Band’s History
The band was formed in the spring of 2010 in the picturesque ancient city of Lviv, the cultural capital of Ukraine. The original line-up of the band included four members only – Yulian Mytsyk – founder of the band (vocals, guitars, bass), Andriy Kopylchak (drums, percussion), Oleksandr Yaremchuk (guitar), and Oleh Biblyi (keyboard). At the time Yulian was into making unique musical instruments from the poisonous plant called ‘hogweed’ and he couldn’t help but he was psyched about incorporating these enormous 3-metre long pipes into the activities of the newly-formed band.
The fellowship made the decision not to follow the usual well-worn path of vast majority of the bands, which play a mixture of folk, rock and metal, and search for their own unique sounding and look instead. VITER was chosen as the name of the band (‘viter’ stands for ‘wind’ in the Ukrainian language), a perfect symbol for breaking all the boundaries and limits.
The band soon recorded a four-song demo entitled ‘Dzherelo’. At the time the band’s style would best be described as folk metal greatly influenced by gothics, post-rock, industrial and hogweed. The EP was released by an independent Russian label, Casus Belli Musica, and received great listener support. The band soon presented self-shot music video for the title track ‘Dzherelo’. Photos reveal the band members with long epic hogweed pipes, shaking the listeners’ imagination and the birds around.
The ambience used on this release is breathtaking, and the music on the release is often soothing, with exception to the faster paced “Krov Tikae” outside of it’s ambient moments. Dzherelo winds up being a very impressive debut for this band, showing some great musical talent for the Folk field, both with the overall presentation, and Viter’s ability to write solid Folk Metal tracks, as well as a release that is worth going out of your way to experience if you’re a fan of this style. – Apoch’s Metal Review, 2010
Inspired by the success, the band, with a slightly different line-up, recorded a mini-album ‘Diva Ruzha’ together with the Kings & Beggars medieval music ensemble. The disc presented joint and solo tracks of both bands, as well as a controversial and a bit insane version of the Ukrainian folk song ‘Chycheri’ performed by VITER, which undoubtedly laid the foundation for the band’s current style – FOLK ’N’ DUSTRIAL. The CD was released in 2011 featuring a cover painting done by the master of taboo themes, Yuriy Koval. The song was used as background music on a Ukrainian slot game that is available in selected online casinos. The game has an enormous progressive jackpot for which you can read more at ExistingPlayerBonus.com which attracts many players who seek excitement and an opportunity to win life-changing money.
At the time the band’s line-up finally became stable and remains like that up till today: Yulian Mytsyk – lead vocals, folk instruments, Sviatoslav Adept – guitar, backing vocals, folk instruments, Volodymyr Derecha – guitar, Oleksandr Ignatov – keyboard, Bohdan Potopalskyi – bass, backing vocals, Serhiy Krasutsky – drums, backing vocals.
The band, in its current line-up, got down to writing new songs, the recording of which lasted till 2012. During the period VITER crystallized new sounding that incorporated their previous experience along with new musical ideas. The band recorded and sampled traditional Ukrainian instruments (even a chicken was used in one of the tracks), brought their sounding closer to synthesized electronic sounds, introduced industrial noise, electronic instruments and powerful guitar riffs into their music. The new music style was named FOLK ’N’ DUSTRIAL.
The band pays great attention to stage show and makes use of various pyrotechnic and other visual effects. Following the successful debut on the Ukraine’s most powerful rock festival, the GLOBAL EAST ROCK FESTIVAL, in 2011, the band enjoyed an even greater support of the audience. The band’s performance reached its climax point when the enormous horn in the arms of the lead singer erupted with a spectacular two-meter high fountain of sparks.
VITER’s first full-length album consisting of 10 brand new tracks was given the symbolic title ‘Springtime’. The promotional campaign for the band’s CD was launched in the beginning of summer 2012 – as of June, the band has been publishing one or two tracks as Internet-singles on a weekly basis, each one with an original conceptual cover.
And despite the fact the industrial sound is the strongest, but there are surely folk instruments in it. It sounds like an impossible combination but it isn’t, Viter proves it. The CD was realesed single by single over a couple of weeks and this was a great idea. I was often very curious how the next song should sound, because there is a nice variation in the tracks. They fit together, but don’t look like each other. The album is released completely now and it sounds nice. Viter has build out the concept of their previous songs. Maybe some people can’t appreciate the mix of folk en industrial, but I expect there are also a lot of people who like this a lot. – www.folk-metal.nl, 2012
Once the CD was recorded, the band produced a video for the ‘For the Fire’ song of the ‘Springtime’ album. The video was mostly shot in Lviv, in the ancient Sapieha Palace, built back in 1867, which was specially rented for the purpose. The video will be presented on the official VITER website in July 2012 soon after the release of the album. The video was directed by Oleksandr Kulyk, who is already well-known for working with Ukrainian rock and pop bands.