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· Trevor Miller
This Album has 5 Moose on the Moose Meter: 🫎🫎🫎🫎🫎
In the sonic realm that is "PetroDragonic Apocalypse; or, Dawn of Eternal Night: An Annihilation of Planet Earth and the Beginning of Merciless Damnation", King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard don't just revisit the thrash metal landscape of their previous venture "Infest the Rats' Nest". They tunnel deeper, excavating a catacomb of rhythm, melody, and raw power that turns metal on its head, in their indomitable style.
The creative maelstrom that is their jamming process has given birth to a body of work that reflects the band's collective genius. Each track emerges from this petri dish of improvisation as an entity unto itself, and yet, like a constellation in the night sky, they combine to form a greater whole. At the helm is Stu Mackenzie, directing the creative currents with aplomb.
Every track feels like a chapter of an intricate fantasy saga, each one contributing a piece to the overarching narrative. Their 14-minute opus, the eponymous "PetroDragonic Apocalypse", lays the groundwork for an epic tale populated by a menagerie of fantastical creatures and mythological elements.
Both "Gila Monster" and "Dragon", the album's singles, deserve special mention. The former is a storm of unyielding riffs and frenzied solos, a love letter to thrash metal that doubles as a battle cry. The latter expertly interweaves their thrash proclivities with a more psychedelic undercurrent, a nuanced dance between the extremes of their sound spectrum.
The album's underpinning message returns us to the environmental themes of "Infest the Rats' Nest", this time with a sense of urgency that matches the severity of the issues it highlights. From the damning indictment of non-renewable energy sources in "Motor Spirit", to the bleak environmental wastelands portrayed in "Witchcraft" and "Supercell", King Gizzard has taken their hard-hitting style and used it to drive home a crucial message.
Their homage to past albums like "Murder of the Universe" and "Nonagon Infinity" lends a familiar thread to this musical tapestry, linking the past to the present while pushing the sonic envelope further.
The album's closing track, "Flamethrower", is a potent distillation of the band's evolution. It encapsulates their rich and varied soundscape and teases potential future avenues of exploration, making for an intriguing and satisfying endnote.
"PetroDragonic Apocalypse" is an audacious undertaking that rewards the adventurous listener. It's as demanding as it is engaging, pushing boundaries while anchoring itself in the band's foundational ethos. King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard have crafted an album that's a clarion call to the power and potential of metal music as a form of expression. And they have done so with their signature brand of audacity and imagination.
-Monty Moose