Mental Torment is a Doom Metal band formed in Kyiv, Ukraine in 2009. We play melodic and atmospheric doom metal with various influences, and have wide concert experience. The band took part in Doom Over Kyiv festival and played with such bands as Saturnus, Mournful Gust, Autumnia.

BAND LINE-UP:
Roman Kostiuchenko — Vocals
Mykhailo Chuha — Guitars
Maria Vynohradska — Guitars
Andrii Potemkin — Bass
Artur Myrvoda — Drums

Biography

In such a set of musicians (without a vocalist), the band, while free from the daily life routine, was rehearsing during nights for their own pleasure. Drinking alcohol and playing the stringy riffs of the funeral.

Something more difficult was not allowed by the experience and the level of the instrument. It didn't seem enough, and soon Mad (Vocals) joined the band. But a sudden quarrel destroyed the band.

In February of 2009, Mykhailo met Anatolii in Kyiv, when looked to buy his first electric guitar. Anatolii was selling his blue Ibanez on some local rock forum. After that meeting, they stayed in touch, and when Mykhailo moved to Kyiv to start his studies at the university, Anatolii offered him to join the band. Yaroslav was Mykhailo’s friend and joined the band after his recommendation. And the first rehearsal at Anatolii’s apartments was held. The band was rehearsing existing material and tried to develop sync and music feeling, as mostly all members were beginners. The band needed a drummer, and searches started. Young drummer Bohdan contacted Anatolii and GAW, from early Mental Torment years joined the band as a bassist. During that period Mac joined the Band as a second keyboardist.

With this set of members, Mental Torment played their first gig in Kyiv music club “Prime”(which is closed now). Also, the Вand took part in Doom Over Kyiv 4 festival in 2011 with such giants as Saturnus and Autumnia. During that era, Mental Torment was a mostly funeral-oriented band, as this was the initial idea from early years.

After such a good start, due to personal reasons, Bohdan left the band and new searches started. Mykhailo and Yaroslav contacted Andrii, one of their old school friends. And after a short conversation, he also joined the band as a drummer.

And these were people who stand for “On The Verge”. During 2011-2013 the Band played a lot of shows and extended their listeners base. Mental Torment played in different cities, like Kyiv, Kharkiv, Kryvyi Rih, Dnipro. Each performance was warmly received by the audience and this was a great moment to start Album recording. During that period a variety of music genres, which Mental Torment is covered, were slightly increased. A lot of Death and Gothic Doom along with Post Rock vibes appeared in the sound. And during the recording Mental Torment did the best to combine it within one whole story. After the recording was ended - Mental Torment was signed with Solitude Prod label and Album was released on 21/01/2013.

Before release, Mac decided also to take into band management activities and did a huge job to organize additional shows. Along with that, he also worked as a light operator on Mental Torment shows and increased the whole entertainment and quality of the shows. Same time, Atrius replaced GAW, who wanted to spend more time with his family. Then, with the support of Vladimir Barykin(Metallurg Music), the band prepared to tour for supporting Album through Ukraine and nearby countries along with the Letargia band.

Unfortunately, due to internal disagreement, Yaroslav left Mental Torment, and after the tour was finished - Mykhailo also left the band due to an increased amount of criticism from band members about his composing approach. He started his own blackened-doom metal project with his friend vocalist Nataliia. But after a couple of years, after his last show in 2015 - stopped doing any music activities due to overall burnout and just sold all the music staff the same day as the last show was.

Mental Torment took a small pause after that. Stanislav joined the band as a session guitar player, and Leo joined as Keyboard. A couple of local shows were played.

One last show with “On The Verge” members was done in 2015 within a Charity Gig organized by Mykhailo to support Military Medics.

Same time, Andrii got disillusioned with the drummer role. Wearing the staff the most, a sound checking the longest, collecting and sorting the drum staff before and after the show, the terrible condition of the drum kits motivated him to try out the bass player role. Just at that moment, Andrii's friends' band were looking for a replacement for their bass player, and everything went perfectly in his head, the two groups would not interfere with each other in any way. Andrii was offered to play there, but band members did not approve of this fact and Andrii left the band and joined another project as a bass player.

And then Mental Torment went to the bottom till 2020…

Same time, in 2019 Mykhailo decided to return to music and mixing engineering. After a year of improving guitar skills and some random jams with Yaroslav, they decided to ask other members to re-union. Of course, everyone was glad and a new page of Mental Torment history started.

During the first half of 2020, new songs were composed, and some old drafts were transformed into whole songs. At the end of 2020 Mad left the Band due to personal reasons, but fortunately, Andrii's, Mykhailo's, and Yaroslav's old school friend were offered to try out a new role. And then, Roman Sagajdachnyj became a new Mental Torment singer. Within one month all lyrics were written for each song, along with whole album art(because Roman also is a talented Tattoo Artist).

And finally, Mykhailo’s colleague Arthur joined Mental Torment as a drummer and just in one month learned all tracks and now Mental Torment is ready for live gigs.At the beginning of 2021, Mykhailo was endorsed by Avaks Custom Guitars(a Ukrainian hi-end guitars company) and did whole guitar tracking using his Avaks SE7EN Custom guitar. Later, in May of 2021 whole new Album recording was done. Most of the recording and mixing was performed in Mykhailo’s home studio by himself. During the recording session, Andrii visited Ukraine and tracked whole bass parts just in a couple of days.

And in June of 2021 Mental Torment via Metallurg Music announced the 2nd Album "ego:genesis" which will be released on 29.09.2021 on all digital platforms. The album will include 7 tracks and covers the catharsis that a person goes through in a moment of despair and hopelessness, searching for answers to eternal questions, resisting the inevitable and final acceptance of their fate. The album will bring a fresh view of the traditional Doom Metal genre. From acoustic ballads and funeral vibes to sludgy and modern progressive music.

On February 24 2022 russia started a war-invasion to Ukraine. During 2022-2023 band played a few charity shows to support the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

At the end of 2023 Roman Sagajdachnyj left the band and Roman Kostiuchenko joined Mental Torment. He brought new ideas and vocal approaches which quickly were used within new material.

In spring 2024 Anatolii left the band. But quickly Maria Vynohradska joined Mental Torment, and the band went into the studio. And the new Album “Dead Shot Revival” was recorded and Released same year, in October. This release is special, because musically it continues “ego:genesis”, but conceptually it covers Ukrainian history of the XX century. And this is the first release, recorded in Ukrainian language.