ILION, by SLIFT

ILION

by SLIFT

supported by

Brian Parker So spacey and heavy, riffs crashing like nebulae! I’m gonna see you fuckers in Detroit this fall! Favorite track: Nimh.

showhornwithteeth Rarely I feel that an album is made specifically to cater to my musical tastes, but this album is just that for me! The album delves into psychedlic rock, stoner/doom, and drone and combines it into monolithic experience. Each track is long, but the changes within each section of a track keeps the momentum of the album making an 1 hour and 19 minute experience feel short! This is easily the best Slift album, one of the best Psychedlic rock album, and an easy AOTY for me. Favorite track: The Words That Have Never Been Heard.

danclapp This is one of the most mind-blowing albums I have heard in a long time. Simply incredible! Favorite track: The Story That Has Never Been Told.

more...

Heavy Weight Show KQNY 91.9FM Quincy CA thumbnail

more...

	/

Streaming + Download

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

Purchasable with gift card

$10 USD or more
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
A copy of "ILION" on limited Loser Edition color 2xLP.

Includes unlimited streaming of ILION via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

ships out within 3 days

Purchasable with gift card

$33 USD or more
Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album
A copy of "ILION" on CD.

Includes unlimited streaming of ILION via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

ships out within 3 days

Purchasable with gift card

$12 USD or more
ILION Black T-Shirt
T-Shirt/Shirt
Sold Out

1.	Ilion 11:08	info	buy track
2.	Nimh 09:38	info	buy track
3.	The Words That Have Never Been Heard 12:31	info	buy track
4.	Confluence 08:36	info	buy track
5.	Weavers' Weft 09:41 video	info	buy track
6.	Uruk 09:54	info	buy track
7.	The Story That Has Never Been Told 12:34	info	buy track
8.	Enter The Loop 05:02	info	buy track

about

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 (of all things) school. After the band formally came together 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 already-estimable catalog could prepare you for ILION, a huge-sounding 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 Zep’s psychotic blues-rock mysticism, and the psychedelic swirl of Swedish experimental greats Goat.

But reducing ILION to a list of reference points would be missing the point—specifically, that you really have to sit down and experience this thing and let it take over your ear space. The record marks the band’s second Sub Pop release, following last year’s Singles Club 7” release of “Unseen” b/w “The Real Unseen,” which were outtakes from the UMMON sessions and offered a mere taste of the pure expansiveness on display here. 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 stretched-out abandon of centerpiece “Weavers’ Weft” to the intense climax 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, 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: “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.”

Heavy shit, to be sure—but fear not, because you don’t need a 12-sided die and a copy of The Odyssey to get what SLIFT are dishing out on ILION. All you need are two ears, an open mind, and the willingness to be truly blown away.

credits

license

about

SLIFT Toulouse, France

SHOP & PREORDERS AVAILABLE ON sliftrock.com

•MISSION CONTROL•

PRESS :
Press@subpop.com

MANAGEMENT :
Hélène
helene@corridorb.com

Facebook

shows

Jun 4

Le Chapit'auc

Tours, France
Jul 10

La Sirène

La Rochelle, France
Aug 14

Fernhill Farm

Compton Martin, UK
Oct 8

Teragram Ballroom

Los Angeles (LA), CA
Oct 9

Great American Music Hall

San Francisco, CA
Oct 11

Wonder Ballroom

Portland, OR
Oct 13

The Crocodile - Old Location

Seattle, WA
Oct 18

Reggie's

Chicago, IL
Oct 19

El Club Detroit

Detroit, MI
Oct 20

Lee's Palace

Toronto, ON
Oct 22

Théâtre Fairmount

Montreal, QC
Oct 23

Brighton Music Hall presented by Citizens

Boston, MA
Oct 24

The Meadows Brooklyn

Brooklyn, NY
Oct 26

Motorco Music Hall

Durham, NC
Oct 27

Terminal West

Atlanta, GA
Oct 29

White Oak Music Hall - Upstairs

Houston, TX

contact / help

Contact SLIFT

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this album or account

If you like SLIFT, you may also like:

Innate Passage
by Elder

supported by 264 fans who also own “ILION”

I've always been on the fence about Elder. The musicianship was always there but it never clicked. Omens and Innate Passage have certainly changed that. QNdNas7kQgBG5fi
go to album
Regenerator
by King Buffalo

supported by 256 fans who also own “ILION”

The flac version of this sounds great in my truck... not a crunch, clip or boom to be heard. That, in itself, gets this major points. This is a lovely combination of early Floyd, U2 and a few San Francisco bands from the '60s with a heavy dose of Helmet tossed in. It's definitely best of breed when it comes to modern psych stuff. Even without a Hammond B3, it gets an easy A+... rick-taylor
go to album
The Burden of Restlessness
by King Buffalo

supported by 249 fans who also own “ILION”

Very dark and melancholic and also a progressive album. Beat and atmosphere remind me strongly of TOOL. Stephan
go to album
Sonic Praise
by Ecstatic Vision

Percussive, guitar-driven, psych-chaos from Philly trio who never take their adrenaline-fueled feet off the gas. Bandcamp New & Notable Jul 2, 2015
go to album
Kungens Ljud & Bild
by Kungens Män

Rooted in the deep Scandinavian psych tradition, the latest album from Kungens Män offers epic songs with billowing guitars. Bandcamp New & Notable Apr 23, 2022
go to album
Korto
by Korto

Gently spaced out psychedelia with pop hooks and propulsive, danceable beats. Bandcamp New & Notable Oct 20, 2017
go to album
PetroDragonic Apocalypse; or, Dawn of Eternal Night: An Annihilation of Planet Earth and the Beginning of Merciless Damnation
by King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard

supported by 249 fans who also own “ILION”

As much as I love everything KGLW makes, this particular album is SO MUCH IN VENUE. Both in theme and musical style MarlaHectic
go to album