"I was like, I'm going to forget everything I know about music and relearn it all from scratch." King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard announce EDM album Alien Metal, share single Level 5

King Gizzard and the Wizard Lizard — (Image credit: Maclay Heriot)

King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard have announced details of their 28th studio album Alien Metal.... and they're billing it as a full-on EDM record.

The ever-unpredictable Melbourne psych-rock band have dabbled in dance music before, most notably on their 2023 album The Silver Cord, which ditched guitars in favour of exploring synth-heavy electronica, and have also incorporated a number of 'rave sets' into recent tours, ditching guitars in favour of a custom modular synth they named 'Nathan'. This, in turn, led to the band focussing entirely on synths for their forthcoming album, which is set for release later this summer,

"It completely rewired my brain," says bandleader Stu Mackenzie on working with 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."

According to a press statement, Alien Metal is "a seamless, ever-shifting journey through techno, hardcore, house and jungle influences, filtered through King Gizzard's unmistakable psychedelic lens." The statement goes on to say that it's "a record that feels both futuristic and uniquely their own".

"Alien Metal goes really hard," insists bandmate Joey Walker, "but it also goes to really interesting places. And it feels unique – it feels like us, still."

The album tracklist is:

1. Sapience
2. Alien Metal
3. Superheavy, Supercritical
4. Kill For The Steel
5. Level 5
6. Rapid Alpha Decay
7. Uqt
8. Atomic Collapse

Watch the video for Level 5 below.

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Watch full video here:

King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard - Level 5 [Official Video] - YouTube

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A music writer since 1993, formerly Editor of Kerrang! and Planet Rock magazine (RIP), Paul Brannigan is a Contributing Editor to Louder. Having previously written books on Lemmy, Dave Grohl (the Sunday Times best-seller This Is A Call) and Metallica (Birth School Metallica Death, co-authored with Ian Winwood), his Eddie Van Halen biography (Eruption in the UK, Unchained in the US) emerged in 2021. He has written for Rolling Stone, Mojo and Q, hung out with Fugazi at Dischord House, flown on Ozzy Osbourne's private jet, played Angus Young's Gibson SG, and interviewed everyone from Aerosmith and Beastie Boys to Young Gods and ZZ Top. Born in the North of Ireland, Brannigan lives in North London and supports The Arsenal.