used to further accentuate this section of the song, adding to the dreadful sense of finding yourself near the bottom of the ocean, but I could be wrong. Around the seventh minute, strings are being added once more, causing a sense of tragedy before fading to atmospheric silence, bubbling and breathing. While a clean guitar is playing in ostentatious indifference, the vocals shift to a whisper, offering a moment of fragile calm before the storm returns. Gargantuan death growls set in again, the guitars grow even heavier, spiraling out of control and ultimately bringing the listener down to the hadopelagic zone, where they become one with the deep. The drumming augments this further, growing increasingly frantic, the extensive use of double bass and snare adding urgency to the track’s grand conclusion as an intensely humming bass guitar provides another layer. As the instruments bleed into each other – the vocals cleverly being used as an equally important component instead of being dominant – they transcend the sum of their parts, culminating in a fantastic, cathartic crescendo. After this chaotic finale, the track transitions into an atmospheric outro, where the strings once again take the lead. The music slowly drifts into the distance, evoking the image of a body rising to the surface, both destroyed and resigned to the inevitable.

Emotional Mariana’s Trench

Subaqueous is a hauntingly immersive and emotionally rich album. It presents a scenario where grief, death, and the relentless ocean intertwine, creating a soundscape that is both suffocating and beautiful. As I mentioned, it can be hard to stomach, but that is obviously a personal, tiny (and more than nitpicky) gripe. It offers an unflinching look at the overwhelming power of grief, and in doing so, invites the listener to face their own emotional abyss or get crushed by its weight. If I was to search for this, I would not do so in the deep blue sea, but at the pinnacle of mount funeral doom.