The new Slift single bears out what the advance info is telling you about the French trio’s upcoming fourth album, Fantasia, in that it hits rawer and is more straightforwardly composed. To me it sounds like Sandrider, nigh on heavy noise rock, which I’m not going to complain about, but if you got onboard when they were belting out 15-minute cosmic epics for your pandemic escapism, it might be a surprise. Unless you’re so jaded by now that nothing’s a surprise, in which case you might want to take a break, go hydrate, and try again later. Hey, it happens.

So, expect shorter, more direct songs. Can do. The album bio on their Bandcamp was long — I say this as somebody who writes those on occasion — but I took part of it and pasted it below as it seemed relevant to the discussion of the single in particular. I’ll be interested to see what the response here is. They’re taking a chance bringing their sound to earth, stylistically speaking.

So, from social media and Bandcamp, which is kind of like social media too. Not sure where that line is sometimes. Anyway:

Our new album “Fantasia” will cross the mirror and hit your town via Sub Pop Records next June 5th ! You can now preorder the record and other new artifacts via sliftrock.com.

In the meantime, we’re beyond excited to share with you “A Storm of Wings”, a song now available everywhere.

https://music.subpop.com/slift_fantasia

Infinite love and respect to all of you who keep art alive. We’ll see you on tour, until then, watch your feet in this perilous world and follow the moths… A storm of wings is coming !

Tracklisting:
1. Fantasia
2. Corrupted Sky
3. The Village
4. A Storm of Wings 06:25
5. Orbis Tertius
6. Waiting Man
7. The Day of Execution
8. Secret Mirror

—

…SLIFT’s fourth album is called Fantasia. It’s their leanest and most direct record to date; taken together, its eight songs clock in at less than 50 minutes. It is also their most riveting album yet, a pointed saga about overcoming international upheaval delivered by a band bearing down, not wasting a single second in the process.

They wanted to write and render songs that recognized the turmoil of these days and to sing of a more hopeful vision, of a time when a reckoning arrives. SLIFT didn’t want to lose the message by playing too much. To wit, the longest song on Fantasia is the opening title track, a nine-minute preamble in which Jean Fossat screams of his desires for the world: rising above our pain, burying our dread, and finding, individually and collectively, “a fire for your soul.” The songs that follow aren’t lacking the complexity or intensity that have made SLIFT a rising, radical star in heavy music; it’s simply that they’ve found new ways to weave the complexities of their past inside every piece, like a tapestry that reveals a new layer every time you look. In doing so, they offer an affirming and urgent message: Together, we can still change the times in which we live.

Though only Jean and bassist Rémi Fossat are related, SLIFT is essentially a band of brothers. They’ve been friends with drummer Canek Flores since high school, and 2026 marks a decade together in this trio. They rehearse with religious regularity in a basement in the countryside near Toulouse, inside the jam room where they’ve long indulged their propensity for longform wonder. But they built the songs of Fantasia differently. Jean started many of the songs by himself, then quickly brought them to basement rehearsals with a clear and concise idea of how he imagined them taking shape. At first, SLIFT struggled to keep the songs tight, old habits making them wonder if this song or that one shouldn’t break the double-digit threshold. By the time they crossed France’s northern border into Belgium to record in the enormous live room at Daft Studios, though, the songs were lean, agile, and punchy. They made most of them in a single take.

http://slift.bandcamp.com/
https://www.instagram.com/sliftrock/
https://www.facebook.com/sliftrock/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAW8AFXEOMkqInX3f9HD0aA

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Slift, Fantasia (2026)