Music / Mgła

No solace.

"The great truth is there isn't one."

Mgła (Polish for "fog") are a Polish Black Metal band. The band were founded in 2000 by vocalist and guitarist M, and for the first few years of its existence it was purely a studio project, with M performing vocals, guitar, and bass and Daren handling the drums. During this time the project released a few demos and EPs, including an appearance on the Crushing the Holy Trinity split with Deathspell Omega, among various other bands. In 2006, Daren left and Darkside replaced him behind the drum kit, and soon after the band released its first full length album, Groza, to positive reception. Their real breakthrough came in 2012 with the release of their second album, With Hearts Towards None, which saw the band move in a slightly more accessible direction, featuring cleaner production and a much more melodic sound. In 2015 they released their third record, Exercises in Futility, again to widespread critical acclaim.

The band members:

• M - Vocals, guitars
• Darkside - Drums
• The Fall - Bass, vocals (Live)
• E.V.T - Lead guitars (Live)

Past members:

• Silencer - Guitars (Live)
• Daren - Drums

Discography:

• Crushing the Holy Trinity (Split, 2005)
• Presence (EP, 2006)
• Mdłości (EP, 2006)
• Further Down the Nest (EP, 2007)
• Groza (2008)
• With Hearts Towards None (2012)
• Exercises in Futility (2015)
• Age of Excuse (2019)

Tropes:

• Anonymous Band: Only natural for a black metal band, though not quite to the same degree as some of their contemporaries, as they regularly perform live and have given some interviews. They also do soundchecks unhooded, so everyone at the show can see what they look like.
• Cover Drop: At the end of Exercises in Futility I
  "There is something about the rigid posture of a proper, authentic blind
  As if extended arms reached to pass his blindness onto others"
• Crapsack World: They take a very Arthur Schopenhauer view of the world and humanity, believing all human endeavors to be ultimately transient and futile and the universe to be indifferent and corrupt.
• Darker and Edgier: Kriegsmaschine, another project of M and Darkside is this to Mgła.
• Deliberately Monochrome: All of their album covers, as well as some of their band photos.
• Epic Rocking: Many of their tracks qualify. The longest one so far is "Groza I", at 11:21.
• Harsh Vocals: Quite intelligible ones for the most part, actually.
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: None of their individual songs have titles. Instead, each song simply has the name of whichever album it's from and then its number in the track listing (e.g, "Exercises in Futility I").
• In the Hood: They always cover their faces with hoods when performing live.
• Lyrical Dissonance: On their later albums, the music tends to be very stirring and melodic, despite the bleakness of the lyrics.
• Nightmare Face: Groza, which features a screaming face in a black void.
• Purple Prose: Their lyrics tend to be very verbose, reading a bit like a less theological Deathspell Omega at times.
• Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Again, their lyrics.
• Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism: As cynical as it gets.
• Spoken Word in Music: "Exercises in Futility VI" and "With Hearts Toward None VII" have some at the very beginning.

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"There is something about the rigid posture of a proper, authentic blind

As if extended arms reached to pass his blindness onto others"