Denis Olexandrovych Shaforostov (; born 4 May 1992), also known by his stage name Denis Stoff, is a Ukrainian musician, best known for his work as a guitarist and singer of the

metalcore Metalcore is a broadly defined fusion genre combining elements of extreme metal and hardcore punk, originating in the 1990s United States and becoming popular in the 2000s. Metalcore typically has aggressive verses and melodic choruses, combined ...

group Make Me Famous. He also replaced

Danny Worsnop Danny Robert Worsnop (born 4 September 1990) is an English singer most prominently known as the lead vocalist of rock bands Asking Alexandria and We Are Harlot. He has worked with several artists including I See Stars, Papa Roach, With One Last ...

as lead singer of the English rock band

Asking Alexandria Asking Alexandria are an English Rock music, rock band formed in Dubai, Dubai, United Arab Emirates and now based in York, York, North Yorkshire, consisting of guitarist Cameron Liddell, drummer James Cassells, vocalist Danny Worsnop, and bas ...

, during Worsnop's 18-month hiatus from the band. Shaforostov's music career began with his

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

channel "above92", where he posted vocal and guitar covers of his favorite songs. He then formed the band Make Me Famous, before becoming involved with Asking Alexandria. He is currently the lead vocalist for the band Drag Me Out, and the guitarist and clean vocalist for the band The Serpent's Tears.

Career

2009–2010: Cat!Cow!MilkyWay!

Stoff experimented in electronic music with a short lived project called Cat!Cow!MilkyWay!. He also played as guitarist in the Russian post-hardcore/emo band ''Origami''.

2010–2012: Make Me Famous

The first major project Stoff involved himself in was

act Make Me Famous which he helped form in 2010 with members Serj Kravchenko on unclean vocals, Sergei Hohlov on bass, Dusty Boles on drums and Igor Yestrebov on guitar. The band gained recognition on the video sharing website

, where Stoff previously released covers of songs and would eventually gain members after contacting each musician after gaining a following. The band released their debut album "It's Now or Never" in March 2012 via

Sumerian Records Sumerian Records is an American record label based in Los Angeles, Washington D.C., and London. The label was founded in 2006 by Ash Avildsen. In late 2012, Stoff had announced that he had quit the band, which itself had announced to be disbanded after their final headlining tour that same year, officially disbanding in early 2013.

2012–2015: Down & Dirty

After the news arose that Make Me Famous had broken up, Stoff quickly announced a new band named Down & Dirty. The band was officially announced under the Sumerian label like his last project, and released their first single and music video in December 2013 titled "Move It". The band also released a second single and music video in December 2014 titled "I Will Never Lose My Way". After these songs, Stoff later announced he would be joining

, which was followed by Down & Dirty confirming he was no longer a part of the group. Down & Dirty continued with a new lead vocalist, Ezekiel Pierson, and released a new single "Heaven Sent" in February 2017.

2015–2016: Asking Alexandria

Asking Alexandria - Rock am Ring 2015-8901

On 22 January 2015, lead singer

announced his departure from

to focus on his new band

We Are Harlot We Are Harlot, often shortened to just Harlot, is a hard rock supergroup organized by singer Danny Worsnop, of Asking Alexandria, and guitarist Jeff George, who was formerly Eminem's and Sebastian Bach's guitarist. The lineup also includes ...

, of which it was quickly stated that his replacement was already found. On 26 May 2015, Stoff was officially announced as the new lead vocalist when they released their first single together titled "

I Won't Give In "I Won't Give In" is a song by English rock band Asking Alexandria. It was released on 27 May 2015 as the first single from their fourth studio album '' The Black''. It marks the first song featuring new frontman Denis Stoff after the departure ...

" on 27 May. Speculation regarding Stoff's involvement started shortly after Worsnop's departure due to similarities between Asking Alexandria and Make Me Famous (who were said to have been ripping off the band); the fact that they were label mates would have made the transition easy for Stoff to make, and on his personal YouTube account he had covered multiple Asking Alexandria songs.

Ben Bruce Benjamin Paul Bruce (born 31 October 1988) is an English musician. He was the lead guitarist and backing vocalist of rock band Asking Alexandria until his departure in January 2024 and has also performed as a solo artist. Bruce founded the ban ...

was asked if he considered anyone else for the role and he stated that "it has to be Denis" before praising his vocal ability. When Shaforostov himself was asked how he would distinguish himself from Worsnop, he stated he would not make any comparison since he is a completely different person. In October 2016,

announced that Stoff left the band. In December 2017, Rock Sound interviewed Denis and explained that his home country, Ukraine, is like a warzone now. He said there was stress for him and his family, and he had to stop touring to focus on family.

2017–present: Drag Me Out

Stoff posted on

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

on 27 September 2017 "New album and new band... so worth every minute of the work and da wait we've already invested in this. Be ready for something new and FRESH." Stoff with his new band Drag Me Out released their first single, titled I'm Sorry, on 15 January 2019. An accompanying music video was also released. On 1 February 2019, the band surprise dropped their debut album ''Pressure''. Shortly after the album's release, connections were made between Drag Me Out's "Hollow" and Asking Alexandria's "Alone in a Room" sounding similar in terms of instruments and the bridge section of the song, afterwards the band's label Sumerian Records (who at the time, were also Asking Alexandria's label) took down the song from their official YouTube channel. On 30 October 2020, Drag Me Out released a new single "The Watch of the Buried" and its corresponding lyric video. It was revealed on 11 December 2020 that the artwork for this single was plagiarized from an artist named Maxime Taccardia. The artist claims that neither Denis nor the band reached out to him for permission. Denis posted on his social medias about how they would reach out to said artist to discuss how to properly settle this case, claiming that the artwork was sold by a third party artist, who was never disclosed. Since then, the lyric video for the single had been taken down and the artwork had been removed from iTunes.

Sumerian Records Sumerian Records is an American record label based in Los Angeles, Washington D.C., and London. The label was founded in 2006 by Ash Avildsen.hip hop Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide range of musical techniques. Hip- ...

sound. Stoff has also announced a new solo album consisting of English, and Russian language music. The release date has not been announced but it appears that the album is ready and has shared many snippets via Instagram. Stoff also has done numerous guest features for 2022 including "Isn't Pretend" by LUURK, "1M Followers" by Space of Variations and "Last Second Chance" by Kiss of Betrayal.

Discography

Albums

Singles

Collaborations

References

External links

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Denis Stoff on Twitter
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stoff, Denis 1992 births Ukrainian heavy metal singers English-language singers from Ukraine Ukrainian rock singers Ukrainian rappers Ukrainian rock guitarists Living people People from Khartsyzk Asking Alexandria members 21st-century Ukrainian male singers Metalcore singers 21st-century Ukrainian guitarists