It's been more than a year since King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard's last album, an eternity by this band's standards. Never fear, though; Australia's reigning psychedelic rock band is about to drop another conceptual opus on us.
Whereas last year's Phantom Island (LP27) delved into the realm of orchestral rock, Alien Metal (LP28), coming later this summer, is all about electronic dance music. Though a press release invokes 2023's synth-driven The Silver Cord, lead single "Level 5" feels more focused on beats. It evolved from the "rave shows" King Gizzard debuted last year, which arose from Gizzard's resident "techno head" Joey Walker turning Stu Mackenzie on to the Eurorack modular synthesizer. "It completely rewired my brain," Mackenzie says. "I was like, 'I'm going to forget everything I know about music and relearn it all from scratch'."
"We've never scrapped so much material as we have for this album," he adds.
"Level 5" really does sound like the work of a different band, even if Mackenzie's sensibility is always discernible in there somewhere. It suddenly makes sense that King Gizzard's annual run at Forest Hills Stadium next month concludes with a rave show, and that they've added another rave show the following night at Brooklyn's Under The K Bridge Park. Watch Hayden Somerville's video for "Level 5" and check out King Gizzard's surprisingly limited North American live dates below.
TRACKLIST:
01 "Sapience"
02 "Alien Metal"
03 "Superheavy, Supercritical"
04 "Kill For The Steel"
05 "Level 5"
06 "Rapid Alpha Decay"
07 "Uqt"
08 "Atomic Collapse"
TOUR DATES:
08/14 – Buena Vista, CO @ Field Of Vision II Festival (Sold Out)
08/15 – Buena Vista, CO @ Field Of Vision II Festival (Sold Out)
08/16 – Buena Vista, CO @ Field Of Vision II Festival (Sold Out)
08/20 – New York, NY @ Forest Hills Stadium (with Die Spitz, DJ Crenshaw)
08/21 – New York, NY @ Forest Hills Stadium (with Die Spitz, DJ Crenshaw)
08/22 – New York, NY @ Forest Hills Stadium (Rave Show)
08/23 – Brooklyn, NY @ Under The K Bridge Park (Rave Show with .VRIL)
Alien Metal is out later this summer on King Gizzard's p(doom) label. Over the weekend, Mackenzie shared a preview of sorts by posting a 37-minute live set on YouTube. It shows him performing with a portable modular synth for passersby on Bourke Street Mall in Melbourne.
