King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard have dabbled in electronic dance music before; 2023’s The Silver Cord was all-electronic while still keeping pop song structures, and they’ve dived more into EDM territory over the last few tours, incorporating “rave” sets into their shows with a custom modular synth they’ve named Nathan. They’ve now used Nathan to record an entire album that goes full-on dance. Alien Metal is out later this summer on their own p(doom) records.
“It completely rewired my brain,” says Stu Mackenzie on working with modular synths. “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. Entire albums, entire universes that were formulated, created, recorded, deleted and started again.”
“Alien Metal goes really hard, but it also goes to really interesting places,” says Joey Walker, King Gizzard’s resident techno-head. “And it feels unique – it feels like us, still.”
The first single from Alien Metal is “Level 5” which runs on a breakbeat engine and vocoders. It’s in Prodigy territory while still somehow sounding like King Gizzard. Watch the sci-fi/horror video for it, directed by Hayden Somerville and featuring iconic Australian character actor Vince Colosimo (Chopper), below.
King Gizzard will be in the US in August for their Field of Vision festival in Colorado before heading to NYC for three nights at Forest Hills Stadium: 8/20 & 8/21 are rock shows with Die Spitz and DJ Crenshaw opening while 8/23 is a “rave” show. They’ve also recently added a rave show at Under the K Bridge on 8/24 with .VIRL opening.
Alien Metal:
Sapience
Alien Metal
Superheavy, Supercritical
Kill For The Steel
Level 5
Rapid Alpha Decay
Uqt
Atomic Collapse
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard – 2026 Tour Dates
14-16.08.26 – Field Of Vision II – BUENA VISTA, CO (SOLD OUT)
20.08.26 – Forest Hills Stadium – NEW YORK (with Die Spitz, DJ Crenshaw)
21.08.26 – Forest Hills Stadium – NEW YORK (with Die Spitz, DJ Crenshaw)
22.08.26 – Forest Hills Stadium – NEW YORK (rave show)
23.08.26 – Under The K Bridge Park – BROOKLYN, NY (rave show with .VRIL)