1914 (UA)

About

Few metal bands commit to a concept as hard as 1914. Formed in Lviv in 2014, the Ukrainian group built their entire identity around the First World War, right down to the military pseudonyms each member uses. Their sound pulls from doom, death and black metal, favouring slow to mid paced tempos over the usual death metal blastfest, with brooding melodic guitar lines weaving through heavy, down tuned riffs. Battle speeches, engine noise and period recordings show up as samples throughout their records, giving the whole thing an unsettling sense of place. Signing to Napalm Records after the well received second album The Blind Leading the Blind in 2018, they followed it with Where Fear and Weapons Meet in 2021, which landed on several year end best of lists. Their fourth studio album Viribus Unitis arrived in 2025, preceded by singles rooted in specific battles and offensives. A 2025 cover of The Prodigy's Invaders Must Die, recorded with Ship Her Son under the Barney Hines Band name, shows the band is not afraid to venture somewhere unexpected.