IMPURE WILHELMINA – Le Sanglot

vote
7.5

• Bands:
  IMPURE WILHELMINA
• Duration: 00:50:28
• Available from: 05/22/2026
• Label:

• Season Of Mist

Five years have passed since “Antidote”, Impure Wilhelmina's latest release, well appreciated at the time, even on our pages. Today, spring 2026, the Geneva quartet returns with their eighth long-distance album, which also coincides with the thirtieth anniversary of the foundation of the group, now ripe to be easily branded as one of the most underrated realities of the Swiss Confederation and beyond.
“Le Sanglot” – which in French can be translated as both 'the crying' and 'the sobbing' – uncorks the champagne of three decades for Michael Schindl and co-workers by presenting yet another valid album that straddles genres: a lot of alternative metal as a base, on which then undulating digressions are grafted, ranging from progressive to post-metal, from dark to post-rock, from atmospheric metal to a pinch of shoegaze found in some decidedly characteristic atmospheres (the song “Abîme” is an excellent example).

Having taken note of the entry of the new guitarist Edouard Nicod, who together with the drummer Mario Togni and the bassist Sébastien Dutruel completes the ranks in very close contact with the leader, singer and guitarist Schindl, “Le Sanglot” has, right from its main and most 'visible' notes, some very precise peculiarities: it is the first work of the band sung entirely in the mother tongue, namely French, a language which greatly benefits the innate musicality that Impure Wilhelmina instill in their new compositions; there is an almost total return to the clean voice alone, a decisive point in the old “Black Honey” and “Radiation”, in the penultimate “Antidote” instead used 50% with a more aggressive and extreme singing, the latter vocality used in “Le Sanglot” only in the piece “Train Mort”, in fact the darkest and most sinister of the lot, between disturbing references and more complex passages. Furthermore, the album is relatively shorter and leaner than the average of Impure Wilhelmina's works, which, although often appreciable in their entirety, have rarely been able to enjoy the gift of synthesis; a well-finished and perfect production for the hybrid sound of the Genevan band seems to be the icing on the cake for a compendium of songs with few weak points, especially if you are comfortable with a relaxed, attentive and non-frantic approach to the enjoyment of music.

“Le Sanglot” is to be enjoyed calmly and silently, in peace, discovering the refined arrangements and the multiple melodies that emerge at every passage. And where the two trailblazing singles, the opener “Électricité Noire” and “Blanche Réalité”, fail to touch our most emotional chords, despite the marked catchiness of both, here in their place come to the rescue the two true masterpieces of this album, namely “Larmes De Joie” – with few doubts, the most beautiful and convincing song ever written by the Swiss group (dissonant riffing that is to be licked the moustache, vocal lines and supporting solos no less) – and “Frelon Ivre”, a 'drunk bumblebee' with a powerfully nostalgic and heartbreaking aura, between old Katatonia and new Katatonia.
We could then mention the long acoustic and decadent wave of “Demain J'Abandonne” or even the lively pace of “Cent Mille Plaies”, with its repeated guitar hook that lands in your head in half a second and the excellent combination between the liquid and sly riffing and the ultra-romantic vocal lines. But it is the whole album that inexorably grows with the listening and which has the rare gift of being discovered in small doses, appreciating at each passage some more element to denote the great class inherent in the DNA of Impure Wilhelmina.

We do not consider “Le Sanglot” superior in its entirety to the most recent episodes of the group's discography (hence the rating at the bottom) – some ideas and entire songs are certainly among the best things done by the band, but overall this album does not stand out above the others, which are still very good – but it is clear how the wisdom and maturity of this formation unknown to most can easily overflow over the edge of a glass now full of skill and compositional experience. Go and listen to it and slowly recover our entire career, it certainly won't be a waste of time.