Sub Pop will release SLIFT’s ILION, the third full-length album by the French psychedelic rock outfit, on January 19th, 2024. Today, the band shares the new song “Nimh” with a visualizer by Dimitri Thouzery & Guthio.
“Nimh” is a 9+ minute prog-infused journey filled with jazzy rhythms, deft guitar/bass/drum interplay, and layered textures, all anchored by a massive Black Sabbath-esque riff that eventually crumbles into a thundering doom-metal coda. It’s a fitting sample of the forthcoming album, which launches SLIFT even deeper into the cosmos, merging the furious intensity of metal and the wigged-out guitar heroics of psych-rock with post-rock’s epic sense of scale.
The band said of the song/video: “‘Nimh’ is the second track on the record; it follows ‘Ilion.’ It’s a piece that talks about men’s slow but certain descent towards total madness. To illustrate this, the song tells the story of the drift through space of a ship, the ‘Nimh,’ and its crew, which is made up of leaders of huge corporations and anyone who has accumulated a lot of money on Earth. They set off for what they think will be a new world but never arrive at their destination. The gods of Time are facetious. The song is sung by the people left on Earth, prophesying this failure, abandoned to live on this barren planet entering the last millennia of its existence. As surprising as it may seem, we had Nina Simone in mind when writing a good part of the piece, especially the second part. To support the song’s subject, we also pushed our psych-rock towards bands like Converge.”
Formed in 2016, SLIFT quickly made an impression on rockers worldwide with their 2017 debut EP, Space Is the Key, the following year’s full-length La Planeté Inexplorée, and their acclaimed 2020 album UMMON.
SLIFT will embark on a mammoth UK & EU tour beginning February 23rd in Brighton, UK, and ending April 6th in Marseille, France. The band’s 2023 KEXP performance is a tantalizing taste of the band’s live powers, which merge earth-rattling volume, cosmic soundscapes, and psychedelic visuals into a mind-bending, glorious experience. See below for a complete list of 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
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