While many bands have rightly earned the title of “genre chameleons”, no one quite embodies that spirit like Australian rockers King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard. It’s impossible to discuss the band without putting their unrivaled work ethic front and center – in just seven years they’ve produced fifteen studio albums, releasing five of those in 2017 alone, each one with a distinct sonic identity tied loosely back to their love of psych rock. Now, in their wildest turn yet, they’ve gone full thrash metal on their latest record, Infest the Rat’s Nest, melding the classic blast beats and scratchy guitar riffs with a cosmic narrative spanning the inner planets of our solar system and the very sun itself.
A stark contrast to Fishing For Fishies, released earlier this year, the intensity of Rat’s Nest is guaranteed to catch the ear of any King Gizzard listener who grew up on Metallica and other classic metal staples. But there’s plenty to love for those who came to the band not through their dalliances with metal, as there’s an overarching narrative to the album which starts on a dying, near-future earth and, quite literally, descends into hell (after visiting Venus, naturally).
This journey is narrated by frontman Stu Mackenzie, whose voice is deeper and more guttural than ever, adding to the punishing assault of the album and keeping the listener on their toes, constantly changing tempo and moving aggressively through its bleak story to the bitter end. It’s invigorating to hear a record that is simultaneously an unabashed homage and love letter to thrash metal, an eco-conscious missive, and a fantastical concept album.
The band’s live lineup is an expansive seven-piece, a fact that’s made all the more impressive with one quick glance at the band’s previous setlists, revealing that they make sweeping changes to the roster of songs each night. While it’s understandable that a band might want to narrow their focus on tour, the increased rarity of true setlist unpredictability makes King Gizz’s show even more of a must-see. Never one to be pinned to any one structure, they even play with the sequencing of their more conceptual albums, and in New Haven elected to invert the ‘Venusian’ section of Infest the Rat’s Nest, as well as ‘Alter Me/Altered Beast’ from their multi-part, equally-metal Murder of the Universe.
Stu Mackenzie stood center-stage, backed by a massive platform bearing two drummers and a guitarist, and three additional players around him up front. Mackenzie had ample room to move around, which was welcome as he flexed back and forth during instrumental breaks, often as a prelude to a high kick which sent his shoe sailing well above his lengthy head of hair. Other times he hoisted his whole instrument above himself, an Atlas shouldering the weighty riffs produced therein.
During a lengthy rendition of ‘Cyboogie’ – which, true to its name, is what it might sound like if a robot wrote a groove, Mackenzie journeyed to a small synth placed between the two drum sets, commanding the stage like a mad boogie scientist. It’s one of the things about a King Gizzard show that’s most elating – the whole crowd was kept in suspense as to whether the next song would bring about moshing, dancing, or both.
Augmenting the show even further were an impressive suite of projections, beginning with a 3-D render of the bone throne that adorns the cover of Infest the Rat’s Nest, and culminating in a morphing animation sequence that closed out the night as the band played ‘The River’, one of the oldest tracks they brought to bear. Not content with simply having a massive repertoire of music, each album had its own set of visuals, and tracks from standout albums like the math- and acid-rock-influenced Polygondwanaland, like ‘Crumbling Castle’, were buoyed by ever-changing abstract projections inspired by each record. To say that the show was a feast for all the senses would be an understatement, from the obvious music and visuals, to the heavy undulations of the throng or a crowd-surfer passing overhead bearing the faint smell of marijuana.
Through sheer force of will and unceasing productivity and originality, King Gizard & the Lizard Wizard have proven time and again that, though their sound changes vastly from record to record, it’s never a gimmick or a flirtation. Every single venture the band has embarked on have not been mere detours, but paths walked deliberately, with unabashed love and admiration for those who’ve tread them before.
Review and photos by Collin Heroux
