It’s not exactly news that Melbourne psychedelic outfit King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard are one of Australia’s most prolific bands, nor would anyone object if you said their prodigious output of albums has been increasingly ambitious.
Having recently unveiled Paper Mâché Dream Balloon, the group’s seventh album, a folky, acoustic curveball that followed on from the high-concept Quarters!, the band recently revealed they’re flipping the script again for album number eight.
The as-yet untitled album is apparently inspired by early heavy metal artists like Motorhead and Slayer, but according to the band’s recent interview with Rolling Stone, it’s an even more conceptual and ambitious project than fans first thought.
“It’s not really metal, but it’s inspired by stuff like that,” singer Stu Mackenzie told the magazine. According to Mackenzie, King Gizzard have been working on a “super heavy” prog-metal album that will play out as an “infinite loop”, for the better part of a year.
“I’m sure no one’s going to put it on repeat and loop the album,” said Mackenzie. “The initial plan was to make the album we’re recording now [before Paper Mâché], but we realized the songs weren’t anywhere near ready,” said drummer Eric Moore.
According to Moore, the band included six of their new tunes variously in set during their recent trek across the US. “We needed to play them live in order to make a live-sounding album. So that’s why we decided to completely shift to Paper Mâché,” he said.
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“It was maybe the most enjoyable record we’ve ever made,” said Mackenzie. “Paper Mâché is like a nice afternoon siesta before going to work a night shift.” The band are currently working that night shift at Brooklyn’s Daptone Studios.
According to Rolling Stone, the album features “tight, Krautrock-influenced segue[s] connecting songs with tentative titles ‘Mr. Beat’ and ‘High School'”, as well as “a short snippet they’ve dubbed ‘Motörhead Ending’.”
“We couldn’t play the album in one take,” Mackenzie said of the band’s current project. “If we were in the studio for six months, and we practice it every day, we could probably do it. That’d be fucked, though.”
