Heavy Song of the Week is a feature on Heavy Consequence breaking down the top metal and hard rock tracks you need to hear every Friday. This week the top spot goes to King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard’s “Dragon.”
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard are able to maintain such a prolific rate of output due in part to their ability to shapeshift between a seemingly endless lexicon of genres and styles. For example, on 2019’s Infest the Rats’ Nest, the Aussies tried their hand at heavy metal, channeling the likes of Metallica and Mastodon through KGLW’s own twisted personality. Although somewhat of an outlier in a vast discography, the album helped the band crossover with metal audiences while giving its own hyper-dedicated fanbase a crash-course in progressive thrash.
Well, King Gizz have returned to the rats’ nest for more metal, having recently dropped two crushing singles: “Gila Monster” and our Heavy Song of the Week pick, “Dragon.”
While the more straightforward “Gila Monster” goes hard on the stoner/sludge metal tropes, sounding a little too much like a Mastodon tribute, “Dragon” balances the band’s apparent affinity for metal with the gonzo psych weirdness that’s patently Gizz. The winding 10-minute prog arrangement evokes their most adventurous work (i.e. Polygondwanaland), and the overt thrash is pure ITRN.
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard are currently playing US shows through a June 21st gig at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles before embarking on a UK/European tour this summer. Pick up tickets to their stateside shows here and international dates here.
Honorable Mentions:
Eye Am – “Dreams Always Die with the Sun”
One would expect a band made up of members of Crowbar and Type O Negative to sound like a combination of Crowbar and Type O Negative: brooding, dark, and heavy. Surprisingly, Eye Am’s debut single “Dreams Always Die with the Sun” doesn’t really sound like either band. But as drummer Johnny Kelly pointed out in an interview with Heavy Consequence, “the ingredients are there” — namely, the thick guitar tones of Crowbar’s Kirk Windstein and Type O’s melodic sensibilities. All in all, the track is more akin to the surging alt-rock of Soundgarden or Failure, and it’s a fine start for the supergroup.
Freya – “Sense of Doom” feat. Hatebreed’s Jamey Jasta
This week will be remembered — especially for those on the northern East Coast — for the acrid smoke that enveloped portions of the country due to wildfires in Canada. Based in Syracuse, New York, metalcore act Freya were near the epicenter of the dangerous air quality during the middle of the week, and it’s only fitting that they released their new single “Sense of Doom” on Wednesday. “We are all living through increasingly tumultuous and uncertain times,” said Freya vocalist Karl Buechner, and he couldn’t be more correct. A guest spot from Hatebreed’s Jamey Jasta drives home this hard-hitting number.
Torture Rack – “Forced from the Pit”
The Pacific Northwest has become synonymous with old-school death metal via a regional scene spearheaded by bands like Torture Rack, Fetid, and Cerebral Rot. Each of those acts has found its way onto the expertly curated roster of 20 Buck Spin, which dropped Torture Rack’s latest collection of viscous OSDM, Primeval Onslaught, on Friday (June 9th). The LP’s third track “Forced from the Pit” stands out for being the longest at four-plus minutes, offering copious riffs, breakdowns, and turnarounds — just the kind of kinetic death metal to rid the moshpit of those of a more feeble demeanor.