King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard: “PetroDragonic Apocalypse…” (2023) – Album Review

Summary

PetroDragonic Apocalypse; or, Dawn of Eternal Night: An Annihilation of Planet Earth and the Beginning of Merciless Damnation Music is an early contender for my favorite album of 2023. King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard bring their talents for inventive, evocative compositional prowess to bear, with electrifying thrash metal results. The album forges the King Gizz ethos ahead into pure genre territory, catalyzing its evolution with shredding metal intensity.

Album Info

Hot-Take Review

OK so let’s get the full album title out of the way in a big bold statement. Ready? Here it comes: King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard return in 2023 with their latest release, PetroDragonic Apocalypse; or, Dawn of Eternal Night: An Annihilation of Planet Earth and the Beginning of Merciless Damnation Music.

(Park Ranger note: for the purposes of sanity, hereon out both band and album are designated by King Gizz and PetroDragonic Apocalypse, respectively.)

Now far be it for me to attempt to introduce King Gizz to the uninitiated, as that would be an entirely separate post. Perhaps a longwinded one at that. Let it suffice to say that they are one of the most prolific and inventive acts around. Originally hailing from Melbourne Australia, King Gizz is often characterized as genre-defying, and rightfully so. Their sound incorporates elements of rock, including prog, psychedelia, garage, indie, space, folk, fusion, and metal. Often many or all of them at once.

Pertaining to metal, PetroDragonic Apocalypse is King Gizz’s first overtly metal album since 2019’s Infest The Rats’ Nest. That particular album represented King Gizz reveling in their love of thrash, embracing it as an expressive measure. Rats’ Nest is a fine record, but PetroDragonic Apocalypse elevates their thrash delivery to even greater heights. Here King Gizz refines not just the attitude, energy, and technique, but also the cheekiness and absurdity. The band embraces the totality of the genre without gratuitously winking at the listener or offering up outright parody.

(Park Ranger note: there are four years and eight studio albums between Rat’s Nest and PetroDragonic Apocalypse. Four of these albums were released in 2022 alone. Yeah. Prolific.)

You could easily name-check any dozen thrash, thrash-adjacent, and NWoBHM bands that influenced this record. The usual Big Four of course, Testament, Overkill, King Diamond, Exodus, as well as Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Saxon, etc. As such the album is a bit of a love letter, with some homage, but never delving into pastiche. Without missing a beat PetroDragonic Apocalypse proudly wears its King Gizz ethos on its sleeve.

PetroDragonic Apocalypse wastes zero time in delivering its extinction-level event for our entertainment. We arrive in an industrial nightmare of a wasteland with opening track “Motor Spirit”. Here King Gizz inundates with crunching guitars, snarling vocals, frenetic kick drums, and zero apologies. The tone amalgamates the thrash of Anthrax and White Zombie’s iconographic into an apocalyptic horror. Man has literally fueled his own environmental destruction, as whirlwind vortices tear the Earth apart. The destruction of humanity is awash with evocations of darkened smog horizons, melted steel, bubbling oil, gasoline and blown gaskets in a high octane nightmare.

With “Supercell”, this nightmarish presentation continues. A group of occultists rises to save us from this hellish landscape. An act of arcane desperation to save the human race, this “Supercell” is a pummeling vision of inescapable destruction. This five minute tune captures the album’s tone more impactfully than its eight-minute opening sibling.

“Converge” shifts perspective as a Gila Monster watches the dissolution of humanity from space. He witnesses snakelike tendrils spreading across the planet, converging into chokepoints of horror and destruction. While ostensibly “more of the same”, “Converge” amplifies the doomscape scenario with more snarl, attitude, and an infectiously fist-pumping one-word chorus.

“Witchcraft” is my favorite track on the album. Retaining the thrash trappings, the song takes on a more progressive feel. The band plays with more complex melodies and time signatures, but the song feels completely organic with the thrash context of the album. While never quite stopping to take a breath, “Witchcraft” is the point in the album where both the narrative and music begin to really sprout dividends. The coven has tried and failed. Whatever measure of hope there was has dissipated in quanta.

