#77

#77. King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - Gamma Knife (#61, 2016)

10th of 2016

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Getting interested in King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard is an extensive investment. The band have thus far released 27 albums and I wouldn't be surprised if there was another one by the time this post goes live (yep, 28 now). If not, we might actually be closing in on the longest gap between albums they've ever had, as "Phantom Island" came out waaaay back in June 2025. Still, that's more albums than there are James Bond movies, and they only started in 2012. In order to be into the band and have fully formed opinions about their discography, you have to be really into them. Give them a good rinse over and they'd become my most listened to artist almost by default. What ends up happening is that I'll have conversations about them with different people and they'll always end up bringing up something I'm not overly familiar with.

Fortunately, there's one big exception in all of this. It's literally the reason I'm talking about them right now, because if there's one almost universal thing that brings everyone together with this band, it's that "Nonagon Infinity" opens the door. It's the band's 8th album, released in the middle of a particularly prolific period for them and has run away to be easily the band's most famous album. You can pick and choose if you want their hard rock, blues rock or psychedelic pop (and all the other ones I left out), but this one feels like the quintessential inclusion. It's their Ocarina of Time, their And Then There Were None, their Season 6 of The Simpsons, hopefully you get the idea.

It's hard to hype the album much more than I do. It's just a complete thrill ride from start to finish. Only that's also an odd definition because it's an album where every track flows into the next one, including the album's closer into the start. Not only can you listen to the album on an endless loop, but I've also done it before. I once just spent hours on end listening to "Nonagon Infinity" and I came out of it, a changed man. Well, maybe that's a bit much, but it's very permanently lodged into my memory, and I have no desire to remove it. They largely get around any possible argument of repetition by having the album be relatively brisk at 9 tracks (get it, nonagon?) and you go away from each song largely remembering the hooks.

Oddly enough, it was one of the album's deeper cuts that first converted me over. The song "Wah Wah" which probably isn't a highlight for many, but it has given me a nice bridge during the album's slower portion in the back. The album is a little frontloaded in that regard but it's a necessary moment of recovery after the opening salvo. The run from "Robot Stop" to "People-Vultures" is just King Gizz at their absolute best, firing on all cylinders. That's nearly 20 minutes of highlight concentrated deliberate jamming that goes down a treat.

If you've done the observations here, you'll know that "Gamma Knife" fits in the middle of that too. For a band like this, reducing it all to just a single is tough, but I do think this song meets the assignment. As long as you've got that one frantic riff, and a good dosage of 'woo!', you've got the general summary on board. There's something primal about it all that I don't think I can put into words. The band just offers something you don't really get elsewhere, and I love them for that. Sheer volume means I'm never too far away from finding another King Gizz song I love.