King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard are releasing their 28th album this year.
Announced today, Alien Metal will be released later this year via the band’s own p(doom) Records. Check out the tracklist below.
According to a press release, King Gizzard’s new album “sees the ever shape-shifting Melbourne six-piece set the controls for the dark heart of electronic dance music.”
Alien Metal was written and recorded on the modular synthesiser set-up which they took out on the road last year, affectionately named “Nathan” by the band.
The album grew out of last year’s ‘rave shows’ where King Gizzard abandoned traditional instruments in favour of their aforementioned modular synthesiser set-up. What began as a fun experiment grew into an obsession, inspiring one of the band’s most ambitious records to date.
“It completely rewired my brand,” says lead singer Stu Mackenzie, who discovered the possibilities of the Eurorack synthesiser format on the recommendation of fellow King Gizzard member Joey Walker. “I was like, ‘I’m going to forget everything I know about music and relearn it all from scratch.'”
“We’ve never scrapped so much material as we have for this album,” Mackenzie explains. “Entire albums, entire universes that were formulated, created, recorded, deleted and started again.”
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“‘Alien Metal’ goes really hard, but it also goes to really interesting places,” Walker adds. “And it feels unique — it feels like us, still.”
Accompanying today’s album announcement is “Level 5”, its lead single and video.
The clip, directed by Hayden Somerville, features a cameo by Vince Colosimo, known for his iconic roles in Chopper, The Fog Boy, and Underbelly.
“Hayden had brought up Vince on numerous occasions when fantasising about casting for previous projects, but I had mostly laughed it off because it seemed impossible,” reveals producer Ruby Thomas. “But on this occasion it didn’t feel like such a crazy idea.
“We really wanted to find a strong, recognisable face to lead this clip, and in Australian cinema, Vince is all that and more. He was a dream to work with and brought so much more to the role than we could have imagined.”
King Gizzard featured in not one, not two, but three major Rolling Stone AU/NZ lists last year.
We included L.W. (2021) in our 100 Best Australian Albums of the 2020s So Far countdown; “Dragon” (2023) and “Gamma Knife” (2016) made our Best Australian & New Zealand Songs of the 21st Century So Far countdown; and we included Phantom Island (2025) in our year-end Australian albums list.
Always fond of a live show or five, King Gizzard have a bunch of tour dates coming up, including three dates at Forest Hills Stadium in New York. Check out their full tour dates here.
King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard’s “Level 5” is out now.
Alien Metal Tracklist:
“Sapience”
“Alien Metal”
“Superheavy, Supercritical”
“Kill for the Steel”
“Level 5”
“Rapid Alpha Decay”
“Uqt”
“Atomic Collapse”
