Ukrainian blackened stoic sentinels 1914 conjure their fourth full-length pantheon, Viribus Unitis (Napalm Records), Latin for “With United Forces.” The colossi title unveils the resilience through destruction and malice brought from war, building on the band’s acclaimed concept, delving further into vehemence and severity.
From a pensive opening that is delivered by “War In” to the albums desolate ending, each lucid track captures a moment of paragon, including the lunacy of “1918 Pt. 2: POW (Prisoner of War)” featuring Christopher Scott (Precious Death). One of the album’s mentionable culminations is a collaboration with Aaron Stainthorpe (ex-My Dying Bride, High Parasite) on track 8 “1918 Pt. 3: ADE (A Duty to Escape),” with a tone of sorrow and dread, the melancholy voice enacts a somber ritual delivering an ominous ceremonial. This blackened mixture of death metal, ambient war soundscapes, and resonating doom surges a vast dynamic continuum, with aether melodic riffs, oscillating percussion, and well executed clean vocals and wretched chants.
Beyond the historical reference to the personal motto of Franz Joseph I of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, musically this quadrant opus remains true to the conflagration that is 1914. Viribus Unitis strengthens the band’s devotion to historical authenticity shared through real events and memoirs of a Ukrainian soldier in the K.u.K. Army, pinpointing the focused timeline from 1914 to 1919. While previous releases concentrated on war’s absolute vanity, Viribus Unitis ventures into the human bonds and the strength of those who returned fragmented, severed, and overall broken. Furthering their chronicle of World War I, the band manifests a new construct, from the raw depiction of death and horror to prosperous themes of unison, fellowship, and the aftermath that lies between freedom and suffering.
The album concludes with “1919 (The Home Where I Died),” featuring Jerome Reuter (Rome), a dark reflection on a soldier who survives the battlefield but remains captive to its lingering psychological ruins. Blending the raw refraction of blackened death metal with the gravity of doom and immersive atmospheric textures, 1914 deliver their most emotionally potent and musically ambitious record to date, one that captures, with devastating precision, both the brutality and the humanity of war.
Buy the album here:
https://x1914x.bandcamp.com/album/viribus-unitis
8 / 10
ROBBY PERRY
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