King Gizzard & The Lizard WizardA month after announcing their new album, Alien Metal – with no release date – King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard have surprised fans by unveiling the record today (14 August).
The Australian prolific band released the album, their 28th, on the first day of their sold-out festival, Field of Vision, in Colorado. The release of Alien Metal follows the release of three singles: Level 5, the title track, and the just-released final teaser, Kill For The Steel.
Alien Metal arrives ahead of King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard’s Australian tour dates this October, which include a takeover of the Croxton Block Party in Melbourne.
Across two nights at the Croxton Bandroom, they’ll be joined by Japanese band Shonen Knife, Aussie rockers C.O.F.F.I.N, Heavy Moss, and Babe Rainbow, plus local favourites Public Figures, Gut Health, and ORB. Additionally, Moktar and Stu Mackenzie will perform sets on the Eurorack. Both nights (17 and 18 October) will conclude with 2.5-hour sets from King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard.
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For their New South Wales shows at Anita’s Theatre in Thirroul and Sydney’s Hordern Pavilion, Xiao Xiao will open proceedings. King Gizzard will also perform a late-night rave show at Sydney’s Liberty Hall.
Tickets to all shows are now available. Fans can listen to the album now on streaming services, excluding Spotify, while physical formats will be available at p(doom) stores from 4 am AEST on Saturday, 15 August. Check out the album here.
Alien Metal was written and recorded on the modular synthesiser King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard brought on the road with them last year, which they affectionately dubbed ‘Nathan’.
The album has been described as one of the band’s most ambitious outings to date. Discovering the capabilities of the Eurorack synthesiser thanks to bandmate Joey Walker, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Stu Mackenzie confessed, “It completely rewired my brain. I was like, ‘I’m going to forget everything I know about music and relearn it all from scratch.’”
Mackenzie added that, while the album now contains eight tracks, numerous ideas for Alien Metal were abandoned over the past few years. “We’ve never scrapped so much material as we have for this album,” he said. “Entire albums, entire universes that were formulated, created, recorded, deleted and started again.”
Describing the album, which features shifts through techno and hardcore influences, Mackenzie concluded, “It sounds so crunchy, but also beautiful.” Walker added, “Alien Metal goes really hard, but it also goes to really interesting places. And it feels unique – it feels like us, still.”
