King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard – Alien Metal
King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard have shared “Alien Metal”, the title track from their twenty-eighth album, arriving later this summer on p(doom) Records. It follows lead single “Level 5” as the second preview of a record built entirely around the six-piece’s live rave-show setup.
“Alien Metal” runs about five minutes and moves through techno, hardcore, house and jungle without losing the psychedelic instincts the band built its name on. Every sound on the record came out of a modular Eurorack rig the band nicknamed Nathan, which replaced guitars and drums during their rave shows last year. Joey Walker put it simply: “Alien Metal goes really hard, but it also goes to really interesting places”, and that’s about right, the track commits to the dance floor without abandoning what makes King Gizzard sound like King Gizzard.
I’ve followed this band through thrash metal, jazz fusion and half a dozen other detours, so a full turn toward EDM barely registers as a shock any more. Mackenzie says the rig rewired the way he thinks about music entirely, and the band scrapped whole records’ worth of material, more than once, before a single late-night jam session set the direction for everything that made the final cut.
They’re marking the rollout with a run of shows built for the new sound: three sold-out nights at Forest Hills Stadium in New York, followed by a rave show at Under the K Bridge Park in Brooklyn with .VRIL, then an October run through Australia. A band this restless was always going to end up somewhere like this eventually. I just didn’t expect it to sound this good.
North America
- Aug. 14 / Buena Vista, CO / Field Of Vision II Festival
- Aug. 15 / Buena Vista, CO / Field Of Vision II Festival
- Aug. 16 / Buena Vista, CO / Field Of Vision II Festival
- Aug. 20 / New York, NY / Forest Hills Stadium
- Aug. 21 / New York, NY / Forest Hills Stadium
- Aug. 22 / New York, NY / Forest Hills Stadium
- Aug. 23 / Brooklyn, NY / Under The K Bridge Park (with .VRIL)
Australia
- Oct. 13 / Thirroul, Australia / Anita’s Theatre
- Oct. 14 / Sydney, Australia / Hordern Pavilion
- Oct. 14 / Sydney, Australia / Liberty Hall
- Oct. 17 / Melbourne, Australia / The Croxton Block Party
- Oct. 18 / Melbourne, Australia / The Croxton Block Party
