King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard (2023)
Printed From: Progarchives.com
Category: Progressive Music Lounges
Forum Name: Prog Polls
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URL: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=131155
Printed Date: June 26 2025 at 10:50
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 11.01 - http://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard (2023)
Posted By: Saperlipopette!
Subject: King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard (2023)
Date Posted: June 25 2023 at 11:42
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I made http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=127677&KW=gizzard&PID=5945076#5945076" rel="nofollow - this poll in 2021 , but it's dated by now. 24 studio albums since 2012, and I think all of them sans their debut and Butterfly 3000 are at least really good - most of them fantastic really. Vote for your favorite ones. I'm gonna have to vote for my five 4.5 stars. How about you? 4.5 stars: Changes Infest the Rats' Nest Polygondwanaland Nonagon Infinity PetroDragonic Apocalypse(; or, Dawn of Eternal Night: An Annihilation of Planet Earth and the Beginning of - Merciless Damnation) Sketches of Brunswick East Made in Timeland Laminated DenimIce, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms and Lava Omnium Gatherum K.G.L.W. Flying Microtonal Banana Gumboot Soup 3.5 stars: Murder of the Universe Paper Mâché Dream Balloon Oddments Quarters! I'm in Your Mind FuzzEyes Like the Sky Fishing for FishiesFloat Along - Fill Your Lungs 3 stars: Butterfly 3000 2.5 stars: 12 Bar Bruise: |
Replies:
Posted By: bardberic
Date Posted: June 25 2023 at 15:40
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I voted for Murder of the Universe, Quarters, and Changes. I think those are their best and the ones I'd give a 4.0+, with the first one being a 4.5. For their others, I haven't listened to all of them, and probably never will, but I'd have them as this. Note that these are ratings for when I'm sober - when I'm high, these ratings change significantly: 3.5: L.W. Butterfly 3000 Petrodragon, etc. (just one listen - people seem to be raving about this one, so I'll have to listen to it again and see if I should rate it higher, since it's supposedly so good) I'm in Your Mind Fuzz Infest the Rats Nest Paper Mache Dream Balloon Flying Microtonal Banana 3.0: K.G. Polygondwanaland Ice, Death, etc. Sketches of Brunswick East Eyes Like the Sky 2.5: Nonagon Infinity Laminated Denim The rest I just don't know enough about yet.
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Posted By: Saperlipopette!
Date Posted: June 25 2023 at 16:00
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bardberic wrote:Posted By: Stressed Cheese
Date Posted: June 25 2023 at 17:52
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I've been obsessed with these guys lately, but I've only gotten through 12 of their albums so far, though I've nearly completed my CD collection at least, with just Oddments and the Anglesea EP to go. Here's my opinion on the 12 albums I have heard so far: 5 stars: Nonagon Infinity - I have to agree with popular opinion here, a great mix of proggy elements, heavy energy and their distinctive fuzz and feedback sound Polygondwanaland - Great mysterious sound and fun polyrhythms 4.5 stars: Butterfly 3000 - Much more interesting and proggy than I'd initially expected, and very uplifting Sketches of Brunswick East - Absurdly underrated, since it's probably the album with the best song transitions/flow, and some of their best psychedelic, dreamy moments Fishing For Fishies - Just a really fun idea to mix the boogie rock rhythm with different styles and some proggy time signatures 4 stars: Float Along - Fill Your Lungs - Great mix of psych stuff and more poppy stuff, though it still feels like a collection of songs rather than a unified, flowing album Infest The Rats' Nest - In hindsight it shouldn't have been a surprise to me that the best thrash metal album of the 21st century doesn't come from a legacy band or retro-revival band Flying Microtonal Banana - I don't think I like this as much as a lot of KGLW fans, but I can't give it less than 4 stars either K.G. - Cool mix of different moods with the microtonal stuff, which makes it less repetitive than Banana, but feels a bit run-of-the-mill for their standards as well. But in a way it shows how good these guys are if I think a rather average album by them is still worth 4 stars 3.5 stars: Quarters! - Nice, but it does get old a bit after repeated listens 12 Bar Bruise - Rather simple, but you can already hear Stu's songwriting skills through the ear-splitting production and mastering 3 stars: Eyes Like The Sky - Nice idea, but musically not very interesting. At least it established right from the get go (perhaps coincidentally) that any KGLW album will be different than the next I'll be voting for my top 3. I hope that sometime next year I'll be caught up with them, so I can get excited about them announcing a new album, instead of getting stressed out about it.