Next, “Gila Monster” the first advance single from the record, and is a magnificently cinematic beast of a number. Plus it is arguably the coolest metal video of the last two decades:

Assuredly, releasing this as an advance single was an inspired and logical choice. While I don’t feel there’s a moment on this record that feels remotely “inaccessible” — Good Lord, I hate that word — “Gila Monster” probably casts the widest net. Certainly among metal fans, anyhow. It retains every strongly resonant element of classic metal that defines classic metal entirely. Not that the song is derivative; just emblematic.

Still, that ending was forged in Sabotage-era Sabbath. And the Gila Monster has inhaled the fumes from the coven’s rituals and grown more powerful, more evolved, and more destructive. All hail King Gila, indeed.

Culminating at long last with “Dragon”, PetroDragonic Apocalypse reaches its apex. We reach boiling point with a near 10-minute epic of monstrous thrash sorcery. King Gizz throws in a bit more jazziness and instrumental tooling, but they capitulate to the pervasive metal ethos. Here we have the muscular riffing, meticulous tight rhythm section holding the pocket, sinister vocals, and an overriding sense of doom and defeat.

Gila has sprouted wings and become the Dragon. More than just monster, Gila has assumed the mantle of godhood. He devours the coven and takes flight, to incinerate the world and its inhabitants into oblivion. The titular apocalypse is at hand. The demon has won. Witness the dawn of eternal night.

Plus there’s a whole bunch of sorcerous incantations in Latin. Fire up Google Translate and see for yourself what (and how) man’s folly has wrought. Or some such goshdarnery.

Say, here’s the video:

Closing the album proper is “Flamethrower”, placing a cherry on the cake of our destruction. Almost equal in runtime to “Dragon”, “Flamethrower” is a epic and pleasing closer. However, I almost feel the album would have perhaps ended stronger with the previous tune. On its own “Flamethrower” is a great track but it doesn’t develop into anything more than a rather impressive epilogue instead of an epic conclusion.

Nevertheless, it’s hard to complain when the song is this good. The extended ending, with its primal percussive drumming, swirling atmospheric keyboards, and droning vocal chants, is nothing less than the final destruction of humanity. It’s chilling and yet it’s utterly engaging.

PetroDragonic Apocalypse; or, Dawn of Eternal Night: An Annihilation of Planet Earth and the Beginning of Merciless Damnation Music is an early contender for my favorite album of 2023, thus far. Certainly my favorite metal record. King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard brought their talents for inventive, evocative compositional prowess to bear, with electrifying thrash metal results. King Gizz fans might have to figure out for themselves if PetroDragonic Apocalypse fits within their particular wheelhouse. Whether the album is too heavy, not heavy enough, lacking complexity or overrun with zigs instead of zags, KG fans’ mileage may vary. For me, the album forges the King Gizz ethos ahead into pure genre territory, catalyzing its evolution with shredding metal intensity.

What similar albums does ChatGPT recommend?

While it behooves me to remind my readers that everything you just read is 100% Mills, let’s ask our friendly neighborhood AI for some similar album recommendations

I’ll recommend five albums from the past 15 years that fans of PetroDragonic Apocalypse by King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard might enjoy. These are diverse records which cover a variety of styles within the rock and metal genres, reflecting King Gizzard’s eclectic approach.

1. “Crack the Skye” by Mastodon (2009): A landmark progressive metal album from one of the leading bands in the genre. This concept album features complex compositions and thematic depth that King Gizzard fans might appreciate.

2. “The Sciences” by Sleep (2018): This is a brilliant stoner doom album that matches King Gizzard in terms of its sonic heaviness and its penchant for thematic exploration, in this case the interplay between science, mythology, and cannabis culture.

3. “The Satanist” by Behemoth (2014): For those who appreciate the darker and more intense elements of King Gizzard’s music, this blackened death metal masterpiece offers a captivating journey into darkness and rebellion.

4. “Prequelle” by Ghost (2018): While more theatrical and melodic than King Gizzard, Ghost’s music features a similar blend of catchiness and conceptual depth, with a focus on satanic and occult themes.

5. “Magma” by Gojira (2016): This album by the French progressive metal band offers a powerful and emotive exploration of grief and environmental themes. Their technicality and emotional depth could resonate with fans of King Gizzard’s more intense work.

Output from ChatGPT, OpenAI to Mills, 19 June 2023.