Admitted. The RMR crew heard the name of this act mentioned on some occasions. Unsurprisingly so, as some of the RMR crew practically sit atop Impure Wilhelmina‘s main location. Not that the folks around Michael Schindl have an inkling of this. And besides, our bunch here changes location often, so one day this is true and the next no more. And that’s a good thing, by the way. After all, discretion is the iron rule in this business. Fraternization, in contrast, is poison to good anonymous review-smithing, that kind of thing. It’s not all that stringent, of course, but you get our general line of thought.
But the fact is, the RMR review desk never got as far as to look at one of IW‘s eclectic pieces to date. And this despite all the almost abject fanboyism that trickled down from albums such as Antidote. But this time, we’re not here to bitch about the past but to take on the band’s brand-new full-length called Le sanglot.1 And it will be a fresh, unencumbered look by one who’s never been there before.
It’s yet again one of those records. At first, Le sanglot felt like something stuck to the sole of your shoe.2 A record full of French-speaking voices wailing about shit and sounding like some weak-tea copy of something that Laurent Pagny3 never became. So, rewind and refresh. This cannot be it, right?
And sure enough, once Le sanglot was forcibly subjected to its second listening session on a different set of gear, things changed. This installment of Impure Wilhelmina does still have that scent of the infamous French chansonnier all about them. But that is not necessarily a bad thing, if backed up by some rocky power behind the scenes. This sentiment is mainly brought about by Schindl‘s somewhat hypnotic, mainly clear voice musings that sit athwart a sublimely suave production. One that’s almost annoyingly smooth, with a relatively warm master atop a neatly arranged mix that won’t lose any element anywhere on the record. That said, the guitars, the drums, the bass, all deliver a meaty background that whispers of a more powerful savoir-faire at work than is visible at first sight.
In other words, the record gets you a mix that sounds like an unplugged Gojira piece, combined with whatever Alcest is doing in dark corners when nobody’s looking. Le sanglot throws a potpourri of post-metal, post-rock, Alternative and Gothic Rock at you. And all of that convoluted jazz comes with a side dish of prog, and often poignant melancholy, and – yes – some true Black Metal excursion.
And indeed so. Once you hit the sublime Train Mort4 / Frelon Ivre5 combo, Impure Wilhelmina will show you their pointed teeth. This is yet again a very Alcest-y way to express some truly blackened vibes and to lob metal shards at the audience. Garnished with some weird sort of metal rasp, no less. And delivered by a band that, on its grey-in-grey photo, looks like a bunch of aging bookkeepers who erred into metal country. Or something. But there’s more. Abîme sports some greyed-out melancholic progression. A trait that can be observed throughout the record. When, a bit later, Blanche Réalité will suddenly try to impress with a bout of dissonance in a sea of more suavish suaveness.
Ultimately though, the RMR crew was fascinated by Le sanglot. Suppressed seething anger meets a sophisticated and almost debonair set of mid-tempo, slightly melancholic tracks. The current crop of songs even sports an unplugged piece called Demain J’Abandonne, something that could have emerged from an earlier impersonation of Francis Cabrel. Thus, in the end, we’re glad that we didn’t abandon this record. Instead, it turned into a revelation that will continue to play on our music machine for a while.
Cool record.
Record Rating: 7/10 | Label: Season of Mist | Web: Official Band Site
Release Date: 22 May 2026
- The sob! Let’s take advantage of the easiest translation idea.-↩
- It’s not what you think! Try chewing gum. Oops, I lied. It is exactly what you think. Hahaha!-↩
- A French songwriter. A very good French songwriter, albeit not the freshest stallion in this particular stable anymore.-↩
- Dead train in English.-↩
- Drunken hornet in English. By Loki, stop smoking weed when you write songs, will ya? -Ed.-↩