King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard (KGLW) are an Australian rock band formed in 2010 in Melbourne, Victoria. The band's current lineup consists of Stu Mackenzie (vocals, guitar, flute), Ambrose Kenny-Smith (vocals, harmonica, keyboards, saxophone), Cook Craig (guitar, keyboards, vocals), Joey Walker (guitar, vocals), Lucas Harwood (bass, vocals), and Michael Cavanagh (drums, vocals). They are known for exploring multiple genres, staging energetic live shows, and building a prolific discography.
The band's early releases blended surf music and garage rock and were released on their label, Flightless. They released several psychedelic rock albums in the early 2010s, and incorporated a broader range of musical styles later in the decade, such as jazz fusion on Quarters! and the folk-inspired Paper Mâché Dream Balloon. In 2016, they generated more mainstream attention with Nonagon Infinity, which won the ARIA Award for Best Hard Rock or Heavy Metal Album.
Noted for their prolific discography, in 2017 the band fulfilled a promise to release five studio albums within the calendar year, and also marked the beginning of a trilogy of microtonal albums with Flying Microtonal Banana. Subsequent releases integrated heavy metal, synth-pop, and progressive rock, and feature lyrics that address environmental themes and a connected fictional universe termed the "Gizzverse" by fans.
Alien Metal, their 28th studio album, was surprise released 14 August 2026.
History 2010–2012: Formation, early releases, and 12 Bar Bruise The band members all grew up and went to school in the Deniliquin, Melbourne, and Geelong areas of Australia. Stu Mackenzie and Cook Craig were in a high-school band called Revolver & Sun while at the same time Ambrose Kenny-Smith and Lucas Skinner were in a band named Sambrose Automobile. Additionally, Mackenzie, Skinner, and Michael Cavanagh were also simultaneously in a band called The Houses. Some songs eventually released by King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard originated during this time period, such as "Crying" from Oddments being a Revolver & Sun original.
Mackenzie, Moore, and Walker met studying the music industry at RMIT University, and the other members were mutual friends. The band started off with a fluid lineup of members, fluctuating from the original three of Mackenzie, Walker, and Moore to up to 11 members, however, the lineup eventually became Mackenzie, Walker, Moore, Kenny-Smith, Cavanagh, Craig, and Harwood. Kenny-Smith was the last to enter the band in 2011. Mackenzie stated in a 2017 interview that the band's name is purposefully nonsense as while the band and its lineup was still fluid in its early years most members considered the band "not an important group" and as the "band we started to not really mean anything" and regularly experimented with "weird names" with King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard being "the one that was the most absurd, and I guess for that reason it was just the one that stuck." Melbourne artist Jason Galea has created all of the band's album art and the majority of their music videos.
The band's first releases were two singles in 2010, both self-released: "Sleep / Summer!" and "Hey There / Ants & Bats". The band's next release, 2011's Anglesea (named after Anglesea, Victoria, Mackenzie's home town), was released as a four-track EP on CD. These releases did not become available digitally until the Teenage Gizzard compilation in 2020.
Willoughby's Beach was released by Shock Records on 21 October. Beat Magazine described the nine-track garage rock EP as "filled to the teeth with consistently killer hooks".
The band's first full-length album, 12 Bar Bruise, was released on 7 September 2012. The 12-track garage rock album was self-recorded, and several tracks used unconventional recording methods; for example, the vocals for the album's title track were recorded through four iPhones placed around a room while Mackenzie sang into one of them.
2013–2014: Eyes Like the Sky, Float Along – Fill Your Lungs, Oddments, and I'm in Your Mind Fuzz The band's second full-length album, Eyes Like the Sky, was released on 22 February 2013. Described as a "cult western audio book", the album is narrated by Broderick Smith, Kenny-Smith's father, and tells the story of outlaws, Native Americans, and other figures of the American frontier. It was written collaboratively by Smith and Stu Mackenzie. Mackenzie said the album was inspired by Western films and Red Dead Redemption, among other things, and was written as a response to being typecast in their previous releases.
The band's third full-length album, Float Along – Fill Your Lungs, was released on 27 September. King Gizzard shifted from garage rock to a more mellow folk and psychedelic sound on the eight-track album. It also saw Eric Moore start playing drums after previously playing theremin and keyboards. According to the liner notes from the album, this album is the first time they started to experiment with odd time signatures, which they would use on many songs going forward.
In October 2013, 12 Bar Bruise won Best Independent Hard Rock, Heavy or Punk Album at the AIR Awards with the band receiving a Carlton Dry Global Music Grant of $50,000 AUD. The grant afforded the band the opportunity to tour internationally for the first time in 2014 and fund professional recording at Daptone studios in Brooklyn.
Oddments released on 7 March 2014. On this album, the band is more melodic, with the vocals being more prominent. The album's mixing style led to it being described as "recorded through a woollen sock in an adjacent room".
