When
King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard
decided to make a metal album in 2021, they didn't skimp on anything.
Infest the Rats Nest
had all the prerequisite boxes checked, and the band played like they had grown up ingesting plenty of heavy music along with all the psychedelia and garage rock. At the time, it felt like a one-off, but the band decided they weren't done with Cookie Monster vocals, thunderous guitar riffs, and double kick drums quite yet. 2023's majestically named
PetroDragonic Apocalypse; or, Dawn of Eternal Night: An Annihilation of Planet Earth and the Beginning of Merciless Damnation
is another deep dive into various forms of metal, and, as on
Rats Nest
, the group unspool a tale of destruction, monsters, and horror that comes across like it should be playing on the jukebox at the last stop before Hell. The songs are long and epic, frequently dropping all the guitars for long segues of tribal drums and chants before they charge back in to strike like giant coils of lightning. Both
Stu Mackenzie
and
Joey Walker
display the flying finger work needed to be guitar heroes; they play with laser-etched precision and never lapse into excess. Indeed, despite more than half of the songs stretching far past the five-minute mark, there is no flab on the album. Tracks like "Motor Spirit" and "Dragon" have the dynamic range to keep the songs flowing, and the tightly wound energy that courses through the album never lets the listener take a breath. The dark lyrics' concerns and
Mackenzie
's fierce vocal growls also ramp things up to a fever pitch. It's clear that the group feel strongly about the concept that they've constructed as a basis for the album, and metal is the perfect vehicle to get across their deeply unsettling vision of the possible future. There's a raging grandeur on
PetroDragonic Apocalypse
that was hinted at on
, but this time around, there is even more immediacy in both the lyrics and the playing. All talk of concepts and deep thought aside, the album flat out kicks a hole in the speakers. "Converge" has a thrumming power that recalls
Judas Priest
at their toughest, the rollicking "Gila Monster" has an almost gleeful malevolence as
's sneering vocals dance nimbly, like a tipsy
Alice Cooper
, and even the songs that have a little subtlety to them, like the conga drum-heavy synth metal jam "Flamethrower," should make the headbangers happy. The stricter members of the metal community might see
King Gizzard
as interlopers with no real metal cred, but after
and now this thrillingly massive album, there's no reason the band shouldn't be considered one of the best practitioners of the genre around. ~ Tim Sendra