King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard - Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms, and Lava (2022) Review

A hypnotic and jam-my masterpiece, one of King Gizzard’s best albums to date.

Released October 7th, 2022.

King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard are releasing THREE new albums in October, with IDPLML being their first of three. Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms, and Lava (IDPLML for short) is their 21st studio album. I love KGLW, and have been a long time fan. I have a huge vinyl collection and their records make up a big portion of it. IDPLML is a very jammy album, having less of a structure and more of a layered improvisation, with all six members contributing. Each track is based off of the seven scale modes:

1. Ice = Ionian = Mycelium

2. Death = Dorian = Ice V

3. Planets = Phrygian = Magma

4. Lungs = Lydian = Lava

5. Mushrooms = Mixolydian = Hell’s Itch

6. And = Aeolian = Iron Lung

7. Lava = Locrian = Gliese 710

This album is perfect as background music while driving, doing homework, or playing video games. The first track, Mycelium, is very happy and has a dub/reggae vibe, reminiscent of the band Fishmans. Ice V reminds me of old spy movies, and has a really fun chorus. Magma has super fun jazzy drumming and a really interesting walking bassline. Lava is more of an atmospheric track, with a slow buildup. I like the lyrics for this track, they are super catchy. The lyrics help escalate the buildup, which finally reaches a climax and all at once the instruments slowly die out. Hell’s itch is my favorite track, the lyrics are a little dark but the melody is happy and makes me wanna groove. I love the flute and harmonica, they pair well together and the drums are not too overpowering which makes room for other instruments to shine. Iron Lung has a super nice drum groove, and this song is a lot more lofi than the others. As the song progresses, the song gets more chaotic and some distorted guitar comes in to solo over the other instruments. All of a sudden, the distorted guitar cuts out and it goes back to the chill lofi vibe that the beginning of the song had. Gliese 710 ends off the album with a dark stanky vibe. It is very sludgy and slower than all the other songs. I think that the ending of this song is great and transitions right back into the first track, making the entire album one big loop.

Overall, I am going to rate this album a 9.3/10. The production on King Gizzard albums continues to get better, and I love the variety of instruments; with flute, harmonica, saxophone, and multiple different types of keyboards and pianos. The vocals are not hard to hear, and the drums are the perfect volume: not too overbearing so that it can make way for all the other instruments! King Gizzard has had some mixing issues in the past with their vocals, making them SUUPER hard to understand/hear. They are continually improving their sound and making everything sound better than it ever has. This album, along with their other most recent releases, are going to be my background music for quite some time. I love King Gizzard and I recommend that everyone checks them out!

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