Here, in fact, we may be in the presence of one of the most necessary of all Devils: the Ecumenical Unifier, champion of all efforts to remove invidious distinctions between nature and nurture, body and spirit, interdiction and impulse, time and eternity, individual and community, male and female, Hell and Heaven – and ultimately, of course, between man and God.

With their appearance on the Crushing the Holy Trinity compilation (2005), Poland’s Mgla established themselves as one of the most interesting bands around. Seven years later they are at the forefront of music. Groza was the best black metal album of 2008, and With Hearts Toward None has been on almost constant repeat in my world since its’ release seven months ago.

I’ll be in Berlin on October 10th at the Fog Over Berlin fest featuring Mgla, Furia, Blaze of Perdition and Mordhell – the Polish invasion of Germany! A revaluation of values, sort of.

And as the light embraces the wanderer,
as knees bend, as thought is obliterated,
with the very moment that resistance has ceased,
now, I am become death, the enemy of man.

Let the children drink freely
from these rivers of grace
And let there come the rain,
let there come the rain
And may it wash away the scum, the cunts, the dogs, the filth, the shit, the whores, the junk, the trash, the worms, the freaks, the rot, the plague, the grime, the smut, the waste, the pigs, the slime, the mud, the vermin of every shape and size…

No golden thrones to follow
No shrines of solace to be found
And only the locusts shall sing
at the end of the day