Australia’s King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard have released their thrash metal-focused fifteenth studio album, Infest The Rats’ Nest, via ATO Records.
Infest The Rats’ Nest – Album Cover
The new album includes the previously-released singles, “Cyboogie“, “Boogieman Sam“, “Organ Farmer”. Earlier this week, the band released yet another pre-album single, “Mars For The Rich” along with an accompanying online video game.
As a press release announcing the album’s arrival notes, “These new tracks prove that King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard aren’t mere dabbling dilettantes when it comes to thrash and metal. Their love of this ferocious music runs deep, and was previously explored on 2017’s apocalyptic concept album Murder Of The Universe, hinted at during the award-winning Nonagon Infinity’s more bludgeoning moments and elsewhere in numerous hardcore psychedelic freak-outs in their back catalogue.”
Coming just six months after the release of Fishing For Fishes, which embodied an aesthetic of “uplifting blues-rock” and “deep electro explorations”, Infest The Rats’ Nest exhibits a striking change of pace. Drawing on the mid/late 1980s golden age of thrash metal, the album represents an unexpected creative detour for the band.
As frontman Stu Mackenzie (vocals, guitar, bass, keyboards, flute) explains,
In fourth grade there was an older kid who was into Rammstein. I made friends with him and we put together a performance at our school assembly where we headbanged to ‘Du Hast’. I got whiplash, which I thought was pretty cool. That was my introduction to heavy metal, and soon Rammstein led to Metallica, Metallica led to Slayer, Slayer led to Kreator and Sodom. The German bands really kicked my ass and scared the hell out of me too. Later on, when I picked up a guitar I realized that shit was too hard to play, so I got into rock ‘n’ roll and garage. That was liberating.
Continues Mackenzie about the album’s high-concept themes,
The A-side of the album is set in the near future and is about real shit going on right now – especially ecological disaster. We’ve got a lot of things to fear. The B-side tells the story of a group of rebels who are forced to leave Planet Earth and try to settle on Venus. I spend a lot of time thinking about the future of humanity and the future of Planet Earth. Naturally these thoughts seep into the lyrics.
“I think what is important to me is that we keep ourselves interested,” concludes Stu of the album’s change of pace. “So this band is a highly-selfish endeavor in that respect. I try not to worry about what others think too much, but the people around us and the people who come to our shows do wield an influence too. I think I just wanna make music all the time.”
Listen to King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard’s Infest The Rats’ Nest in full below:
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard – Infest The Rats’ Nest – Full Album
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard also just began their massive headlining world tour this week with a stellar performance at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles.
For a full list of upcoming King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard tour dates, see below or head to the band’s website here.