King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - Infest the Rats' Nest
Critic Score
Based on 21 reviews
2019 Ratings: #551 / 805
User Score
2019 Rank: #41
Liked by 349 people
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CRITIC REVIEWS

90
Gigwise

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard aren’t just exploring their musical capabilities – they’re telling a story.

80
PopMatters

On Infest the Rats' Nest their garage rock roots are almost imperceptible, as they commit so heartily to thrash metal and produce an album placed firmly at the top of its genre.

80
AllMusic

King Gizzard aren't sugarcoating anything, either musically or thematically, and that makes for their most timely and political album yet. It's also one of their most musically compelling and impressive, too, and that's saying a lot.

80
Q Magazine
Moving into attack mode suits the band, most strikingly on the monolithic Superbug and the effects-laden boogie of Mars For The Rich.
80
Exclaim!

This latest addition to the group's ever-growing discography sounds more like Metallica than they ever have before.

80
The Young Folks

Infest might not offer a particularly innovative take on heavy metal, but it does capture a band doing what it does best.

80
Spill Magazine

Extremely loud, frantically fast and guaranteed to melt its fair share of faces off, Infest The Rats’ Nest sees the band at their most hardcore, delivering old school heavy metal thunder with a vengeance.

80
Mojo

It all adds up to the heavy, heavy sound of extinction rebellion, King Gizz developing themes they first explored on 2017's Murder Of The Universe.

80
The Needle Drop

King Gizzard takes a successful swing at thrash metal on their second album of 2019.

75
Consequence of Sound

While it feels like a minor misstep in comparison to much of their catalog, it finds the band crafting forceful and ferocious, mosh pit-friendly rippers that are politically and socially relevant.

75
The 405

Even with a jarring pace and social commentary that is a bit on the nose and yes, dorky, Infest the Rats’ Nest is admirable because it has fun amid foreseeable chaos.

70
Uncut
An album of rapid-fire drums, throbbing bass and colossal riffs that nod, well, headbang, back heavily to the glory days of thrash metal.
70
Classic Rock

Aussie psychedelicists King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard go very metal on Infest The Rat's Nest.

70
Clash

Like most King Gizzard records, it runs out of steam in the second half, but when ‘Infest’ rips it rips as hard as some bands who have been making this music for decades.

67
Pitchfork

As heavy as the album is, it feels slight in the context of the band’s catalog, lacking both the unpredictable detours of their biggest rock-outs and the insidious melodies of their more pop-focused work.

65
Under the Radar

Infest the Rats' Nest can sometimes feel like a band playing at the harder edges of its sound just because, but when it comes together on tracks like "Mars for the Rich" or "Venusian 2," who really cares.

60
Dork

Their latest sees King Gizzard as if they were an 80s heavy metal band, and the results are comical and slightly disturbing.

60
Upset

Influenced by the band’s respective teenage obsessions with 80s thrash metal, the new album combines haunting flutes and sexy solos with deep, dark heavy riffs - making for a thrilling rock'n'roll romp through inter-galactic dimensions.

60
NME

Unfortunately, incessant genre-hopping can make even great bands seem directionless and, as the album reaches its mid-section, the material does start to wear thin.

50
Loud and Quiet
Setting aside sub-par, masturbatory ecological musings, the album is best embraced as total fanboy worship at the altar of Judas Priest, Slayer, early Metallica, and Kreator.
40
Evening Standard
Admittedly, their sweltering sound fuelled by oily electric guitars will have you on the edge of your seat and conveys a fitting sense of climate emergency, but the listening experience is an effort.
PipePanic
91

My house is now destroyed. My town is now in flames. My dad is now a pile of bones.

And I couldn't be happier.

Are the critics on crack? This isn't just a one-note idea, this is King Gizzard going the fuck off! Goddamn was this worth the wait! I tried so hard not to listen to the leaks, but goddamn was this album as satisfying a listen as any i've had this year so far. This album, from the bottom and top of my heart, absolutely and unequivically WRECKS!

From the thunderous drum work, to the ... read more

BuffaloStaple
60

lmao they be travellin to Venus and shit on this one wtf

amw100
76

King Gizzard's is dive into thrash is one of the most interesting turn of events i've seen so far this year, i was pleased to witness them maintain this new sound in a respectful way even if a lot of the end product is not very memorable.

dream pop album up next guys?

mfmous
85

heavy, grabs hold of you and doesn't let go until the very end. really enjoy the messaging and kgatlw really pulls off this style

fUSTERcLUCK
88

Gizzard's first full-on metal album is a face-melting combination of retro-inspired thrash and stoner.

regalitooo
68

there is no planet bbbbbb

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Track List

1Planet B
3:56
93
2Mars for the Rich
4:11
93
3Organ Farmer
2:39
86
4Superbug
6:43
87
5Venusian 1
3:20
86
6Perihelion
3:11
90
7Venusian 2
2:44
87
8Self-Immolate
4:28
92
9Hell
3:39
91
Total Length: 34 minutes

Year End Lists

#13/The Needle Drop
#23/Gigwise
#35/MOJO
#38/Sputnikmusic
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Added on: June 20, 2019