ILION

1. "Ilion" (11:08) one of the best heavy psychedelic songs I've heard in a long time. I love the near-Gregorian chant group monotone vocals when they start. More layers of vocals--now screaming and harmonizing--join in during the second minute and then the shouting ones take over. A great instrumental passage starts around 2:30 with awesome searing guitar solo(s) (not sure if there are two tracks of the guitar or merely a strong echo/delay effect being applied to it). Great sound! The vocals are back with all layers working, chant and scream/shouts until the sixth minute when another more KINGSTON WALL-like instrumental passage takes over. Great walls of sound! Things begin to slow down and deconstruct at the end of the sixth minute, leaving an ominously atmospheric PT- like section of multiple synths weaving together like a HANS ZIMMER soundtrack (Interstellar). This is also awesome! On to the ninth minute--the 8:22 mark--when one of the Fossat brothers enters to emit his battle cry. Then a solid wall of heavy Post Rock sound starts up with drums, bass chords, and tremolo guitar strumming their fury (or adrenaline hype) until 10:20 when there is a let up--as if the has reached the mountain top--where the scream/shouting vocalist reenters to claim his victory. (19.75/20)

2. "Nimh" (9:38) bleeding over from the previous song, the chords have changed and drums and bass backed down a bit, but M. Fossat is still finding it necessary to scream/shout his impassioned gospel. It's tense, intense, and powerful, if not as melodically- or harmonically-rich as the previous song. Another stripped down, more pregnant than the other softer passages, and eventually, in the sixth minute, releases its pent up energy with full, sustained orgasm, leaving in its wake a very quiet, spacious empty-cave-like passage in which Clemence Lagier issues her "Heavenly Vocals." Sinister-feeling snaking synths beneath Clemence appear and soon reveal a very heavy monstrously-plodding section over which M. Fossat screals and then fills with his screaling guitar to the song's end. (17.875/20)

3. "The Words That Have Never Been Heard" (12:32) starts off with ticking sounds, joined by a faster clipping sound, before all hell breaks loose with a KITCHENS OF DISTINCTION-like pattern and a little Fossat screal. In the second half of the second minute the song moves into a different variation of its sound and a new motif: one with some awesome bass play and guitar chords matching M. Fossat's "distant" and a little-less-insistent scream vocals. A brief pause in the middle of the third minute unleashes a more intrusive vocal verse, but then the music goes a bit more techno with screaling guitar chords being slashed away in the background while multiple synths weave their melodic magic within and over the top. Man this amazing bass player (Rémi Fossat) and drummer have a great rapport! Guitar arpeggio riff is matched by "Heavenly Vocals" over the top in the eighth minute. Then, at the end of the eighth minute, the music backs off except for an excellent fast-paced percussive track over which M. Fossat starts to shout. So cool! This lasts a bit before the rest of the band rejoins with the Kitchens of Distinction sound palette. At 11:00 the band moves back into another quiet, spacious passage with only sustained guitar notes playing a slow arpeggio to the song's end. (23.75/25)

4. "Confluence" (8:37) bass synth drone and synth water-trickling rhythm track carry over from the previous song before reverbed sax and guitar join in, playing slow, rather sad and plaintive melodies, note by note, as if in their own private lonely universes, even after the hard-charging bass and drums step in at 1:20. Around the 2:00 mark the guitar and sax begin to come to life a little more--and then a synth horn joins in to harmonize with the reverbed sax, note for note, until the guitar chords start to come crashing in mark like falling rocks at the three-minute mark. Again I hear KINGSTON WALL as well as great Post Rock riffs in the mix at this point. At 5:15 Jean Fossat leaps off of the cliff with some serious guitar soloing. A slight break in the middle of the seventh minute is followed by some viciously epic guitar shredding over the next minute. Marveilleux! The song then ends with just guitar feedback. Brilliant! (19/20)

5. "Weavers' Weft" (9:41) opening more like a Viking Metal song with more male chorus chants over steady plodding processional-like music--the shout/screaming voice of M. Fossat taking over in the third and fourth minutes. The music then shifts into greyhound racing mode at 3:42 over which a repeating guitar strummed poser chord progression recurs with lots of space in between as the bass and drums play frenetically. At 5:20 we stop, recharge with choral and screaling vocals leading the band back into a heavy motif, but this time slower. At 6:04 this slowed down plodding heavy wall of sound becomes more DEVIN TOWNSEND-like in its pacing while the choral men chant in their monotone style only, this time, in a far higher pitch than their previous choices. Simple but oh-so-heavy SWANS-like guitar, bass, and drum Post Rock ensues as the vocals stop. At 8:12 there is a KEVIN SHIELDS-like bending-guitar chord between SWANS-two chord bashes that eventually becomes more sedated triplet chords from high on the guitar's fretboard. This is the end. (17.625/20)

6. "Uruk" (9:55) arpeggiated guitar chords become small chords while drums and bass thrums support choral vocals that sound like they come from some Scandanavian Psych rock band. The whole sound palette almost harkens back to some of the more trippy band/albums of the late 1960s. The middle of the song follows the guitarist's four-chord progressions (they change a couple times). Awesome drumming on display here! Distant reverbed vocals are screamed from way back during the seventh minute--M. Fossat holding shockingly long notes! Things break down to guitar's three-note four-chord progressions accented by matching cymbal taps, going very quiet in the ninth minute, and then the full band bursting back out into full volume at 8:20. Man! I love this drummer! At 8:45 the lead guitar and sax start screaming at one another with wicked ferocity! But they do not sustain it, instead they let the band slowly deflate or decompress their instruments to let the song end. Wow! (17.75/20)

7. "The Story That Has Never Been Told" (12:35) this one opens up like a spiritually-based German Kosmisches song but then goes the way of a SONAR-like Math Rock song for its second half. It's cool, and masterfully performed, just not the kind of piece that keeps me engaged like some of the other more-sophisticated constructs on the album. (21.75/25)

8. "Enter The Loop" (5:03) another trippy heavy prog psychedelic/stoner rock motif that the band "gently" pummels into our brains--though this sound palette contains a little more industrial sounds. (8.875/10)

Total time 79:08

Like many other reviewers, I am blown away to constantly have to remind myself that all of this sound is coming from just three guys (using, of course, lots of effects and multiple tracks as well as a few guests). Reminds me very much of Finland's great Kingston Wall in that way.

A-/five stars; a refreshingly creative minor masterpiece of finely crafted heavy prsychedelic rock. Highly recommended to any and all self-attested prog lovers.

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