King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard To Release New Album Inspired By Classic Thrash Metal

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard‘s next album “Infest The Rats’ Next” will find the band venturing into thrash metal inspired territory. Recorded as a trio of Stu Mackenzie on vocals/guitar/bass, Joey Walker on guitars/bass and Michael Cavanagh on drums, the album is described by an official press release as their ‘hardest and heaviest album to date.’ It further goes on to state of the record:

‘Drawing on the mid/late 1980s golden period of thrash metal – Metallica and Slayer, certainly, but also lesser-cited bands such as Exodus, Kreator and Overkill – ‘Infest The Rats’ Nest‘ sees a wholly unexpected creative detour into new sonic terrain.’

Mackenzie himself said of the inspiration of direction of the 9-song outing:

“In year 4 there was an older kid who was into Rammstein. I made friends with him and we put together a performance at our school assembly where we headbanged to ‘Du Hast.’ I got whiplash, which I thought was pretty cool.

That was my introduction to heavy metal, and soon Rammstein led to Metallica, Metallica led to Slayer, Slayer led to Kreator and Sodom. The German bands really kicked my ass and scared the hell out of me too. Later on, when I picked up a guitar I realised that shit was too hard to play, so I got into rock ‘n’ roll and garage. That was liberating.”

“Infest The Rats’ Nest” will be released on August 16th via Flightless with pre-orders to launch on June 25th. Thus far two singles have emerged from the outing, “Self-Immolate” and “Planet B“. Previously released videos for both can be found below: