SLIFT’s ‘ILION’ is a towering work of rock music, a steamrolling record that starts at the highest peak and never lets up. If that sounds overwhelming, trust that this Toulouse trio have you in good hands. Their third full-length feels massive and oceanic, merging the furious intensity of metal and the wigged-out guitar heroics of psych rock with post-rock’s epic sense of scale. ‘ILION’ is the kind of music where you listen to it and think to yourself, “This came from only three people?” It sure did, and SLIFT’s utter ferocity is way more than a tempest in a teacup. It reaches outwards for miles and creates new zeniths within unforeseen horizons of rock. SLIFT is made up of brothers Jean and Remí Fossat and Canek Flores, who first met the brothers Fossat at school. After the band formed in 2016, they quickly made their 2017 debut EP, ‘Space Is the Key’, which merged stoner rock’s heaviness with the sugar-rush qualities of garage rock. From there, things only got weirder: The trio experimented with faster tempos and bongos on the following year’s full-length, ‘La Planeté Inexploreé’ and, in 2019, their KEXP session recorded at the Trans Musicales festival in Rennes became a viral sensation, racking up more than 1.4 million YouTube views. ‘UMMON’ from 2020 represented SLIFT’s pivot towards the celestially crushing confines of psych-metal, marked by Remí’s rolling basslines and Flores’s relentless skin-pounding. But nothing in their catalogue could prepare you for ‘ILION’, a huge and melodically dense record that at once recalls Godspeed! You Black Emperor’s perpetually uplifting surge, the passionate burn of post-hardcore legends …And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead, Led Zeppelin’s psychotic blues-rock mysticism, and the psychedelic swirl of Swedish greats Goat. But reducing ‘ILION’ to a list of reference points would be missing the point – specifically, that you have to sit down and experience this thing and let it take over your ear space. Over eight tracks and 75+ minutes, SLIFT unleash the fury with walls of guitar and multi-part song structures that make you feel as if you’re being taken on a true journey – from the pure oblivion of ‘ILION’’s title track and the abandon of centrepiece ‘Weavers’ Weft’ to the intense climax of the epic ‘The Story That Has Never Been Told’. But what is this journey? Joseph Campbell would be proud of the thematic path laid out before the listeners on ‘ILION’, which is named after the Ancient Greek word for the city of Troy and, conceptually speaking, picks up where ‘UMMON’ left off. The band explain: “Where the two records differ is that ‘ILION’ is about human emotions and feelings, whereas ‘UMMON’ was telling an epic story with a distant view. ‘ILION’ represents the fall of humanity and the rebirth of all things in time and space.” Heavy shit, to be sure – but fear not, because you don’t need a 12-sided dice and a copy of ‘The Odyssey’ to get what SLIFT dish out on ‘ILION’. All you need are two ears, an open mind, and the willingness to be truly blown away.

Double LP in gatefold jacket with custom dust sleeves.