There has been a lot of fuss lately with the release of the third full-length of Ukrainian black/death/doom metallers 1914. They were founded in 2014, exactly 100 years after the beginning of the First World War and of course their lyrics, their costumes and nicknames are inspired exclusively by this period, taking the listener who reads the lyrics to real battles and events.

“Where Fear And Weapons Meet” is an album for which it is obvious that the band worked a lot for it. It starts and ends with “War In” and “War Out”, titles that we find in both of their previous works and are authentic recordings of songs of that time. The metal attack also calms down in the middle of the album, where their fellow countrymen Sasha Boole performs a short acoustic folk song while they secured a very strong name for guest, that of Nick Holmes (Paradise Lost, Bloodbath).

In the rest of the album we hear a band using elements from black, death and doom metal to dress up the lyrics about war. For example, we will listen to fast blackened death songs, we will listen to pure doom compositions or a combination of these two with the general work on the guitars not going unnoticed at all. In all of this there are some amazing symphonic elements that make the result even more epic, battle sounds, and even speeches that seem to be coming out of a radio. As I said before, the work they have done and the attention to detail is admirable.

Of course, although I have heard the album several times, there is something that I can say that doesn’t agree with me. And this is its duration, which exceeds one hour with four tracks lasting between seven or eight minutes and one reaching eleven. But I would not say they are overloaded with unnecessary elements since 1914 took advantage of every minute they have recorded. But from one point onwards I get a little tired and I would prefer them shorter.

This of course has to do with my own preferences, which does not change what I write above. 1914 deservedly signed to such a big label as Napalm for their third album, since from beginning to end it shows how much they have worked to present the final result. I believe that it is one of the most important and impressive records in extreme metal this year and I am very curious about what else they will present to us in the future.