Released: 2021

Genres: Anatolian Rock, Psychedelic Rock, Progressive Rock, Heavy Psych

The Musiquarium’s L.W. Review Score: 8 out of 10

As the third volume of the “Explorations into Microtonal Tuning” series and a direct sequel to 2020’s K.G., King Gizzard’s L.W. sees the Aussie sextet return to eastern microtones one last time, before inevitably moving onto something new.

The album opens up with the apocalyptic funk of If Not Now, Then When, where Stu Mackenzie sings of concern that “this is an emergency, need to act more quickly”, while questioning when The Powers That Be will stop destroying the planet, when Big Pharma will stop poisoning us and when the technocracies will stop spying on us — it’s a profound and scary opener from the usually carefree band, who have ramped up their socio-political and environmental messaging in recent years.

O.N.E. opens with an gentle, lullaby-like opening, with chimes and soft harmonica, before launching into the typical heaviness that has permeated their microtonal records. Pleura is a Stu Mackenzie & Joey Walker co-write, with Ataraxia being a solo composition from Walker, who has really spread his wings as one of the band’s principle songwriters on these past two albums.

Ambrose Kenny-Smith sings on Supreme Ascendancy, which compliments K.G.‘s Amby-sung Straws in the Wind nicely. Static Electricity and East West Link have some outstanding guitar-playing, showing a mastery of microtonal scales. Ever the multi-instrumentalist, Stu Mackenzie plays celesta and clarinet on See Me (in addition guitar, keyboards, and bass).

Where their last album started with a brief intro called K.G.L.W., this record ends with a lengthier version with vocals, and plenty of heavy metal distortion and doom — as a titular track for the the two records, as well as a self-referencing song, it seems as though King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard’s microtonal series is the band’s definitive statement of who they are as musicians.

Though K.G. was an good record and sequel to Flying Microtonal Banana, L.W. slightly edges out its predecessor as a slightly better record, though taken as a double album, it’s one of their best project yet.

For credit breakdowns and historic release details, view King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard on Discogs.

Back to the 2021 Album Reviews Guide or the King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard Reviews page.

Written by Brett Nippard