An unexpected turn….
King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard have announced their second album of 2019, and it sees the Aussie psych rockers heading in a new direction.
After releasing their fourteenth album ‘Fishing for Fishies‘ in April, the band will release ‘Infest The Rats’ Nest’, which hears them embrace thrash metal for the first time.
Set for release on August 16, the record is said to be influenced by Metallica and Slayer and lesser known thrash bands such as Exodus, Kreator and Overkill.
Frontman Stu McKenzie said: “In year 4 there was an older kid who was into Rammstein.
The cover of ‘Infest The Rats Nest’
“I made friends with him and we put together a performance at our school assembly where we headbanged to ‘Du Hast’. I got whiplash, which I thought was pretty cool. That was my introduction to heavy metal, and soon Rammstein led to Metallica, Metallica led to Slayer, Slayer led to Kreator and Sodom. The German bands really kicked my ass and scared the hell out of me too. Later on, when I picked up a guitar I realised that shit was too hard to play, so I got into rock ‘n’ roll and garage. That was liberating.”
The release will also come only months before the band play their biggest UK show to date at Alexandra Palace in October.
In a four-star review of ‘Fishing for Fishies’ earlier this year, NME wrote: “When it comes to neo-psych, there’s something in the water Down Under. Those cosmic scene kings, Perth’s Tame Impala, just headlined Coachella, while neighbours Pond recently returned with a belter of an album, ‘Tasmania’. For the real brain-bending stuff though, it’s prolific genre mashers King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard who sit at the really wild end of the spectrum.”
