Impure Wilhelmina
Prayers And Arsons

Geneva: the quintessential European city, Swiss at heart and Central European in spirit, set in a narrow strip of land that separates it from France, with one of the highest qualities of life in the world. It's a pity that getting there from Turin by train is a nightmare (you have to make 4-5 changes because it's practically impossible to go directly through the Aosta Valley), but sooner or later I'll go to catch a concert as it should be, but here we're really digressing too much...

The Swiss hardcore scene has always surprised me, inducing me to harbor a love for it that sometimes reaches visceral heights. If the world in recent years has been filled with bands sprouting like mushrooms, all diving headlong into the big post-hardcore/sludge/post-metal/post-anything melting pot, that small piece of land in the heart of Europe, bathed in shimmering lakes and green, inscrutable mountains, has always been a guarantee of quality. I started listening to the complex tapestry of Kehlvin, then moved on to the nihilism akin to Breach of the unforgettable Vancouver, reveled in the notes of Unhold and the sonic tornado of Knut, but if there's one band that's always been in my heart, it's Impure Wilhelmina. I'm sorry, but really, after listening to "Prayers And Arsons", their latest album from 2008, I CANNOT NOT REVIEW IT! I haven't been listening to anything else for days...

Firstly, let's make a few premises: I don't know, and I can't say if this album is or isn't the "masterpiece" of Impure Wilhelmina.
1) I don't know because this extraordinary little disc competes strongly with the previous outbursts of the Genevan combo, particularly "L'Amour, La Mort, L'Enfance Perdu" (which I will review sooner or later...) and "I Can't Believe I Was Born In July" (which, in my humble opinion, boasts one of the most memorable openers of a post-hardcore album, namely "Ground").
2) I can't say it because my judgment would be too subjective, and if the music contained in this album harmoniously resonates with my metalliferous soul, it doesn't mean it is the same for everyone; someone might find them pedantic, complex, and undecided on what to play...

Having made these premises, I move on to the actual review. What do I find so extraordinary about this album? Or rather, let's put it better: what do I particularly love about this band? Difficult to explain in words... Perhaps their being so subtly skewed, their ability to create complex yet direct and immediate structures as many of their colleagues will never be able to do, their skill in composing memorable, weighty, and thoughtful songs. Yes, perhaps. But what I probably love most about these guys is their damn, freaking originality. It might be me not having listened enough (which seems strange as I've been around the scene for quite a while), it might be that I have blinders on when I listen to them, but it really seems to me that their style is different from everything I've heard so far in this "post" metallic HC melting pot. Their way of playing and composing is unique and unmistakable. And it's also quite difficult to describe.

Let's say that when "Continental Breed" started playing, I felt a pang in my heart, and after finishing listening to it, I was already there pressing the button to start the song again. I wanted to listen to it better, to memorize every passage. And that's when I realized that "Prayers And Arsons" is one of those rare albums that, while managing to hit right on target even at the first listen, at the same time, need to be absorbed, listened to attentively, and then replayed until reaching total auditory bliss. "Continental Breed", as we were saying. Tracks as slow and oppressive as those from the previous albums (who mentioned "January"?) have disappeared. Gloom has given way to a shadow of brightness. They are brighter, but perhaps for that reason, more aggressive. I no longer imagine snowy streets and kids playing obsessive music in a rundown rehearsal room; I imagine musicians skateboarding on sunny days (more European than Californian), and large outdoor concerts where people pogo, sweat, LIVE, get cross yet feel kinder because they are happier. This track feeds on a direct riffing based on emotional ups and downs, supported by a drawling voice that tries to be melodic in its romantic desperation. I see a touch of punk cunning much more elegant than usual, guitar strumming that rises up the neck and then whirls back down in a tornado, oh yes, a real tornado of notes that move forward without looking back and can't seem to stop, notes like a train going through a tunnel and then emerging bathed in the sky, and then these notes return to the initial riffing with disarming naturalness, as if the piece had been designed in the traditional song form, as if its complexity were just an "error in the path." Am I being rhetorical and writing nonsense, or is it this music that leads me to write big words and improbable metaphors to describe it somehow?

Impure Wilhelmina play tough and complicated stuff with a unique innocence, as if instead of basking in their inventiveness shouting "look how cool and talented we are!", they are there being carried away by the music and when they finish playing they aren't even aware of what they've accomplished, as if they were high on marijuana and had forgotten everything. And so the piece closes with sustained guitar rounds, now fast now slow and always carried by the tense and vibrant voice of Michael Schindl. You can tell their tracks are thought out and structured with a certain study, yet they play them almost like they're improvising, and I like this too much, oh how I like it!
And then "Hide You Anger, Give Your Mouth" kicks in without warning, as if it were a metal break on Virgin Radio between one news article and another, and drags itself into guitar riffs amid the fury of Converge, the intellectualism of Mastodon, and the somewhat sludge somewhat post-rock psychedelia of numerous bands that surround our ears and which I think are unnecessary to mention. They are like this, sometimes straight to the point, sometimes taking a meditative pause, but always, and I say always, they manage to amaze. They amaze with inspired and thoughtful riffs designed to enter the soul, they surprise with melodic openings always on the edge between two extremes, they stun with wonderfully effective and never banal pieces. I don't even think it's worth mentioning all the tracks because this album is an experience meant to be lived in its entirety.
"Poisons And Blades" begins sweet and calm, perhaps slightly melancholic, but then the wind of distortion rises and the mind is hypnotized before exploding. Hardcore fury but plenty of melody, tracks that literally hypnotize ("The End Within", with its slowness and its march supported by a pounding drum and eccentric guitar), tracks that meditate, tracks that stomp, tracks sometimes a bit whiny (the dragging conclusion "Drift"), tracks that enter and never leave with their chiaroscuros that are a real succession of emotions ("As We Kneel" and the very metallic "Cover Me With Kindness"), but all that (and I'll repeat it to the point of exhaustion) surprise, making you believe something and showing another (like that solemn and almost "piratical" melody of "The Rope", an adjective that seems as ridiculous as it is appropriate to describe the track).
For this reason, it's never clear what the hell they play, because they effortlessly and simply transition from the most dissonant metal to psychedelic meditations, from sweet post-rock to sludgy sludge, from the most immediate alternative rock to the post-hardcore outbursts of a desperate and pulsing metropolitan heart, without forgetting some nice punk and doom splashes. And everything flows without a hitch, without a single drop in tension, never contradicting themselves or betraying their nature. And this is because these guys build their personality by PLAYING, without any preconceived schema. They simply pick up their instruments, and what comes out identifies them as "Impure Wilhelmina." And this is a small feat that few bands are capable of achieving today. 

Say what you want, and if you don't like them, you are even authorized to call me incompetent or ignorant, who cares: but as far as my humble little head is concerned, Impure Wilhelmina are the new rulers of Swiss hardcore. Sincere, passionate, original, and above all, intelligent. An album that is among the most brilliant gems of 2008.