1914

1914 is a blackened death/doom metal band from Lviv, Ukraine, founded in 2014 — the centennial year of the First World War's outbreak. The choice of name is no accident: the band has dedicated their entire career to documenting the Great War in sound and concept, treating the conflict not as political allegory but as a visceral human catastrophe. Their music draws on real events, diaries, casualty letters, and battlefield accounts, delivering them through extreme metal layered with atmospheric textures, archival recordings, and cinematic soundscapes. Vocalist Dmytro "Kumar" Ternushchak leads the lineup alongside guitarists Vitaly Vykhovsky and Liam Fessen, bassist Armen Hovhannisyan, and drummer Rostyslav Potoplacht.

The band's debut album Eschatology of War arrived in 2015, establishing their concept-driven approach and earning them attention in the European underground. Their second album, The Blind Leading the Blind (2018), was released on the exact centenary of the Armistice — November 11, 2018 — a date chosen deliberately to align the record with the end of the war it chronicles. That album marked a significant leap in production scope and international reach, bringing the band onto the radar of extreme metal publications across Europe and North America. A third full-length, Where Fear and Weapons Meet, followed in 2021, expanding the palette with symphonic elements and guest appearances while maintaining the band's uncompromising documentary vision.

In November 2025, 1914 released their fourth studio album Viribus Unitis via Napalm Records. The Latin title — meaning "with united forces," the motto of Austria-Hungary — reflects a thematic shift toward the Austro-Hungarian perspective of the war, exploring themes of camaraderie, endurance, and brotherhood among soldiers on the Eastern and Southern fronts. The record features guest appearances from Aaron Stainthorpe (MY DYING BRIDE) and Jerome Reuter (ROME), and was recorded during russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, with one guitarist entering military service just before the studio sessions began.

Live, 1914 are an intense and historically theatrical presence, having performed across Ukraine, Western Europe, and beyond. Signed to Napalm Records, they continue to grow their international audience, occupying a unique space between extreme metal and historical documentary art — appealing both to devotees of black and death metal and to listeners drawn to WWI history and memorial culture.