SLIFT’s ILION is a ear bending, skull rattling slice of Rock Music ..... Metal / Post Rock / Stoner/ psych-metal? this really is a unique outfit from Toulouse in France. Thanks to this band also for traversing the complexities of BREXIT to play in the UK next month.
Opening and title track ’Ilion' piles into your senses with an all encompassing soundscape so much so, that you really do need to take a brief interlude, to take it all in. On their third full-length album a new maturity feels to have taken hold in the musicianship and composing of these gigantic opera scale songs.
SLIFT are made up of brothers Jean and Remí Fossat and Canek Flores, who first met the brothers Fossat at school. After the band formally came together in 2016, they quickly made their 2017 debut EP, Space Is the Key, then the following year came the album La Planeté Inexploreé, and in 2019 they recorded a session on KEXP.
Next album 'UMMON' was released in 2020 and saw the band find a wider audience and their footing in their chosen musical genre. Their next KEXP session from 2023 shows how the band had gown with all roads leading to 2024 and the release of 'ILION' and it's pure expansiveness over more than 75 minutes on 2 LPS.
There are quiet moments on the album to reflect before the onslaught to the eardrums returns with a menace that Mogwai would be proud of. The dreamy abandon of centrepiece 'Weavers’ Weft' leads to the intensity of the 12-and-a-half-minute epic “The Story That Has Never Been Told.”
But what is this journey? To hear SLIFT tell it,“This is an album constructed in the manner of a Homeric story,” the band explains. “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.”
This record will blow you away when you are in the mood for something on the heavier side, during your musical listening.
Pete
10/11
UK / Euro Tour Dates
Fri. Feb. 23 - Brighton, UK - Chalk
Sat. Feb. 24 - Manchester, UK - Gorilla
Sun. Feb. 25 - Dublin, IE - Whelan’s
Mon. Feb. 27 - Leeds, UK - Brudenell Social Club
Wed. Feb. 28 - London, UK - Electric Ballroom
Thu. Feb. 29 - Lille, FR - Aéronef
Fri. Mar. 01 - Paris, FR - La Cigale
Sat. Mar. 02 - Saint Malo, FR - Route du Rock Hiver
Wed. Mar. 13 - Toulouse, FR - Bikini
Fri. Mar. 15 - Nantes, FR- Stereolux
Sat. Mar. 16 - Rouen, FR - 106
Mon. Mar. 18 - Bruxelles, FR - Ancienne Belgique
Tue. Mar. 19 - Utrecht, NL - Tivoli Vredenburg
Wed. Mar. 20 - Cologne, DE- Club Volta
Thu. Mar. 21 - Groningen, NL - Vera
Fri. Mar. 22 - Hamburg, DE - Gruenspan
Sun. Mar. 24 - Copenhagen, DK - Loppen
Mon. Mar. 25 - Gothenburg, SE - Pustervik
Tue. Mar. 26 - Oslo, NO- John Dee
Wed. Mar. 27 - Stockholm, SE - Hus 7
Sat. Mar. 30 - Berlin, DE - Lido
Mon. Apr. 01 - Leipzig, DE- UT Connewitz
Mon. Apr. 02 - Stuttgart, DE - Wisemann Club
Tue. Apr. 03 - Esch Sur Alzette, LU - Kulturfabrik
Wed. Apr. 04 - Zurich, CH - Mascotte
Thu. Apr. 05 - Lyon, FR - Epicerie Moderne
Fri. Apr. 06 - Marseille, FR - Espace Julien