Murder of the Universe Murder of the Universe Review

Last year, Aussie psychedelic mind-bendersRex Gizzard & The Lizard Magician gave us the incessantly looping, choose-your-own-adventure masterpiece, Nonagon Infinity. It was undoubtedly the most amusing and fun record of non just 2016 but this decade. Before this yr, they challenged themselves with Flight Microtonal Assistant, which featured short bursts of neo-psychedelia played on instruments that cost no more than $200. Surely after nine albums in five years, the septet had reached the zenith of their inventiveness. Well, anthology #ten, Murder of the Universe , is on a whole different level in terms of the band's brilliance.

Murder of the Universe is a concept album unlike any other concept album. Like J.R.R. Tolkien, George R.R. Martin, and Philip K. Dick, King Gizz accept re-imagined the bizarre and uncertain times of today's globe through the narrative of another universe in an alternating time. This identify is filled with shapeshifters, powerful gods, immortal warriors, flaming beasts, cyborgs, and even the odd human. The one familiar thing, though, is the music – it's loud, flatulent, whimsical, hazy, and a sheer delight. In other words, it's King Gizzard & The Cadger Magician at their very best.

Forget about the 21-song track listing. The anthology really consists of three parts with many of the songs bleeding into the next. The showtime "9 songs" on the anthology contain Part Ane, which is the birth of the "Contradistinct Brute."

This creature starts off equally human before evolving into a primordial creature. His sole goal is to rule and boss, crushing anything that stands in his style. Observing his power, many want to follow him and spread his path of destruction. Elements of prog-rock, Krautrock, sludge-rock, and spaced-out psychedelia pelting downward at a frenetic pace throughout the outset 20 minutes. The vocals of frontman Stu Mackenzie alternate brilliantly with invitee vocalist Leah Senior, the narrator of this sci-fi/fantasy fairytale. Mackenzie wildly explains the activeness and the Contradistinct Beast'due south desires while Senior is the voice of the brute. When her vocalisation explains a savage-like scene, such as on "Contradistinct Beast II", both amusement and astonishment are felt:

"What damage could whatever mortal like you can exercise?
I am the golden wolf and you lot are caribou
My left hand is a map, and my right mitt is a fork
I will pull you part like a butcher pulls pork."

Every bit this department progresses, more people are turning into Altered Beasts equally "The Beast's DNA is dug into your nucleus," which is explained on "Altered Me III." The rail too represents a moment of calm as the instrumentation slows downwards to reverberate the transformation that is happening. Only as is King Gizz'south way, the noise escalates before the catastrophe, and a new Altered Fauna is born. However, where there is new life, something dies. In this example, information technology is ane'southward humanity, which explained with great creepy outcome on"Life/Death."

Part Two brings us into an alternating universe where Middle Earth and Westeros collide. Here King Gizzard & The Cadger Wizard tell the tale of "The Lord of Lightning" (is this Baric Dondarrion?) versus a demon of the ancient world, "The Balrog." For nigh xiv blazing minutes, the band focus on the ascent of The Lord of Lightning, the blaze of destruction left by The Balrog, and then finally the epic disharmonize. The descriptions of each graphic symbol and the action within the ultimate fight are fantastic. They could have been taken right out of the novels, though they are not. For instance, in describing The Balrog, the ring cites the iconic scene of the creature facing off against Gandalf in The Fellowship of the Ring:

"Skin begins to burn down
There's nowhere we tin turn
At that place'south no style we can win
The devil puppets him

His pyre muscles flex
We are his side by side subjects
His power has us floored
Kneel before the overlord."

Who wins this lucifer is brilliantly explained on "The Floating Fire," where The Balrog's body smoulders on the mount side. But The Lord of Lightning doesn't stay around to dominion. Instead he disappears with his deed washed. It is a story where the globe today still awaits a similar hero to smote The Balrog.

Function Three focuses on a globe that has met its oblivion. The raucous "Digital Black" kicks off this section, explaining how a "black wave of death" has consumed the earth. All that exists is"Han-Tyumi , The Dislocated Cyborg," who is the narrator of the terminal thirteen minutes. Alike to the replicants inBlade Runner and Lance Bishop inAliens, Han-Tyumi wants be human. He wants to experience emotion, feel beloved and pain, and to know what death is like. Instead, he's stuck in a postal service-apocalyptic place where very trivial life exists.

The music is toned downwards slightly, but it'southward all the same gritty and retains King Gizz's caput-bending effects. The songs are more founded around proto-metal, creating a grimy and head-banging atmosphere. Loneliness eventually overwhelms the Cyborg, and he floats in space in his "Vomit Coffin." Eventually, he witnesses the "Murder of the Universe"and meets his end. Everything is toned downwardly every bit the song evolves into a neo-psychedelic temper. In that location is fifty-fifty a sense of calm and inevitability cheers to the pronounced flute that cuts across the track. This is merely ane last surprise on an album full of them.

Yet by now, we shouldn't exist surprised by Rex Gizzard & The Cadger Sorcerer's brilliance. At present 10 albums into their career, they have taken fans on a wide-ranging, mind-bending journey. Murder of the Universe is simply another stop on this non-finish ride, although it is arguably the band'south most epic to appointment. And that's the simply manner to describe it – EPIC! Well, information technology's immensely fun, too. What will the band take in shop for album #xi? We won't have to expect long as they are planning three more than LPs past the end of 2017. Early word is that the next record will be jazz-inspired. That should exist, at the very least, interesting. For now, we'll enjoy the exhilaration of Murder of the Universe , which is out now via Flightless Records and ATO Records. Information technology tin too be ordered on the band's Bandcamp page.

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard are Stu Mackenzie (vocals/guitar/flute), Ambrose Kenny-Smith (harmonica/vocals), Cook Craig (guitar/vocals), Eric Moore (drums), Joey Walker (guitar), Lucas Skinner (bass), and Michael Cavanagh (drums).

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Source: https://therevue.ca/2017/06/26/king-gizzard-the-lizard-wizard-murder-of-the-universe/

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