Career
He first received attention of people and got noticed by record labels by posting vocal and guitar cover videos of songs in his YouTube channel ‘above92.’ The channel has garnered huge fame and popularity. It has so far amassed over 82K subscribers and a remarkable count of more than 15 million views.
He was instrumental in the formation of the Ukrainian metalcore band ‘Make Me Famous’ in 2010, and was its lead guitarist and vocalist. The other artists associated with the band included Serj Kravchencko, Jimmy X Rose, Sergei Hohlov, Dusty Boles and Jace Thoma.
‘Make Me Famous’ came up with their first and only EP ‘Keep This in Your Music Player’ in early 2011. The tracks of the EP included songs like ‘Once You Killed a Cow, You Gotta Make a Burger,’ ‘I Am A Traitor. No One Does Care’ and ‘Make It Precious.’ ‘Make It Precious’ released on January 20, 2011. The music video of the acoustic version of the song titled Make It Precious (Acoustic) eventually emerged as the most popular video of ‘above92’ gaining more than 1.1 million views.
In 2011, the band signed a contract with American independent record label ‘Sumerian Records.’
On March 26, 2012, the band released their debut album ‘It's Now or Never.’ The tracks of the album also included ‘Once You Killed a Cow, You Gotta Make a Burger,’ ‘I Am A Traitor. No One Does Care’ and ‘Make It Precious.’
‘It's Now or Never’ went on to peak at #5 on the US Heatseekers Albums (Billboard) chart; at #13 on the US Top Hard Rock Albums (Billboard) chart; at #26 on the US Independent Albums (Billboard) chart; at #37 on the US Top Rock Albums (Billboard) chart; and at #151 on the US Billboard 200 chart.
As he was frequently involved in conflicts with fellow band members, he was eventually ousted at the end of November 2012. Following this, he was dropped from Sumerian Records. The band, however, broke up following its final headlining tour in 2012, and disbanded in early 2013.
Following his stint with ‘Make Me Famous,’ Shaforostov announced the formation of a new band called ‘Down & Dirty,’ which was eventually announced under the Sumerian Records label. In December 2013, the band came up with their debut single and music video titled ‘Move It.’
The second single of the band titled ‘I Will Never Lose My Way’ and its music video was released in December 2014. He then left ‘Down & Dirty’ to join the English rock band ‘Asking Alexandria.’ He had earlier posted several covers of several ‘Asking Alexandria’ songs on his YouTube account.
His was announced as the new lead vocalist of ‘Asking Alexandria’ on May 26, 2015. He replaced lead singer Danny Worsnop, who left the band earlier on January 22 that year to concentrate on his hard rock supergroup ‘We Are Harlot.’
On May 27, 2015, ‘Asking Alexandria’ released a single titled ‘I Won't Give In’ that marked the first single of the band with Shaforostov as the new frontman. The single was released as the first single of the band’s fourth studio album titled ‘The Black.’ It peaked at #16 on the US Mainstream Rock Songs (Billboard) chart and at #26 on the US Rock Digital Songs (Billboard) chart. His second single with the band, which also released in 2015, was titled ‘Undivided.’
Moving on, ‘Asking Alexandria’ released three more singles titled ‘The Black,’ ‘Let It Sleep,’ and ‘Here I Am,’ in 2016, before Shaforostov left the band on October 21, 2016. Ben Bruce, the co-founder, lead guitarist, and backing vocalist of ‘Asking Alexandria’ announced that Shaforostov had left the band. Bruce mentioned that after not communicating with the band for a long time Shaforostov said, “Asking Alexandria does not exist unless I get what’s owed to me.”
Shaforostov on the other hand claimed in a Rock Sound interview in December 2017, that he left ‘Asking Alexandria’ because of personal stress that cropped up due to the unrest in his home country Ukraine. He said that the situation back home forced him he had to stop touring and concentrate more on his family.
Over the years, he has also featured in several songs of different bands. These include featuring in the song ‘Limitless’ (2011) from the EP of the American rock band ‘Crown the Empire’ titled ‘Limitless’; in the song ‘"#OIMATEWTF’ (2012) from the album ‘Til Death of Australian metalcore band ‘Capture the Crown’; and in the song ‘Sink Your Teeth Into This’ (2015) from the album ‘Conquer Divide’ of the metalcore band ‘Conquer Divide.’
He has a decent presence on social media. His Twitter account ‘realdstoff’ has over 84K followers while his Instagram account ‘denisstoff’ has more than 425 k followers. On September 27, 2017, he posted a message through his Twitter account indicating a possible association with new band and a new album.
