King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard – Omnium Gatherum

King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard has quickly made an impactful mark since forming in Melbourne, Australia in April 2014. Since then they have released 15 distinct albums spanning genres as diverse as thrash metal, microtonal desert rock, sci-fi audio books and relaxed jazz fusion.

Willoughby’s Beach and 12 Bar Bruise were two EPs/albums by the group that fused surf rock with garage punk music, featuring vocalist Stu Mackenzie’s high-pitched tones and Ambrose Kenny-Smith’s falsetto refrains which established themselves as energetic live acts.

The Silver Cord

King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard is one of Melbourne’s experimental rock bands, producing 25 studio records since 2012. Each album offers something different – from garage rock and spaghetti Western sounds, through thrash metal on last year’s Infest The Rats’ Nest release, all the way to seamless ‘infinity loop’ albums like Nonagon Infinity; their prolific output continually pushes boundaries of contemporary music.

Their latest release, The Silver Cord, continues this trend. Instead of favoring guitar-driven tracks as in previous albums, the band have taken an entirely new path by switching over to synth-driven sounds instead. Frontman Stu Mackenzie described them as being like “a rock band pretending they know how to use modular synths” but the result is far beyond this description – tracks such as Set from this album feature beat-driven chants while others drift into psychedelic territory for long jam sessions.

Eyes Like The Sky

Eyes Like The Sky was King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard’s second album and was an important milestone. Formed in 2013, this story-driven concept album marked their first time attempting narrative music compositions over their music.

Instead of their signature sound of raucous psych-surf and garage rock, which would become their signature style on subsequent albums, this sophomore effort took an unconventional route: its structure consisted of spoken word narration set against a spaghetti western soundtrack. The result was an exciting story about American frontier life that blended garage rock, punk and western sounds into one unique soundscape narrated by Broderick Smith’s deep voice which perfectly blended in with instrumentation on this second outing.

Eyes Like The Sky remains an influential reference point in Melbourne group’s repertoire that spans prog, thrash metal, jazz collaborations and microtonal explorations. It serves as a pivot point of how they broke from convention by forging their own path musically – it still offers a memorable listening experience, 10 years later!

Infest The Rats’ Nest

King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard’s recent electro-glam boogie album Fishing for Fishies proved their versatility, but just months later Melbourne seven-piece King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard unveiled an aggressive heavy metal album – Infest The Rats’ Nest – which represented their controversial position that metal should not be lived out but simply expressed through music on record.

The 15th studio album from this group showcases their experimentation with thrash metal styles only hinted at previously, incorporating it into their signature garage rock and psychedelic sounds, as well as double kick drumming inspired by Motorhead – making this release their hardest and heaviest yet!

Infest The Rats’ Nest stands as one of the key releases in 2019. Its central theme narrates how people fleeing an ecological disaster-ridden Earth for Venus only to discover they have been infected with an infectious superbug which mutates rapidly, spreading unstoppable, drug-resistant diseases across their bodies.

Omnium Gatherum

King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard is known for its prolific output; often producing albums at such an alarming pace that keeping up can seem like part-time work. But with 2022’s Omnium Gatherum, it appears they may have finally reined in their sonic chaos to produce more substantial work with more coherence and an impressive soundscape.

Stylistically, this double album showcases their entire career: from the guitar freakouts of Im In Your Mind Fuzz through synth pop of Butterfly 3000 and electric jazz piano bass of Sketches Of Brunswick East, these styles span their sound spectrum perfectly. Even when tracks deviate into other areas (Sadie Sorceress jazz-rap and super-fusion metal of The Grim Reaper are only examples), their shifts do not feel forced.

Omnium Gatherum serves as an accessible entryway into the band‘s vast sonic world for newcomers, while also serving longstanding fans by showing how wide-ranging their influences and ambition are.