King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard have released their 28th album.
Out today, Alien Metal arrives via the band’s own p(doom) Records. Listen 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,” said 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 explained. “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 added. “And it feels unique — it feels like us, still.”
Following their album release, King Gizzard will return home for Australian tour dates in October, including an appearance at The Croxton Block Party in Melbourne. Ticket information is available here.
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.
King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard’s Alien Metal is out now.
