Impure Wilhelmina Breathe New Life Into the Classics

IMPURE WILHELMINA pull from a wide range of influences.

For 25 years now, the Geneva quarter have rolled hardcore riffs, velveteen cleans, atmospheric sludge and gloomy melodies into post-metal that’s as sharp and versatile as a Swiss Army Knife. No wonder they’ve earned comparisons to KEN Mode, Paradise Lost and The Smiths.

Even the band’s new EP casts a wide net. ‘Dead Decades’ includes covers of King Crimson, The Cure and Serge Gainsbourg. Head over to the Season of Mist YouTube channel and watch as Impure Wilhelmina flip the smoky, after-dark romance of “La Javanaise” into a lovestruck indie rock triumph.

“As soon as we thought about doing covers, this song came to mind”, the band says. “Serge Gainsbourg, one of the major figures of twentieth-century French music, has been around us for a very long time, even if his musical universe is far removed from our own. ‘La Javanaise’ is one of his greatest (and least subversive) classics, published in 1963. This heavy cover of a song written before metal even existed contrasts with the light-hearted romanticism of the lyrics. It fits perfectly with the spirit of Impure Wilhelmina. For the video, we used archive footage of Paris in the 1960s to match the atmosphere. The whole thing was beautifully edited by Guilherme Henriques and the result is stunning!”

Along with the three covers, the new EP also includes two unreleased cuts from their recent album ‘Antidote’.

‘Dead Decades’ comes out on October 6, 2023. Pre-order it HERE.

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