SLIFT

The Toulouse-based psych-rock trio that debuted in 2017 releases their fourth album.

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.

Slift is back after a four-year gap with their new album, Ilion. The band has stated that Ilion can be thought of as a direct sequel to Ummon, their 2020 release. There is a lot of sonic continuity between the two records. Both prominently feature bludgeoning doom metal riffs, crossed with krautrock-like repetition, and interstellar aesthetics. Much like Ummon, Ilion is a challenging listen. It's a nearly-unrelenting onslaught of heavy riffs that cascade effortlessly from your speakers. I saw Slift when they came to Seattle last year, and if they come again, I'm going to go once more. They put on a great show, and I'm sure these cuts will be great additions to their live set.

In many ways, Ilion takes what Ummon did and cranks it up even further. Ummon saw Slift shift from spacey garage rock to a more metallic sound, and that progression has continued here. Not only are doom metal influences present, but post-metal, too. Ummon runs 72 minutes across 11 songs, but Ilion pumps that to 79 minutes across only eight songs (only two of which are under nine minutes, and none of which are below five).

However, it's this aggressive persistence that is probably Ilion's greatest stumbling block. Don't mistake me; I like Ilion overall, and I'll explain why below. I just think that certain aspects of this record see Slift indulging a bit too hard. An average runtime of six-and-a-half minutes per song (as on Ummon) gives you time to stretch out on some tracks, while also providing briefer passages to help the overall flow of the album. When the average song length is just shy of ten minutes, though, that risks things bogging down unless one of two conditions is met: 1) the structuring is careful and dynamic; or 2) you've got one hell of a groove to work with. 

Ilion's 11-minute title track kicks the record off with a buzzing avalanche of space-metal fury. The main riff on this song is one of the album's strongest, and I love how flashy and high in the mix the bass is. Lightly-synthesized vocals add to the sci-fi scene-setting. During instrumental passages, the bass is really what holds my attention; a lot of the guitar work bleeds into the background, even when it is ostensibly the lead instrument. Despite the band's obvious technical skill and my confidence that this would kill in a live setting, "Ilion" sets the trend of everything being just "too much" on this album. The instrumental moments are dragged out for too long, and when things quiet down, the buildup is too drawn-out.

"Nimh" continues organically from "Ilion", and again, I need to point out how great the bass player sounds. The song, though, is sonically quite similar to its predecessor. Having tonal continuity is one thing, but some of the riffs sound a lot like what was on the opener, and the overall structure is quite comparable. When you're working with big compositions, similar structures will be more obvious, since there's less of an expectation to adhere to a typical architecture.

After a short, strange clicking intro, "The Words That Have Never Been" explodes into a metallic maelstrom, but Slift finally switches things up a bit here. Influences from post-rock and classic space rock are evident in this song's less-distorted moments, and those clean-distorted contrasts are a big part of what I loved so much about Ummon. I also get the odd flash of post-hardcore here and there, which is a nice change of pace. The instrumental stuff feels more purposeful on this track than it did on either of the preceding cuts, and the prominence of the bass sounds intentional. Backed with some subtle synth bloops, this calls to mind classic krautrock excursions. Even with all this going for the band, this song probably could have been trimmed down a fair bit and come out stronger for it.

At eight-and-a-half minutes, "Confluence" is the second-shortest song on the album, and its introduction is the mellowest. Electronic burbling, distant saxophone and the odd guitar note swirl (a bit aimlessly) for the first 90 seconds, but it's a nice breather. When the rhythm section comes in, they've got a solid groove going, and the guitar and sax twisting around each other work well together. This all gradually grows in intensity until the midway point, when the band pares things back. There's another (thankfully briefer) build-up to some more soloing, and "Confluence" winds up being one of the least-bloated cuts on Ilion.

"Weaver's Weft" has a spacey introduction, with broad, echoing clean guitar and chanted group vocals. This is contrasted against some of the heaviest, most crushing metal on the album in a powerful way. The first six minutes of this song are pretty strong and some of my favorite stuff on Ilion. The instrumental closing three-and-a-half minutes, though, emblematize some of the issues of this album. It feels aimless and overlong.

