For all who are familiar with Melbourne psych-rockers King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, you will rejoice in the continued theme of dramatic guitar and synth extravaganzas.
The scene for their new record Nonagon Infinity is set with track one, "Robot Stop" with its rollicking guitars matched with rapid drumming and sparse repeated vocals. A mesmerising combo is created and draws you into a womb of psychedelic sound waves.
This epic creativity and flights into psychedelia and funkiness move through the tracks. The album is all about big guitar sounds rattled off at one hundred miles an hour. A wild and frenzied frenetic musicality pervades. With only nine tracks it is not a lengthy album in that respect. However, the tracks tend towards the four minute mark and sometimes longer. Dramatic intros are also another standard attribute of each track.
My ears tended toward the high drama of the album. Bands such as Megadeth and Black Sabbath came to mind mainly due to their same love of high octane dramatic rock. This was very much present in track four, "People Vultures," with its flights of fancy, guitars going off the Richter with their rattling and rolling. It is very much a song to inspire energetic air guitar.
Track six, "Evil Death Roll" doesn't let up on that image - a seven minute plus extravaganza of rapid-fire guitar machine gunning down that rock 'n' roll highway. Once again repeated vocals matched the music to create a mesmerising effect. It goes into the heart of cosmic psychedelia.
Tracks seven and eight "Invisible Face" and "Wah Wah" tend towards an outer space theme. Lyrics are snappy, music is swirling around. A funky intro with sound bouncing around in space.
Then the final track, "Road Train" pulls back on all that excess. It is a gritty, sweaty, brutal, industrial hard rock number. This is a highlight because of its visual quality. Through the use of deathly ghostly vocals and brutal guitar, it builds a picture of a big rig rolling along the wide open outback of Australia and the brute strength and personality required to control such a beast.
All round, fans of big epic psychedelic rock will enjoy the prolific and hard-working band's eighth album. Nonagon Infinity will be an album to transport you to another dimension.
The same day that King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard begin their Canadian/USA tour. Up, down, and around North America, they will be unleashing the album live on 24 different stages only returning briefly to Australia for Splendour in the Grass in July before going back on tour. The next leg starts mid August in the UK.
Nonagon Infinity is out now on CD, vinyl and digital formats.
