A famously prolific Australian band that has moved through garage psychedelia, microtonal experiments, acoustic folk, and thrash metal, building one of the most restless catalogs in modern rock and a devoted live following along the way.
The Short Version
Who Are They?
King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard formed in Melbourne, Australia, in 2010. What began as a garage-psychedelic group has grown into a band defined above all by its output and its range, releasing albums at a pace few modern acts attempt and hopping freely between genres from one record to the next.
Two things make them stand out. First, the volume of work: the group has issued more than two dozen studio albums, including a run of five in 2017 alone, and it hands entire records over to fans to press themselves. Second, the range: a single stretch of their catalog can move from garage psych to microtonal tunings to acoustic folk to full thrash metal, each shift executed with real commitment.
They are also a formidable live band, known for long, high-energy sets and improvised jams that draw a large touring audience. To understand where a lot of contemporary psychedelic and progressive rock is heading, you start here.
Kaleidoscopic and restless, the psychedelic sound the band builds from.From a Melbourne Garage to a Marathon Live Act
The Story
The band's history is a story of constant motion, a group that treats each album as a chance to try a different sound and treats the studio like an open experiment.
The marathon live show, where the catalog's many styles collide in one set.
2010–2013
Garage psych beginnings
Founded in Melbourne in 2010, the seven-piece built a reputation on fuzzed-out garage psychedelia and relentless gigging. Early records like 12 Bar Bruise and Float Along – Fill Your Lungs established the sound and the work ethic.
2014–2016
Finding the machine
With I'm in Your Mind Fuzz and the looping, non-stop Nonagon Infinity, the band tightened into a driving, motorik psych-rock unit built for the stage, and its international audience grew quickly.
2017
Five albums in a year
The band set out to release five albums in a single year and did, spanning the microtonal Flying Microtonal Banana, the acoustic Sketches of Brunswick East, and the free-to-press Polygondwanaland, a feat that came to define its reputation.
2019
Into metal
On Infest the Rats' Nest, the group pivoted hard into thrash metal, a full-throated turn that surprised listeners and showed just how far the band was willing to travel from its psychedelic roots.
2020–present
Jams, marathons, and self-release
The band leaned further into long-form improvisation and blues-rock jams, released a flood of official live albums, and built out its own label operations, cementing a fiercely independent, fan-driven approach.
Four Songs, One Education
Start Here
The catalog is enormous and easy to get lost in. These four official videos are the fastest way to grasp the band's range, from looping garage psych to microtonal rock. Watch in order.
01 · The Loop
"Robot Stop" (2016)
The opening track of Nonagon Infinity, an album built to loop endlessly back on itself. Fast, driving, and relentless, it is the clearest snapshot of the band's motorik psych-rock engine.
02 · The Microtonal Turn
"Rattlesnake" (2017)
The lead single from Flying Microtonal Banana, recorded with custom microtonal instruments. A hypnotic, coiling groove that shows the band bending the tuning system itself into a hook.
03 · The Suite
"Gamma Knife / People-Vultures" (2016)
Two linked movements from Nonagon Infinity that flow together without a break, a good look at how the band threads songs into one continuous, interlocking piece.
04 · The Groove
"Nuclear Fusion" (2017)
Another cut from Flying Microtonal Banana, riding a locked-in rhythm and Middle Eastern-tinged microtonal scales. Proof of how much the band can build from a single insistent groove.
The Landmark Records
The Albums 5 to start with
The band has released more than two dozen studio albums. These five map the essential territory, from garage psych to microtonal rock to thrash metal. The green-topped card is the best place to begin.
2014
I'm in Your Mind Fuzz
The record where the garage-psych sound locks into a tight, propulsive machine. Its opening run of songs flows together into one continuous rush, a template the band would return to again and again.
The breakthrough, and a perfect place to start. A relentless, hard-driving album engineered so its final track loops back into the first, turning nine songs into one endless circle of psych-rock momentum.
Recorded with custom-built microtonal instruments tuned outside the standard Western scale. Hypnotic and coiling, it opened a whole new palette for the band and remains one of its most distinctive records.
A sprawling, interlocking prog suite that the band famously released for free, providing the master files so anyone could press their own copies. Ambitious, flowing, and one of the catalog's most beloved records.
The hard left turn into thrash metal. Lean, fast, and heavy, recorded by a pared-down lineup, it is the fullest proof of the band's willingness to abandon its own signature sound entirely.
Two YouTube Music sets: a First Listen of the signature songs to bring you in, and a Deep Cuts selection for when you want to sink into the longer, stranger corners. (Ideally, though, hear these albums whole, many are built to play front to back.) Hit the button on either card to play it.
King Gizzard is a genuine collective, most often a six-piece led by Stu Mackenzie, whose members trade instruments and duties freely. The group has long run its own operations, founding Flightless Records early on and later launching the KGLW label to release its own music.
A collective built for the stage, trading instruments and roles from record to record.
Stu MackenzieBandleader, vocals, guitarFounder, chief songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist who drives the band's genre shifts, from microtonal guitar to flute and beyond
Ambrose Kenny-SmithVocals, harmonica, keysSecond vocalist and harmonica player who also fronts the side band The Murlocs
Joey Walker & Cook CraigGuitars, vocalsThe twin-guitar core behind the band's dense psych and prog arrangements, both also writing and singing
Lucas HarwoodBassAnchors the rhythm section across the band's shifting time signatures and long-form jams
Michael CavanaghDrumsDrives the group's marathon live sets; earlier drummer Eric Moore helped run the band's Flightless label
The Roots of the Sound
Influences
The band draws on a deep lineage of heavy and experimental rock: the doom-laden riffs of early metal, the hypnotic repetition of krautrock, the organ-driven psychedelia of the sixties, and the boundary-crossing ambition of the great studio experimenters.
Metal
Black Sabbath
The founders of heavy metal, whose down-tuned, doom-laden riffing echoes directly through the band's hard-charging psych and its full-on thrash record.
The sixties psychedelic band whose organ-driven sound and extended, exploratory arrangements sit clearly in the DNA of King Gizzard's keyboard-tinged psych.
The band is candid and unpretentious about its methods, its self-release philosophy, and the sheer logistics of putting out so much music. These conversations are a good window into how the machine actually works.
Interview · triple j
On Touring and Self-Release
Stu Mackenzie talks with Australia's triple j about the band's approach to releasing music, its orchestra shows, and the independent path the group has carved for itself.
Live · KEXP
Full Performance, Live on KEXP
A full in-studio set for KEXP that captures the band as a live unit, the clearest way to hear how the many studio styles come together on stage. Search YouTube for more sessions and interviews.
Once the landmark albums have you, the band's world opens into a vast and varied catalog of studio records, live albums, and side projects.
The 2017 run. beyond the records above, the five-album year also produced Murder of the Universe and the jazzy, acoustic Sketches of Brunswick East, a quick tour of how far the band's styles can stretch in a single year.
The live albums. the band has released a large number of official concert recordings, many capturing extended jams and reworked versions, a whole parallel catalog for fans of the live experience.
The genre detours. later records dig into blues-rock, synth-driven grooves, and long-form improvisation, showing a group that never stopped changing its shape.
The side projects. members branch out into other bands, most notably The Murlocs, offering more angles on the players behind the records.
The Way to Listen
Do yourself one favor: play Nonagon Infinity straight through, then let it loop back to the start. Follow it with Flying Microtonal Banana. These albums are built as whole journeys, and hearing them front to back is the point.
