Murder Of The Universe
ATO
2017
Rating: 8 ice dragons out of 10
They're not quite in Guided By Voices/Robert Pollard territory, but King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard release a lot of records. And what often happens in these cases is I get overwhelmed with keeping up/digesting their music, and eventually tune out. According to Discogs this is their eighth full length in the last three years, three from just this year - and apparently they are planning on releasing two more before 2018 gets here!
Anyways, yadda yadda yadda, I somehow end up with a digital copy of "Murder of the Universe," popped it on for a listen I thought wouldn't make much of an impression, but was smitten from the start. Technically there are twenty-one songs, but really it's just three intertwined epic jams titled "The Tale of the Altered Beast," "The Lord of Lightning vs. Balrog," and "Han-Tyumi and the Murder of the Universe." As you might guess from those titles, the lyrical content is a bunch of Dungeons & Dragons-type silliness, or an even nerdier version of the shit all Led Zeppelin songs are about. Lyrical content aside, the music is killer - the most perfect combination of kraut rock, prog, and "New Wave of British Heavy Metal"-esque heaviness. The "Altered Beast" section is especially great, so driving and aggro and I'm pretty sure if I listened to it in my car I would start speeding right away. Lots of spoken word narration through the whole thing - it's like someone did a mash-up with a "Lord of the Rings" audiobook and a rock band. And shockingly, delightfully, it works.
The whole record is pretty damn ridiculous, but I'm way into it. Still on the fence? There's a song called "Vomit Coffin." Case closed.
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