Mgła (; en, "Fog") is a Polish

black metal Black metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include fast tempos, a shrieking vocal style, heavily distorted guitars played with tremolo picking, raw (lo-fi) recording, unconventional song structures, and an emp ...

band from

Kraków Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 ...

, formed in 2000. The duo consists of vocalist, guitarist and bassist M. (Mikołaj Żentara) and drummer Darkside (Maciej Kowalski). The band has released four albums and began performing live in 2012, featuring a touring guitarist and bassist.

History

Initially founded as a studio project in 2000 in

by vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Mikołaj "M." Żentara with the collaboration of drummer Dariusz "Daren" Piper, both originally from the band Kriegsmaschine. Together, the duo recorded two unreleased demos, their first 2 EPs and a split album ''Crushing the Holy Trinity'' with the bands

Deathspell Omega Deathspell Omega is a French black metal band formed in 1998 in Poitiers. Their lyrical content deals primarily with Satanism on a metaphysical level – as the band has stated that "all other interpretations of Satan are intellectually invali ...

Clandestine Blaze Clandestine Blaze is a one-man black metal band formed by Mikko Aspa in Lahti, Finland in 1998. Aspa cites Darkthrone, Burzum, Beherit, and Bathory (band), Bathory as key influences. Aspa is also currently involved in many other projects, such as ...

, Exordium and Musta Surma. Daren left the band in 2006 and was replaced by Maciej "Darkside" Kowalski. The band signed to Northern Heritage Records in 2008 and released their debut album ''Groza'' in that same year. Mgła has been signed to Northern Heritage ever since. In 2012, after the release of their second album ''With Hearts Toward None,'' the band played its first concerts. Mgła's first live lineup included guitarist Silencer from the band Medico Peste and bassist The Fall. According to M., the live lineup rehearsed for over a year before hitting the road. In 2015, Silencer left the live band and was replaced by E.V.T., also from Medico Peste. Mgła's third album ''Exercises in Futility'' was released in 2015 as well, and the band embarked on their inaugural North American tour; its first show in the United States was on 6 November in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

Saint Vitus Vitus (), whose name is sometimes rendered Guy or Guido, was a Christian martyr from Sicily. His surviving hagiography is pure legend. The dates of his actual life are unknown.Basil Watkins, ''The Book of Saints: A Comprehensive Biographical ...

. That year, M. and Darkside created the No Solace label, named after Żentara's music studio, which releases music from Mgła, Kriegsmaschine and other projects. In 2015 and 2016, the duo served as the backing band for several shows of the one-man black metal project Clandestine Blaze. Mgła's scheduled April 2019 shows in Munich and Berlin were abruptly cancelled after the German Antifa group Linkes Bündnis gegen Antisemitismus München (English: Left Alliance Against Anti-Semitism Munich) launched a campaign criticising Mgła for releasing albums on Northern Heritage, a label which also sells

National Socialist black metal National Socialist black metal, also known as NSBM, Aryan black metal, and Neo-Nazi black metal, is a political movement and subgenre within the black metal music scene that promotes neo-Nazism, Fascism, and white supremacist ideologies. NSBM ...

material, and also for Żentara's solo

power electronics Power electronics is the application of electronics to the control and conversion of electric power. The first high-power electronic devices were made using mercury-arc valves. In modern systems, the conversion is performed with semiconducto ...

project Leichenhalle, whose 2000 album ''Judenfrei'' translates to "Free of Jews" in English. Mgła referred to the "smear campaign" as "false accusations of political nature", and announced a decision to take legal action for defamation. On 3 August 2019, the band revealed their fourth album's title, ''Age of Excuse'', and released the lead single "Age of Excuse II". The album came out on 2 September. Mgła's first Latin America tour was cut short in March 2020 after seven shows because of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

. The band resumed touring in late 2021. After playing 80 shows in 30 countries throughout 2022, Mgła announced in December that live concerts would be placed "on hold" in order for the band to focus on entering the studio.

Members

;Current * M. (Mikołaj Żentara) – lead vocals, rhythm guitar, bass (studio only), lead guitar (studio only) (2000–present) * Darkside (Maciej Kowalski) – drums, percussion (2006–present) ;Former * Daren (Dariusz Piper) – drums, percussion (2000–2006)

Live musicians

;Current * The Fall (Michał "ShellShocked" Stępień) – bass, backing vocals (2012–present) * E.V.T. (Piotr Dziemski) – lead guitar, backing vocals (2015–present) ;Former * Silencer/Lazarus – lead guitar, backing vocals (2012–2015)

Discography

Studio albums

* ''Groza'' (2008) * ''With Hearts Toward None'' (2012) * '' Exercises in Futility'' (2015) * ''Age of Excuse'' (2019)

EPs

* ''Presence'' (2006) * ''Mdłości'' (2006) * ''Further Down the Nest'' (2007)

Compilation albums

* ''Mdłości + Further Down the Nest'' (2007) * ''Presence / Power and Will'' (2013)

Split albums

* ''Crushing the Holy Trinity'' (2005) with

, Stabat Mater, Musta Surma,

, Exordium

Unreleased demos

* ''Northwards'' (2000) * ''Necrotic'' (2001)

References

External links

*
Mgła on MySpaceMgła on BandcampMgła on YouTube
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mgla Polish black metal musical groups Musical groups established in 2000 Musicians from Kraków 2000 establishments in Poland Heavy metal duos Polish heavy metal musical groups Black metal controversies