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Posted By: bardberic
Date Posted: June 25 2023 at 20:43
I feel like Buttrfly 3000 is King Gizz's most consistently midrange album - it's always ranked fairly high, but never top tier among the band's fans, but it's also never ranked low. It's interesting how everyone has a good, but not exceptional vibe with this album. Although, stoned bardberic would consider this one of the greatest albums of all time
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Posted By: bardberic
Date Posted: June 25 2023 at 20:51
MotU was actually my introduction to King Gizz - it was my first album from them. I actually got it blindly at the record store. I heard of King Gizzard before, but never listened to them. I just really liked the album art, and there was a sticker on it that said "vomit green colored vinyl," and the shade of green on the artwork is like my favorite color. I thought it was going to be some psychedelic doom metal album, based on the artwork. I loved it upon my first play hehe Sometimes albums are just a perfect match for you, you know?The transitions were actually a turn off at first, but I've grown to actually like it, because they add a sense of chaos to the music. This is the only Gizz album that really hasn't grown tiring for me, yet. Polygondwanaland, also, hasn't seemed to have gotten stale, but I never really liked it nearly as much as most other fans do (although Crumbling Castle is easily the band's best song overall, and even a top tier prog song for me, but the rest of the album can't even touch it) - I never understood the big deal, though tbf again it hasn't grown stale after repeated listens (except for the song Inner Cell, that one got boring). Flying Microtonal Banana was sorinigally ranked much higher for me, even surpassing MotU at one point, but it's kind of grown stale after repeated listens, for example. MotU holds up for me.
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Posted By: Saperlipopette!
Date Posted: June 26 2023 at 01:23
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^You make it sound very
attractive again. I'm gonna give it a relisten. Oh, there's also the
"ever present" softly spoken word. Quite lovely at first really but
after a while gets a little distracting. I think I prefer more
abstracted storylines, the music does most of the talking.
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Posted By: Lewian
Date Posted: June 26 2023 at 03:47
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I know four of these, of which I like L.W. and Polygondwanaland. |
Posted By: mathman0806
Date Posted: June 26 2023 at 04:08
| Out of the 11 I have listened to, my top 3 are Nonagon Infinity, Polygondwanaland, and Omnium Gatherum. |
Posted By: geekfreak
Date Posted: June 26 2023 at 12:27
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Polygondwanaland ------------- Friedrich Nietzsche: "Without music, life would be a mistake." Music Is Live Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed. Keep Calm And Listen To The Music… < |
Posted By: Saperlipopette!
Date Posted: June 27 2023 at 03:04
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So far it seems everyone sans bardberic loves Polygondwanaland, while Nonagon Infinity is the second most popular. Hardly surprising. Not enough votes to draw any kind of conclusions from really. But I had a feeling Flying Microtonal Banana
was more popular outside of PA. And maybe
I'm right about that. Or maybe not. Imo there's not a single bad song on it, and I
enjoy the Turkish psych-vibes - so still a four out of five from me. But
as a full album it does come across as somewhat uneventful and samey. At times. And could it be that this microtonal thing sounds more exciting than it really is? |
Posted By: Stressed Cheese
Date Posted: June 28 2023 at 07:26
I feel like it usually ranks quite low on rating websites compared to most of their albums, including on RYM and here. I guess it might stray too far from what some people expect from KGLW
I think a lot of thrash metal bands from this century stick too close to the golden days of the genre. Just like with bands that try to do 70's style prog, I prefer to listen to the originals rather than modern-day tributes. You can just tell they're derivative, and despite the sometimes terrible production of old thrash bands, I still prefer the sound of the 80's/90's for thrash overall. So KGLW's original take on the genre is very welcome IMO. There's a decent amount of people who saw Infest as a non-metal band intruding on the genre, but I'd much rather have this than 72 Seasons. As for the poppier singing style, he does do metal vocals on ITRN, but I kind of wish he hadn't. The contrast between the fast riffs and the more operatic vocals of Joey Belladonna is one of the reasons I like Anthrax so much, and had KGLW stuck to that idea they would've further set themselves apart from the generic thrash crowd.
Honestly, I kinda think so. It sounds exotic, but from their microtonal albums it feels more same-y/limited than just our classic 12-TET scale. But then, I'm no expert on microtonality.
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Posted By: dougmcauliffe
Date Posted: June 28 2023 at 09:04
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[QUOTE=bardberic] Note that these are ratings for when I'm sober - when I'm high, these ratings change significantly: Haha, love that As the resident King Gizz Super fan in these parts, here's where I stand. 5 Stars: Live at Red Rocks (I was there!) I'm In Your Mind Fuzz Nonagon Infinity (back in college, me and my drummer friend used to jam this album front to back with me on guitar) 4.5 Stars: Ice Death Planets Lungs Mushrooms and Lava Polygondwanaland L.W. Infest the Rats Nest Petrodragonic Apocalypse Laminated Denim Flying Microtonal Banana 4 Stars Gumboot Soup Fishing For Fishies K.G. Murder of the Universe Changes (Change, the title track, is one of the best and most proggy Gentle Giant-esque things they've ever done) Sketches of Brunswick East Quarters Float Along Fill Your Lungs 3.5 Stars Omnium Gatherum (The Dripping Tap, their best song) Paper Mache Dream Balloon 3 Stars Butterfly 3000 2.5 Oddments, 12 Bar Bruise, Eyes Like the Sky
------------- The sun has left the sky... ...Now you can close your eyes |
Posted By: Saperlipopette!
