genres: blackened symphonic death metal
Their music can speak for itself, but there may not be a band more important in modern metal than 1914, so I’m going to talk about themes and lyrics first today. There’s tons of bands in the scene glorifying war and nationalistic heroes, often to uncomfortable degrees. This band also sings about war. But it doesn’t glorify it, instead they want us to remember that wars don’t just make national legends. Wars are ugly, grotesque events that rip apart the bodies, minds, and souls of those who fight them, and as the band focuses on here, that’s true even for those who somehow survive. The band digs incredibly deep into the history to viscerally tell real stories of those who fought (and often died) in the first World War, often through quite poignant lyricism. Take this excerpt from the sweeping album climax “The Green Fields of France”:
The sun now it shines on the green fields of France
There’s a warm summer breeze that makes the red poppies dance
And look how the sun shines from under the clouds
There’s no gas, no barbed wire, there’s no guns firing now
But here in this graveyard it’s still No Man’s Land
The countless white crosses stand mute in the sand
To man’s blind indifference to his fellow man
To a whole generation that were butchered and damned
Ah young Willie McBride, I can’t help wonder why
Do those that lie here know why did they die?
And did they believe when the answered the cause
Did they really believe that this war would end wars?
Well the sorrow, the suffering, the glory, the pain
The killing and dying, were all done in vain
For young Willie McBride, it all happened again
And again, and again, and again, and again
While the lyrics are the true selling point of this album, the band has also put together their most compelling musical performance to date. Their previous album, The Blind Leading The Blind, was a brilliantly haunting death metal album with blackened tones. It’s a sound that has been done many times before, but there’s a certain level of control 1914 brings to the table that’s often lacking. This is blackened death metal not concerned with sounding chaotic or evil, but instead bluntly soundtracking the very real suffering of war. Where Fear And Weapons Meet takes it up another notch. Every track is drenched in chilling strings and horns for an absolutely massive orchestral sound to complement the blackened death backbone, which is often slowed to an almost doom-like crawl. It’s absolutely enthralling. While there was never any doubt that 1914 would again deliver one of the lyrical highlights of the year, with this release they’ve pushed themselves into the very upper echelons of the extreme metal scene.
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