Ilion
Ilion pushes Slift's heavy psychedelic rock towards an even larger scale. Eight tracks fill nearly eighty minutes, with thick guitars, busy bass and forceful drums carrying most of the movement. Quieter passages still matter, though they often preserve the tension instead of offering complete relief. The music is impressive, but its ambition sometimes asks the same extended approach to do too much.
The title track begins with voices before the guitars and drums take over. A strong bass presence helps connect the shifting instrumental sections, while shorter electronic passages interrupt the heavier sound. The scale makes an immediate impression. Some of the quieter builds take longer than they need to reach the next substantial change.
Nimh brings particularly weighty riffs and a forceful vocal performance. A more delicate guitar line provides a useful contrast around the middle, showing how the band can create atmosphere without removing the heavier foundation. It is one of the clearest examples of their ability to make a large sound feel expressive.
Confluence offers a different kind of movement. Saxophone and guitar develop around a firm rhythmic pattern, with the arrangement becoming more intense before opening out again. Its looser, jazz-influenced character gives the record another direction. The instruments have more room to interact than in the most crowded passages.
Weavers' Weft also starts effectively, setting echoing guitars and group voices against much heavier playing. The contrast has real force, although the later instrumental stretch feels less purposeful. Uruk has a strong central riff too, but its repetition does not always produce enough development to justify the space around it.
The Story That Has Never Been Told is more successful at making its length count. A brighter keyboard-led opening leads into quieter space-rock passages and a more urgent rhythmic section. The eventual climax feels connected to that progression. Enter the Loop is a less rewarding finish, settling into a slow industrial mood with limited movement.
Ilion contains excellent playing and some striking arrangements. Its main weakness is the amount of time between those strongest moments. A shorter, more selective sequence would make the contrasts sharper. Even so, listeners drawn to heavy riffs and extended psychedelic rock will find plenty to explore, provided they have patience for the less focused stretches.