The band's fifth full-length album, I'm in Your Mind Fuzz, was released on 31 October. The album touches on elements of fantasy, and lyrically delves into the concept of mind control. This was the first time the band took a "traditional" approach to writing and recording an album: the songs were written, the band rehearsed together, and they recorded the songs "as a band" in the studio. Pitchfork described the album as "open[ing] with a sprint" and ending "with some of their best slow jams". In 2019, the album came at #6 on Happy Mag list of "the 25 best psychedelic rock albums of the 2010s".
2015–2016: Quarters!, Paper Mâché Dream Balloon, Gizzfest, and Nonagon Infinity 2015 saw the band launch Gizzfest in Melbourne, a two-day music festival that was held annually and toured Australia, featuring both local and international acts.Williams, Tom (26 September 2018). "King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard Announce Gizzfest 2018 Lineup", Music Feeds. Retrieved 27 May 2020.
Quarters!, King Gizzard's sixth full-length album, was released on 1 May 2015. The album features four songs, each running for 10 minutes and 10 seconds, making each song a quarter of the album. Drawing upon jazz fusion and acid rock, the album's more laid-back sound was described as "unlike anything they've released before" by Tonedeaf magazine.
On 17 August, King Gizzard released the title track "Paper Mâché Dream Balloon" as the lead single for the album with the same name. The second single, "Trapdoor", had a music video released on 10 November. On 13 November, the band released its seventh full-length album, Paper Mâché Dream Balloon. It features only acoustic instruments and was recorded on Mackenzie's parents' farm in rural Victoria, and features "a collection of short, unrelated songs" described as "mellow, defuzzed psychedelia". It was the band's first album to be released in the United States via ATO Records.
The band's eighth full-length album, Nonagon Infinity, was released worldwide on 29 April 2016. Described by Mackenzie as a "never-ending album", it features nine songs connected by musical motifs that flow "seamlessly" into each other, with the last track "linking straight back into the top of the opener". On 8 March, the band released a video for the first single, "Gamma Knife". The song "People Vultures" was released on 4 April, and its music video on 6 May. The album received high praise from critics, with Pitchforks Stuart Berman writing that it "yields some of the most outrageous, exhilarating rock 'n' roll in recent memory". Happy Mag Maddy Brown described it as "an intensely striking, ferocious sound that gets the blood flowing and heart racing". The band earned its first ARIA Award when Nonagon Infinity won the 2016 ARIA Award for Best Hard Rock or Heavy Metal Album.
2017: Five albums in one year
The band's ninth full-length album, Flying Microtonal Banana, was recorded in the band's own studio and released on 24 February 2017. The album was recorded using custom instruments adhering to 24 TET based on the Bağlama. It was described as "a soaring take on microtonal music" by Guitar World. Three tracks were issued in advance: "Rattlesnake" (the opening track) in October 2016, "Nuclear Fusion" in December, and "Sleep Drifter" in January 2017. The music video for "Rattlesnake", directed by Jason Galea, was described by Happy Mags Luke Saunders as "a masterclass in hypnotism" and features a scrolling 3D-animated desert background with the band playing in front of it.
Another full-length album, Murder of the Universe, was released on 23 June. It is a concept album divided into three chapters: The Tale of the Altered Beast and The Lord of Lightning vs. Balrog (released on 30 May), and Han-Tyumi and the Murder of the Universe (11 April). Spill Magazine explained that the album "describes the impeding doom of the world in a dark fantasy genre kind of way". It is narrated by Leah Senior for the first two chapters, and a text-to-speech program providing the voice of Han-Tyumi for the final chapter. The band made their international television debut on 17 April, performing "The Lord of Lightning" on Conan on TBS in the United States.
The album Sketches of Brunswick East was released on 18 August. It is a collaboration with Alex Brettin's psychedelic jazz project, Mild High Club. Taking inspiration from Miles Davis' 1960 album Sketches of Spain, as well as the band's base recording location of Brunswick East in Melbourne, it is an improvisational album. Mackenzie described the record as relating to the constant changes in their neighborhood, and trying to finding beauty in the location.
The album Polygondwanaland was released as a free download on 17 November. The band encouraged fans and independent record labels to create their own pressings of the album, stating that it was "free to download and if you wish, free to make copies". The first track "Crumbling Castle", was released on 18 October. A music video created by Jason Galea accompanied its release on YouTube. As of August 2023, 363 different versions of the album have been recorded on the physical music database Discogs, and it has been called "the ultimate vinyl release" by Louder than Sound.Lewry, Fraser (11 April 2018). "How King Gizzard & the Wizard Lizard's Polygondwanaland became the ultimate vinyl release", Louder than Sound. Retrieved 29 May 2020.
Gumboot Soup, the fifth and final album of 2017, was released on 31 December. Mackenzie explained in an interview that the album consisted of songs that didn't work in, or came after, the other 2017 records, but that they were not b-sides.Gwee, Karen (6 December 2017). "Band of the Year King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard Can't Stop, Won't Stop, and Don't Need to Stop", Consequence of Sound. Retrieved 31 December 2017. They had intended to release Changes, but it wasn't finished yet.
In December, Consequence of Sound named King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard Band of the Year, praising both the quantity and quality of their releases that year.
2018–2019: Fishing for Fishies, Infest the Rats' Nest, and reissues