King Gizzard switches it up, again and again

Omnium+Gatherum+is+the+19th+studio+album+for+King+Gizzard+and+the+Lizard+Wizard.

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Omnium Gatherum is the 19th studio album for King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard.

Sam Tobiczyk, Multimedia Editor

Omnium Gatherum, the 19th studio album from Australian rock group King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, covers a wide range of musical styles.

The band is no stranger to incorporating a wide collection of genres into their records. From the thrash metal on Infest the Rats’ Nest to the synth-pop on Butterfly 3000, KGLW has always been a band of divergent musical styles.

But never before have they included so many different genres into one project.

The album starts out with an 18-minute noise rock epic, “The Dripping Tap.” The song has three different iterations of a chorus, with each chorus containing a different framing of the phrase “the dripping tap.” These three interpretations are divided by fast-paced guitar jam sessions.

The next song, “Magenta Mountain,” switches genres to a lofi, psychedelic rock. The song can be best summed up by a previous album title of the group, Float Along – Fill Your Lungs. The psychedelic rock of “Magenta Mountain” is similar to this album – bright and carefree.

“Kepler-22b,” the next track, incorporates elements of jazz. The song harkens back to the album Sketches of Brunswick East, a jazz rock album they did with the group Mild High Club. However, the jazz on this new record is a major improvement from that previous jazz project.

And again, the following track switches genres. “Gaia” changes the sound to thrash metal, a sound they perfected on Rats’ Nest. Another song on the album, “Predator X,” also integrates elements of metal.

The songs “Sadie Sorceress” and “The Grim Reaper” are new territory for the band. These tracks are pure hip-hop/rap songs. For a rock group, KGLW produces a relatively successful boom-bap sound of classic hip hop.

Progressive rock can be found on the grandiose track “Evilest Man,” which continuously transitions from upbeat and airy rock to a dark, dramatic rock.

While the album is no doubt a fun listen, large parts of it feel disjointed because of the genre switches. It feels jarring to go from rap to soul to metal all within three songs. The album feels more like a compilation album rather than a cohesive project with one vision.

Additionally, the album is 80 minutes long, being their longest studio album to date. Parts of the latter half of the record could be trimmed to make the album more succinct. Even the genres on the end of the album are mostly represented in the former half of the record.

While the project might not be an album to listen to thoroughly and hyper-analyze, its fun genre switches make it an interesting listening experience.