After a year break, Gizz return with a new and cleaner production style, and their most environmentally focused album yet. Fishing for Fishies down to its artwork is extremely focused on the abuse of earth, whether it be animals as on the title track and "The Bird Song" or nature on "Plastic Boogie". This is even reflected in a change in sound, as the majority of the album has a blues rock style that suddenly turns electronic in the last two tracks. Though there isn't ... read more

"Gumboot Soup" is King Gizzard's second hodgepodge album after "Oddments", but a significantly better effort than it's predecessor. A strong diverse mix of psyche rock, pop, and jazzier elements keep the album always interesting. Still, not as coherent as many, if any, of the band's previous projects, but a shockingly good collection of tracks that may have not seen the light of day otherwise.

King Gizzard's dive into prog is pretty satisfying! "Crumbling Castle" is one of the band's best jams by far. The storytelling on the album is a definite improvement in writing from "Murder of the Universe", especially the Inner Cell trilogy. Spacey synths reminiscent of Pink Floyd back many tracks, adding a ton of extra atmosphere and character to the album. "Polygondwanaland" is of the band's most complex albums up to this point, but is far from ... read more

Hopefully the Lizard Wizards give jazz another go, because as relaxing as "Sketches of Brunswick East" can be, it fails to be more than above average background noise you'd hear in a bank lobby.

King Gizzard will later become known for their albums containing stories about the end of the world in some way or another, but none are as pessimistic and dark as their first attempt, "Murder of the Universe". Leah Senior's haunting spoken word, and later the cold robotic text-to-speech, are backed by the band's noisiest rock and most unhinged lyrics, creating a pitch black and devastating atmosphere. Despite these elements, the album is far from a home run for me. Many ... read more

King Gizzard integrate microtonality into their style so well on "Flying Microtonal Banana" that it's hard to believe this is the first time they've done it. "Rattlesnake" is one of the band's most iconic openers, while "Melting" and "Open Water" are Gizz's most obviously environmental songs yet. Out of nowhere, "Billabong Valley" revives the western sound of "Eyes Like the Sky" (minus the spoken word), and does it ... read more

"Nonagon Infinity" is King Gizzard's infinite psyche rock masterpiece, and one of the best rock albums of the past decade. The nonstop pounding drums, distorted guitars, and blaring harmonica are more intense on this album than any previous project from the band so far, and it gets me moving every time I listen to it. "Robot Stop" is easily the band's best opener, and one of their best songs in general, maybe even one of the best rock songs in general. The band ... read more

It's honestly a little surprising King Gizzard hasn't revisited folk since "Paper Mâché Dream Balloon", because they play the genre especially well here. The acoustic sound to the album is still quite unique in Gizz's discography. "Sense" is one of my all time favorite songs from the band, and "Trapdoor" is almost proto-"Rattlesnake", both with phenomenal flute passages. Despite being perhaps the band's most upbeat project ... read more

continuing the sound of willoughby's beach, 12 bar bruise delivers a noisy and raw collection of garage rock bangers. elbow and muckraker are a fantastic one-two punch to get the album started. even on their very first album king gizzard display their talent at diverse songwriting with the western inspired spoken word track sam cherry's last shot and the bluesy cut throat boogie. though the album starts to run out of steam near the end, it's slightly over thirty minute runtime ... read more

watching avatar for the first time this year was truly special, and has left me thinking about it's themes and characters long after i finished it, but also its score. it's rare that you get compositions as rich in personality and generally as phenomenal as jeremy zuckerman's in television, especially cartoons. i was recently given the score on vinyl for my birthday from the friend i watched the series with, which was a super meaningful present. what i did not expect going into ... read more

Decent garage surf rock, but proof that the band has had the energy (and the woos!) from the start.

I remember my friend playing Hey Saturday Sun and being shocked to see that it was a Boards of Canada song. The Campfire Headphase is quite different from their previous albums, with minimal sampling, and a much more naturalistic sound, which is not a term I associate with most electronic albums, obviously. The album really does sound like sitting around a campfire, sometimes with family, sometimes alone. Michael and Marcus have always been exceptionally great at creating nostalgic feelings ... read more

One of the most intense, strange, and unique scores to one of the most intense, strange, and unique games I've ever played. Bonus points for introducing me to Lightning Bolt.

As someone who didn't grow up with Linkin Park, Hybrid Theory still holds up as a very unique and special album! Chester gives some of the most memorable vocals in the genre, and Mike's rapping hits hard every song, and the two paired together are unstoppable. The guitars rock, and the scratching and electronics add a lot to their sound. Lyrically, Linkin Park aren't trying to be ambiguous or even subtle, as their words are as loud as their voices, and that's a good thing! ... read more

system of a down ending their run after only five albums is a complaint that is unavoidable if you are even a little aware of the band, but if hypnotize is a sign of what would come from the band after where they to continue, maybe it isn't such a bad thing. hypnotize isn't a bad album by any means, there aren't even any bad songs on it, but this album and mezmerize lean much more into the nu-metal sound of the 2000's that can be a little grating and also exposes its age. ... read more

back when i was first getting into more intense music my friend decided to have me listen to system of a down's first record. i didn't like the album much at the time, it was a little too weird and fast for me then. coming back to it years later with a much wider taste in music and appreciation for absurdity, what i've found is one of the most unhinged, bizarre, strange, yet incredible debuts ever. intensity is an obvious descriptor for system of a down, but it's shocking ... read more

though rage against the machine's second album may not be as influential as their eponymous debut, evil empire is in improvement in almost every way. right off the bat you're hit with people of the sun, bulls on parade, and vietnow, which is likely one of the best three song runs i've ever heard on any album. zach displays much better control over his voice, making the louder moments hit harder, percussion and bass are generally more interesting, and morello is absolutely losing ... read more

survivors of the void is a great continuation, and in some cases improvement on the sound of the risk of rain. new instruments are thrown into the mix, like the oboe and that killer saxophone on the face of the deep that add a ton of originality to these tracks. chris only gets better with each release, can't wait for seekers of the storm!

plenty of artists have great debuts, but has a great debut also ever been this strange? even for talking heads standards there are some truly bizarre songs on this album. even the album cover is strange in a sort of indescribable kind of way. some of my favorite talking heads songs land on 77 like love comes to town, no compassion, and obviously psycho killer. pulled up, and i don't intend a pun here, is genuinely one of the most uplifting album closers i've ever heard. phenomenal ... read more

Though missing some of the ambiguity and more poetic writing style and generally more unique sounds I loved from Transatlanticism and Give Up, Narrow Stairs is still a fantastic record that hits a lot of the same spots as Gibbard and co's previous projects, if slightly less frequently.