ILION by SLIFT is a gigantic rock music work, an album that starts at the highest point and never lets up. If that sounds excessive, know that with the Toulouse trio, you are in good hands. Their third album is massive and oceanic, merging the furious intensity of metal and the heroic guitars of psych rock with the epic sense of post-rock. ILION is the kind of music you listen to while thinking, "Is this the work of just three people?" Indeed, it is, and the total ferocity of SLIFT is much more than a storm in a teacup. It stretches for miles and creates new zeniths in the unexpected horizons of rock. SLIFT consists of brothers Jean and Remí Fossat, and Canek Flores, who met the Fossat brothers at school. The band formed in 2016 and quickly produced their first EP in 2017, Space Is the Key, which fused the heaviness of stoner rock with the sugary qualities of garage rock. From there, things got even stranger: the trio experimented with faster tempos and bongos (!) on the following year's album La Planète Inexplorée, and in 2019, their KEXP session recorded at the Trans Musicales festival in Rennes became a viral sensation, racking up over 1.4 million views on YouTube. UMMON, released in 2020, represents SLIFT's pivot to the celestial and crushing confines of psych-metal, marked by Remí's rolling bass lines and Flores's relentless punchy beats. But nothing in their catalog could prepare you for ILION, a huge and melodically dense album that recalls both Godspeed! You Black Emperor, the passionate burn of post-hardcore legends ...And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead, the psychotic mysticism of Led Zep's blues-rock, and the psychedelic whirl of the great Swedes Goat. Heavy, for sure, but fear not, as you don't need a 12-sided die and a copy of the Odyssey to understand what SLIFT offers on ILION. All you need is two ears, an open mind, and the willingness to be truly blown away.