"Uruk" has a creepy, unsettling opening that sounds midway between late '60s Pink Floyd and Neurosis. This introduction builds to a churning, rumbling psychedelic doom riff that is one of the best on Ilion. It's hard-hitting, emotive, and distinctive. Unfortunately, this song's second half gets bogged down in repetition that doesn't lead to anything that's worth the wait. On Ummon, repetition was a tool to build tension and anticipation, but on Ilion, it seems to mostly just?repeat.

The longest song on Ilion (by three whole seconds!) is "The Story That Has Never Been Told". In contrast to many other songs here, the opening has a sense of majesty and optimism underpinned with fluttering synthesizer loops. After so much sludginess, this brightness is an appreciated contrast. The verse floats along (perhaps a bit too airily and for a bit too long), but the band does a better job of giving a sense of progression than elsewhere on Ilion. Around seven minutes in, the tempo picks up in an anxious passage, and this sort of frenetic meditation is the kind of repetition I more typically expect from Slift. The climax is powerful and feels earned. It delivers on the promise of glory given in the introduction.

That could have been a good close to Ilion, but no. Instead, the final song is the five-minute slog "Enter the Loop". It's a groaning, industrial dirge that does almost nothing during its runtime. 

Ilion is an exhausting record. So is Ummon, but Ummon is rewarding, at least. There's plenty of good music to be found here, but it requires some sifting and filtering and a tolerance for overindulgence. Crushing doom metal, exhilarating space rock, and tripped out psychedelia can all be found here, but these rewarding moments are embedded in overlong songs and unfocused structures. It's alright, overall, but I'm not sure how often I'll be coming back to it.

Review originally posted here: theeliteextremophile.com/2024/02/12/album-review-slift-ilion/

Expanding the limits of stoner rock and taking it into the vastness of space, the final frontier like an episodic Star Trek journey into the unknown, the power trio SLIFT has continually been improving upon its unique concoction that borrows an ingredient or two from various strains of acid rock, psychedelia, space rock and the world of stoner rock / metal for eight years now. Having only formed in 2016, the band has unleashed a new expansive stylistic approach that ambitiously has reached into the world of progressive rock with its latest installment of the SLIFT canon called ILION.

One of the staples of the modern Toulouse, France underground, SLIFT featuring Jean Fossat (guitar, vocals), Rémi Fossat (bass, vocals) and Canek Flores (drums) has become one of those bands that has managed to retain the immediacy of its raucous garage rock days only now infused with the savoir-faire of a seasoned prog band on its latest album ILIION. Presumably the title is a reference to the ancient Greek city set to the 21st century and the ultimate adventures into the galaxy and beyond narrating the decline of humanity and the imminent rebirth as our species ventures out into the limitless expanses.

SLIFT's musical palette has expanded this time around with the addition of three seasoned performers adding the saxophone, synthesizer and what they refer to as heavenly vocals, the extra icing on the cake that takes ILION light years away from the previous 2020 release "Ummon." That release established the band in the greater world of modern heavy psych and general and pointed to the stars for new paths that once forged has culminated in the birth of ILION, the band's most triumphant release yet. While only featuring eight tracks, the album's playing time is expansive as its ambitious nature by creeping past the 79-minute mark. This is one for the most dedicated sonic explorer whose attention span can endure a majestic journey of this nature but highly rewarding for those who buckle up their seatbelts and take this rocket ship into the depths of space.

Starting out with the 11-minute title track, SLIFT displays its sophistication without hesitation as the musicians take the familiarity of the heavy guitar, bass and drum garage rock heft into more atmospheric realms. While the musical style continues what the band has established on its previous releases, the compositional fortitude has undergone a serious evolution in expansiveness and nuance as the tracks meander from the established guitar rock heft to soft sensual spacey moments reminiscent of 70s Gong or Pink Floyd. While the playing time may seem unfounded, it actually allows the compositions to pulse and flicker and seep slowly into your soul without feeling rushed. This is an album that requires patience as the repetitive nature of riffs and passages are designed to cast a hypnotic spell rather than bedazzle the senses with technical ingenuity.

