From the beginning of their career,
King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard have been road warriors and over time have grown into a can't-miss live experience.
Chunky Shrapnel captures the band in full flight over the European continent during the last part of 2019 and is made up of songs taken from various shows. The group was fresh off the release of
Infest the Rats Nest, an album that explored heavy metal in blistering fashion, so it makes sense that a molten chunk of the songs is taken from that record. Ferocious runs through "Planet B" and "Hell" are a threat to the safety of speakers and certainly prove that the band weren't using any studio tricks to get their massive impact. The rest of the record dips into various sounds and eras of the band; ranging from the laid-back jazz wanderings of "The River" and the amp-melting prog wildness of "The Murder of the Universe" to the hyper-driven metal boogie of "Road Train" and the psychedelic blast of "Wah Wah" while taking a jaunt back to the band's early days for the pleading garage soul of "Let Me Mend the Past." No matter the style or sound, the band always play with feverish intensity and athletic abandon, which serve to transport the listener right into the thick of the crowd. The album ends with the epic-length "A Brief History of the Planet Earth," a jam that's spliced together from four different nights in four different cities and winds its way through trippy psychedelic riffs, flute solos, barely in-control guitar solos, and lots of crowd interaction.
Chunky Shrapnel is a testament to the band's powers as a live act and is sure to make their fans happy. ~ Tim Sendra