The world which is becoming more pretentious day by day particularly in music where one pretends to like a band simply because other “trve kvlt” people liked it or vice versa without even giving it a proper spin, the consequences bound to end up disastrously if this trend continues in near future. The quality of music, if we focus particularly on black metal, can not be measured regarding whether the graph has gone up or down because practically it’s impossible to listen to all the black metal bands over the world and then compressing the whole for judging but theoretically may be. So from this ever expanding industry, Mgła, hailing from Poland, is one of those bands who write music that they hold closer to the heart and in doing so not straying away a bit. Read the full review after the jump!
Since Mgła’s proper inception in the year 2005, the duo- M. and Darkside- have managed to find an unique black metal sound on which they rely heavily now. You can say almost none of the bands are blessed with a perfect discography but Mgła may be destined to change it. With a couple of promising EP Mdlosci and Further Down The Nest building up perfectly for the release of monumental Groza, the cult underground following has been blessed with a signature sound which continues on the latest offering With Hearts Toward None. While staying with the concept of naming the tracks with roman numbers than titles, the songs became somewhat shorter than those in Groza although it contains an eight and ten minutes long songs. You may argue about the fact that they sacrificed the room for creating variations within the songs by making those touch shorter but if you look closely to the length of both of the albums, Groza runs just over 36 minutes and With Hearts Toward None runs around 45 minutes.
I’m not going to indulge into too much comparisons here but both the albums have some top notch compositions buried within. It’s amazing how two men can create such sound- M. handling all the vocals, guitars, bass and Darkside handling the drums. The shifting and progression of the riffs remind of early Darkthrone, the melodic lead works perfectly complement the crepuscular rhythm guitar along with jarring vocal lines. The riffing in the track “II” is more akin to let’s say Inquisition style and “III” has a definite vibe to it, other songs such as “I” and “IV” all being very memorable and “III” and “V” are catchy and noteworthy for the lead implementation. The variable drumming is good as usual but note that the bass in With Hearts Toward None is not as audible in Groza which may or may not be intentional but can be overlooked given the overall flow to the album.
The old fans of Mgła who have been anticipating the new album since its announcement on Northern Heritage will certainly not be disappointed by any stretch of imagination and Mgła continues to hail the sound that they developed over the years. This record will fetch them many new fans and they deserve all the success. Don’t get turned off by the full fledged corpse paint and all black leather clothings by thinking it’s another one of those average black metal bands; it’s the heritage which Mgła cultivates and follows the prophecy of sticking to the proven methods. Highly recommended.
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