Album Review: King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - 12 Bar Bruise

Drawing from the likes of Thee Oh Sees, The Clean and Pavement, 12 Bar Bruise is the first full-length album from Victoria seven-piece King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard. 12 Bar Bruise can best be summed up as the chaotic, unpredictable soundtrack to a bad acid trip. Each of the 12 songs on the album is laced with reverberated howls, spooky Theremins and feedback-laden guitars that jump out at you whenever you least expect it. Brimming with raw punk energy and power, the songs constantly teeter on the edge of implosion, which simply adds to the excitement of listening to this album.

First song, Elbow, is a short, catchy punk rocker fighting against a barrage of distorted guitars and alien noises dowsed in echo seeping through the speakers. Muckraker features scratchy harmonies and a constantly shifting tempo that gets chucked out the window towards the end. Sam Cherry's Last Shot is straight out of a spaghetti Western with Broderick Smith of The Dingoes reading out a chapter from 33 Years Among Our Wild Indians in his best Johnny Cash impersonation.

Bloody Ripper and Uh Oh, I Called Mum are the two of the best and funniest songs on the album, showing the fact that the band have much more to offer song-wise than just lots of high-energy punk-rock launched straight at you through an old, beat-up amplifier. I thoroughly enjoyed this album and while it may not be everybody's cup of peyote-laced tea, 12 Bar Bruise will delight anyone looking for an album full of ear-smacking, chaotic rock'n'roll that throws you a few curve balls along the way.