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Rating: The bluish light of the neon headlights of his car flows on the snowy road. Everything is deserted, the forest surrounding the strip of asphalt seems like a gloomy, icy sleeping giant. The frequent hairpin bends force him to brake, and the starry sky is colored for a moment with a bright red.
He hadn't traveled that road for years, he hadn't seen those areas where he was born and raised for years. A place that hasn't changed a bit, a place that still makes him feel trapped. In the cabin, the car radio emits violent, deep sounds. A band from Sweden, with the long name Vi Som Älskade Varandra Så Mycket. A band he doesn’t know, but he likes because it has a style that reminds him of his favorite bands: Envy, Funeral Diner, This Will Destroy You. A glacial screamo soaked with violent and desperate post-rock.
The tall firs covered by a white mantle rise on the sides of the road, as if they were warriors studying the enemy’s moves before attacking. The car climbs further, the tires roll smoothly even on the icy asphalt. The music is powerful, enveloping everything like the snow. "Storm Och Längtan", with its pace first fast, then slow and delicate like the acoustic guitar that softens the singer's screams, brings back emotions that scratch the heart, unsettle the stomach and make him feel warmth in his throat. He grips the steering wheel tightly, his knuckles whitening. Anger, resentment, sadness. Every time he goes back up there, to that godforsaken village, those sensations that usually hide in a recess of his soul come back stronger than ever.
"Vi Går Och Går Och Går Sönder" is a heavy and sublime song with icy sounds, making the walls of the heart crumble, even if they seemed indestructible. Mother, he thinks, why did you decide to leave just now? Why did you force me to come back here, where it all began and from where I ran away? As he drives, he mentally retraces those dark moments that were starting to seem far away. Listening to the music from the Swedish band is like re-watching the home movies of one’s youth, of those family moments when he believed that sadness and loneliness would never come.
The ghostly piano introducing the epic "Ett Hjärtats Svedjebruk" is like a punch straight to the stomach. He had run away from there, left everything behind to build a new life, to let the outside world free him from that pain. He had run away because he was afraid. Afraid she would leave, and he’d be left alone. Now that it has really happened, he is left alone. Tears well up in his red eyes, but he pushes them back and presses the gas pedal just as the guitars in the song become urgent, very fast.
And then there they are. The first houses of his hometown. Houses that appear like old centenarians, intent on watching the few people who pass along that lonely road. He slows down, and from the fogged-up window, he stares at that silent landscape. The frozen fountain, the little square with the statue of a saint, the bell tower still proudly emerging from the smoky chimneys. "Alfa Och Omega" is a perfect piece to musically describe the images he sees through the window. Calm and gentle in appearance, but at its best, it shows cries of rage and frustration.
He parks beside the sidewalk, turns off the engine but leaves the music on for another moment. He takes a deep breath, enjoying the wall of guitars in the shocking "Vi Som Försvann", which the five Swedes play masterfully proving themselves one of the best European bands of recent times. A tumult of sensations, a river of emotions that melt the ice out there, outside the car, suffocating everything. He now trembles, cries silently, and the tears drip from his chin. He cries, venting by punching the cold steering wheel. How will I manage now without you? How will I manage now without anyone who loves me? Come back to me, come back to me.
The album by Vi Som Älskade Varandra Så Mycket (translatable into Italian as "C'eravamo tanto amati") holds eight masterpieces. Eight perfect tracks, that scream anger, spit energy, vomit beauty. A magnificent record, a sublime sound that clings to the walls of the heart never to leave. I'm not alone, he thinks looking at the now silent car radio. With me, there is always music, the only thing that can save me from the endless, black void that is life.
He takes a deep breath, opens the door. He puts on gloves and a hat, his breath creates white and impalpable clouds. He sets off on the path to his old house, trampling the crunching snow. I came to say goodbye for the last time, mother, he thinks with a sad smile. I came to say goodbye.
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