SLIFT has crafted an amazing work with ILION. This album may be long but encapsulates a wandering journey through the myriad styles of space rock, heavy stoner rock and futuristic prog. Think of what King Gizzard & The Wizard Lizard would sound like if jamming with Elder, Goat, King Buffalo and Earthless and you can get the gist of how SLIFT has slinked into a new chapter of their colorful career. Don't let the freaky astro-aliens puking red spaghetti on the album cover throw you off. This is top notch space rock of the ages with more than enough creative mojo to justify the album's 79-minute run and that's saying something for yours truly who often shies away from album's over 45 minutes these days. Exemplary work here!

French power-trio Slift's 2024 release, Ilion, is a mesmerizing concept album that takes listeners on an interstellar journey through the rise, fall, quest for a new home, and eventual rebirth of humanity. As a worthy successor to their previous album, Ummon, Ilion, not only builds on its predecessor's foundation but propels the band's musical evolution into uncharted realms.

The album opens with the title track, setting the tone for the cosmic odyssey that awaits. This opening piece starts softly and crescendos to a supernova of sound, immediately immersing the audience into the expansive narrative that unfolds across the album. The track's gradual build-up, accompanied by the trio's explossive instrumentation, serves as a captivating introduction to the collective themes of the album.

Slift's evolution from Ummon is marked the intensified sonic dynamics found in, Ilion, The album's exploration of heavier guitar sounds, at times bordering on the realm of metal, adds a new dimension to Slift's musical palette. The incorporation of these heavier elements enhances the album's emotional impact, creating a experience that resonates in both palpable and auscultative sensations with the cosmic themes explored in the album's concept. A notable highlight is the vocal performance of Jean Fossat, whose voice seamlessly adapts to the album's new dynamics. Jean embraces an angry-punk-rock-astronaut persona, adding a rebellious edge to the overall sound. His vocals become a vital component in conveying the emotional depth of the cosmic tale, providing a raw and authentic layer to the narrative. These elements conspire to create an overall sense of urgency to the story subject's plight throughout the tale, but particularly in the opening sections.

Ilion stands as a testament to the band's artistic evolution and commitment to pushing the boundaries of their own sound. At 79 minutes, no moment feels wasted, no movement outstays its welcome; as is often the case with albums in this time frame. From the opening supernova to the final echoes of rebirth, the album is a cosmic rollercoaster that demands to be experienced. The thematic depth of Ilion is evident as the band skillfully weaves a narrative that travels the vastness of space and time. From the soaring highs to the crushing lows, the album mirrors the epic scope of its subject matter. Each track unfolds like a chapter in an intergalactic novel, inviting listeners to lose themselves in the story of Slift's musical universe. With its heavier guitar elements and expansive sonic landscapes,Ilion arrives as the pinnacle of Slift's discography, solidifying their place in the paradigm of modern space rock, and a true masterpiece of the modern progressive rock scene.

Toulouse, France power trio, Slift, gets deeper into their ongoing space themed output with Ummon, a concept album which is based on Homer's Odyssey. The band hangs on loosely to its psychedelic, jam-band roots, but the compositions and sonic impression become more expansive with the use of wider reverb effects and more use of electronics than the previous album, La Plan​è​te Inexplor​é​e. Guitarist Jean Fossat's retains its retro fuzzy sludge tone, but incorporates more ethereal textures during the more frequent mellow sections. Nowhere is this more evident than in what is arguably the highlight of the album, Citadel on a Satellite, where additionally the integration of synthesizers becomes increasingly important to the musical mosaic.

Compared to previous work, the bands compositions are allowed more time to breath and settle into completeness. The playing and recording process has gained a more mature attention to dynamics without sacrificing the groove and flow. There is a thoughtfulness going on upstairs while the psychedelic fueled party continues in the basement.

Ummon is an outstanding album that is a testament to a young bands musical growth. While this trio is yet to peak, this is an outstanding addition to any progressive rock collection and absolutely essential to fans of Space/Psychedelic/Stoner Rock. 4 stars.