1914

1914 was formed in Lviv, Ukraine, in the summer of 2014, a hundred years after the outbreak of the First World War. Founder and vocalist Dmytro “Kumar” Ternuschak, who performs as Ditmar Kumarberg, brought in musicians from other Ukrainian bands, and the group took its name from the year the war began. Its music combines doom, death and black metal with deep-tuned guitars and audio samples from the period, and the members appear under stage names styled as Austro-Hungarian soldiers.

The debut Eschatology of War was released by Archaic Sound in 2015, followed by The Blind Leading the Blind in 2018. The band then signed with Napalm Records, which brought them wider attention. Where Fear and Weapons Meet, recorded at Jenny Records studio in Lviv in April 2021, came out on 22 October 2021 with guest vocals from Nick Holmes of Paradise Lost and entered the German and Swiss album charts.

After the Ukrainian Ministry of Culture had blocked permits for artists to travel abroad, 1914 returned to European festivals in the summer of 2025. The fourth album takes its title from the motto of Emperor Franz Joseph I and follows a Lviv-born soldier through the war, Italian captivity and the Polish-Ukrainian War. It was the last album with drummer Rostislaw Potoplacht, who left before its release. Reaching number 19 in Austria and number 41 in Germany, Viribus Unitis was released by Napalm Records on 14 November 2025.

Current line-up: Ditmar Kumarberg (vocals), Witaly Wyhovsky (guitar), Oleksa Fisiuk (guitar), Armen Howhannisjan (bass)