King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard -Petrodragonic Apocalypse Review

Or, Dawn of Eternal Night: An Annihilation of Planet Earth and the Beginning of Merciless Damnation.

King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard first revealed their unexpected plunge into the heavy metal arena in early 2019 with the music video for “Planet B”. This video’s release left many fans dumbfounded as it came only a month after the band released a music video for one of their lightest songs, the title track from Fishing for Fishies. With “Planet B”, King Gizzard was diving into a sacred genre, a genre that was well-established and unofficially “off-limits” to outsiders…thrash metal. How could a band that has rooted themselves deep in psych rock with progressive and experimental tendencies seemingly jump the shark and release an album that was entirely heavy metal? Well…we all saw “how” as the dystopian thrash odyssey Infest the Rats Nest (ITRN) attracted “heaps” of new listeners and transformed future King Gizzard concerts from a spectator audience to a full-on mosh pit.

Since ITRN, Gizz has dabbled in the metal realm with songs like “The Hungry Wolf of Fate” and “KGLW (outro)” from albums KG and LW, and “Gaia” and “Predator X” from Omnium Gatherum. Fans speculated that these songs were leftovers from ITRN or possibly ideas that didn’t make it onto an upcoming metal album. Regardless, these songs have earned semi-regular rotation on setlists and more importantly showed that the band hadn’t “given up” on metal. Also, since the release of ITRN, Gizz has taken on many traits of an American jam band. In 2022, Gizz adapted ever-changing setlists and expanded their playing repertoire to over 100 songs.  This in turn has produced a rabid fanbase that follows the band around the country, catching each night’s fresh new setlist and often selling fan art and bootleg merch. This jam aesthetic was further solidified with two (of the three) October 2022 Releases: Ice, Death Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms and Lava and Laminated Denim; which are arguably the band’s “jammiest” studio records yet.

In comes, PetroDragonic Apocalypse; or, Dawn of Eternal Night: An Annihilation of Planet Earth and the Beginning of Merciless Damnation (which I will refer to as “PDA”) - a welcomed refreshment for anyone not completely on-board with the “jammy” direction the band has been taking.

The album starts off with the powerhouse “Motor Spirit” which has as much old school grit as Motörhead and yet as much refined groove as Tool (sorry in advance for all the Tool references in this review). It’s very clear with this opening track that this album intends to break new ground that ITRN didn’t even scratch. The next two tracks “Supercell” and “Converge” are probably the most straight-forward songs on the album and could have possibly found themselves on ITRN but only with some major tweaking. “Supercell” is a high-energy earworm with Adam Jones riffage, while “Converge” feels like a modern-day Iron Maiden track. From here, “Witchcraft” takes us on a prog-metal folk journey that further adds to the lore and mystique of the album’s narrative. The synth (maybe guitar?) line halfway through the song lightens up the guitar-heavy song and adds a mysterious element, which fits perfectly with the song’s title. The next song, “Gila Monster,” is the catchiest song on the album and serves as a fun live crowd pleaser while still delivering nonstop riffage. In this song, Amby proves himself as an irreplaceable asset to the band’s metal sound. His powerful verse makes me feel like I could walk through a brick wall.

The album closes out with the 2 most ambitious and heaviest tracks on the album, “Dragon” and “Flamethrower”. “Dragon” at its core is unrelenting metal, but its utilization of prog elements, groove, ever-changing riffs, vocal chants and space keep it from sinking into itself. These elements allow the song to expand, evolve and ultimately break free from an epic Mastodon-like song, to what can only be described as a movement of breakdowns (no slam-dancing please) which artfully carry the song through verse and solo and ultimately back to the song’s introduction riff, showing the band’s ability to both use and abuse song structures and heavy metal archetypes. The album closer, “Flamethrower” is a modern metal chug groove, but the vocal melodies and fill riffs manage to keep the song grounded in a more classic metal sound. Halfway through, the band ventures into a spaced out, polyrhythmic drum-filled jam that any Tool or Polygondwanaland fan should thoroughly enjoy. In its outro, the band expands the track to use elements of synth and electronic drums, which seems to foreshadow something to come.

Unlike ITRN, PDA doesn’t sound like a Stu, Cavs, and Joey album, but an album made by ALL of the members.  The songs on PDA allow each member to shine. Pulsing basslines, throat singing, group chanting/harmonizing, poignant Amby vocals, tom fills, cymbal bell accents, meaningful drum solos, and synth lines allow the album to feel full and textured instead of like a guitar-centric homogenous slab of metal. PDA is arguably much heavier than ITRN, but this heaviness isn’t forced. It organically grows and swells as the songs develop and change.  PDA is a showcase on how much Cavs has progressed as a drummer but also shows the band’s progression in songwriting, ability to use space, riff onslaughts, and other nuances to allow the songs to build emotion, maintain interest, and of course slay.

While ITRN seemed more like an experiment into “Can we make a metal album?”, PDA finds the band in a more natural metal state where they can focus on expounding their metal sound beyond what they’ve already done. The album is more focused and ambitious, more textured and less linear. ITRN songs tend to sound the same from start to finish, while PDA songs are more of a journey akin to some of the progressive songs in the band’s discography (i.e. Crumbling Castle).  Another step up from ITRN, is the production value of PDA. While ITRN held on to some of the band’s mainstay lo-fi aesthetic, PDA embraces a more hi-fi sound. The production is rounder, fuller and much less “harsh”. This might be due to more experience, but also could be attributable to the inclusion of Recording Engineer Nico Wilson, who makes their first credited appearance on this album.

To quote Eric Cartman from South Park (before he clears out a massive jam festival crowd with Slayer’s Reigning Blood), “Hippies can’t stand death metal.” While PDA is far from death metal, if you ever witness a sea of tie-dye shirts moshing to the heaviest of riffs at a Gizz show, you might wonder if Cartman was completely off-base. What I think hippies (read: jam band fans) hate isn’t necessarily metal music, but the baggage of metal: the anger, the pretentiousness, the gatekeeping, and the apparent inability to lighten up and enjoy life. Now obviously there are many outliers in the metal community who just want to have fun and party (i.e. Municipal Waste), but I’ve never seen tailgating outside a Meshuggah show. On the same hand, it can be argued that most metalheads don’t enjoy jam bands, as they are likely bored by the often endless and aimless guitar noodling, the happy-go-lucky fanbase, and ultimately the lack of what is so important to metal…the guitar riff.

With PDA, King Gizzard seems to appeal to both demographics of these fans mentioned above. On PDA, Gizz has found a way to make metal palatable to the non-metal listener without sacrificing heaviness and technicality. They have found a way to take the grit of old school metal, the speed of thrash, the breakdowns of metal/hardcore and the groove of groove metal all while they exclude the often-unwieldy baggage of these genres. The vocal aggression isn’t over the top or misguided, the solos are in the pocket and not over-indulgent, the breakdowns are interesting and unforced, and ultimately the songs have structure and purpose while not being overly academic.

With PDA, King Gizzard once again shows that they are masters at doing what they want. The rules don’t apply to King Gizzard, nor do they apply to their fans. Hippies can like metal, metalheads can like jam music, and ultimately, we can all be friends.