In addition to this year's boogie-centric Fishing for Fishies, King Gizzard & The Wizard Lizard have released two singles -- "Self Immolate" and "Planet B" -- whose influence was classic thrash metal. The Australian band have now announced that both of those tracks will be on their next record, Infest the Rat's Next, which will be out August 16 via Flightless/ATO. That's the cover art above. “In fourth grade there was an older kid who was into Rammstein,” says frontman Stu Mackenzie. “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 realized that shit was too hard to play, so I got into rock ‘n’ roll and garage. That was liberating.”
More on the new album from Stu: “The A-side of the album is set in the near future and is about real shit going on right now – especially ecological disaster. We’ve got a lot of things to fear. The B-side tells the story of a group of rebels who are forced to leave Planet Earth and try to settle on Venus. I spend a lot of time thinking about the future of humanity and the future of Planet Earth. Naturally these thoughts seep into the lyrics.” For those keeping score, Infest the Rat's Nest will be King Gizzard's 15th album in seven years.
Catch King Gizzard on tour with Stonefield and ORB starting in August, including a NYC show at SummerStage in Central Park on 8/28 (tickets). All dates are listed below.
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard 2019 Tour Dates: 08/13 – Los Angeles, CA @ Greek Theatre 08/14 – San Francisco, CA @ SVN West 08/15 – San Francisco, CA @ SVN West 08/16 – Portland, OR @ Roseland Theater 08/17 – Vancouver, BC @ Harbour Event Centre 08/18 – Seattle, WA @ Paramount Theatre 08/20 – Salt Lake City, UT @ The Depot 08/21 – Denver, CO @ Mission Ballroom 08/23 – Milwaukee, WI @ Riverside Theater 08/24 – Chicago, IL @ Aragon Ballroom 08/25 – Toronto, ON @ Rebel 08/26 – Montreal, QC @ Olympia 08/27 – New Haven, CT @ College Street Music Hall 08/28 – New York, NY @ SummerStage Central Park 08/30 – Philadelphia, PA @ Franklin Music Hall 08/31 – Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club 09/01 – Asheville, NC @ New Belgium Brewing Company 09/02 – Atlanta, GA @ Tabernacle 09/03 – New Orleans, LA @ Joy Theater 09/04 – Austin, TX @ Stubb’s Austin 09/06 – Dallas, TX @ The Bomb Factory 09/30 - Nottingham, UK @ Rock City Nottingham 10/01 - Glasgow, UK @ Barrowland Ballroom Glasgow 10/02 - Leeds, UK @ O2 Academy Leeds 10/03 - Manchester, UK @ Victoria Warehouse Manchester 10/05 - London, UK @ Alexandra Palace 10/06 - Utrecht, Netherlands @ Tivoli Vredenburg (SOLD OUT) 10/07 - Utrecht, Netherlands @ Tivoli Vredenburg 10/08 - Brussels, Belgium @ Ancienne Belgique (AB) 10/11 - Cologne, Germany @ Carlswek Victoria 10/12 - Berlin, Germany @ Columbiahalle Berlin 10/13 - Luxembourg @ Rockhal Club Esch Sur Alzette 10/14 - Paris, France @ L’Olympia 10/15 - Milan, Italy @ Alcatraz 10/16 - Zürich, Switzerland @ X-TRA 10/18 - Madrid, Spain @ La Riviera 10/19 - Barcelona, Spain @ Razzmatazz