Date Posted: June 28 2023 at 11:18
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Don't skip Made in Timeland folks. This track (or the B-side) in particular is such a trip!
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Posted By: Saperlipopette!
Date Posted: June 28 2023 at 12:51
Sorry, it's clearly (at least) a four. I just a bore.
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Posted By: BrufordFreak
Date Posted: June 28 2023 at 13:38
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Of the 12 KG LizWiz albums I've reviewed (so far), only one has achieved five star status: 2022's Changes. Four star albums: 2014's Quarters ! 2017's Flying Microtonal Banana and Polygondwandaland 2022's Omnium Gatherum, Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms and Lava, and Laminated Denim 2023's PetroDragonic Apocalypse; or, Dawn of Eternal Night: An Annihilation of Planet Earth and the Beginning of Merciless Damnation ------------- Drew Fisher https://progisaliveandwell.blogspot.com/ |
Posted By: Awesoreno
Date Posted: June 29 2023 at 00:58
| Despite being similar conceptually, I enjoyed Laminated Denim much more than Made in Timeland. Great to see Doug M back (for now)! Didn't see Timeland on your list there. |
Posted By: Saperlipopette!
Date Posted: June 29 2023 at 01:52
Btw: try these two "sister albums" as an hourlong double. Like this: 1. Timeland 2. The Land Before Timeland 3. Smoke & Mirrors 4. Hypertension To me it seriously lifts them both to a higher level.
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Posted By: dougmcauliffe
Date Posted: June 29 2023 at 03:19
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Awesoreno! King Gizz threads always pull me out of the shadows! Honestly forgot about Timeland when I was putting that list together, both the tracks have some really great moments, especially Smoke and Mirrors. I think as a whole the structure of the songs and sometimes random trajectory of them can lose me in certain sections, but I think it's a fun record. Laminated Denim on the other hand rings as a great little psyched out sleeper pick in their discography ------------- The sun has left the sky... ...Now you can close your eyes |
Posted By: bardberic
Date Posted: July 14 2023 at 14:54
Glad I'm not the only one to recognize this album's brilliance
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Posted By: Saperlipopette!
Date Posted: July 15 2023 at 05:59
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Posted By: Saperlipopette!
Date Posted: August 10 2023 at 12:23
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Actually, now it's upgraded to the exclusive club of 4.5 stars-albums. Changes, I mean. The title track is one of my absolute favorite of theirs.
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Posted By: bardberic
Date Posted: August 10 2023 at 22:28
It really is a good and, surprisingly, underappreciated album. It sounds like something they would have released in 2017, during their, what I consider to be, their peak, even though it was released last year, which I think was really otherise just a big letdown from them. I'm not personally a fan of the new jammier direction they're heading, but this album is great!
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Posted By: Stressed Cheese
Date Posted: August 11 2023 at 07:00
That album was apparentely started in 2017, so that would make sense. I wasn't that psyched either when they announced they were entering a "jammy" era, but considering I really like Float Along and Quarters, maybe that's kind of unfounded. I haven't heard any of their 2022 releases in full yet though.
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Posted By: Saperlipopette!
Date Posted: August 11 2023 at 07:31
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^ I like band that can improvise and do it well (like Can), but I'm certainly not the biggest fan of jamming or jambands either. It's probably fun to play that way, but as a listener the end result often bores me. But King Gizzard usually pulls it off imo. They are creative and capable enough to not end up as a directionless and lazy jamrock band when they let themselves go. For me one of KG&LW's best qualities is their organic, playful feel, even when it's tightly composed. Playing and recording as much as they do probably has its advantages. They get very good at what they do. Good instincts. |
Posted By: Octopus II
Date Posted: August 11 2023 at 10:36
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I will have to check this band out. I have heard absolutely nothing by them. I think the band name is awful though! (sorry to any fans of the band).
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Posted By: Saperlipopette!
Date Posted: August 11 2023 at 12:30
The band's name was created "last minute"; Mackenzie wanted to name the band "Gizzard Gizzard" while another band member wanted Jim Morrison's nickname "Lizard King". They eventually compromised with King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard. Anyway, you could do worse than starting with: Polygondwanaland, Changes & Nonagon Infinity. If none of those work for you at all, I guess they may not be for you.
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Posted By: mathman0806
Date Posted: August 11 2023 at 13:00
There's a YouTube playlist in the first post of this poll. https://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=131410" rel="nofollow - https://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=131410 |