METALHEAD ENVIES| KING GIZZARD & THE LIZARD WIZARD| "THE LORD OF LIGHTNING VS BALROG"

#kinggizzardandthelizardwizard #metalhead #musician #reaction

[@ohmy7795]

when you said you hated the repetition of Balrog I can't wait for you to listen to Rattlesnake and the other flying microtonal banana songs lmao

[@kyles5513]

Haha, rattlesnake is a great example

[@Blubberplays]

Rat Hole Snake!

[@crustytaco123456789]

Big Gizz fan here. Just wanted to let you know that yes, you will run into certain songs/albums that you dont like and thats perfectly fine because they're so diverse that its tough for anyone to like everything that they put out. For me, the Han-tyumi part is my favourite part off this album for sure and i dont really like the first 2 sections (like you, i can admire it but it just doesnt sit right with me). Anyways, keep up the journey! It sure is a long one with its ups and downs but i guarantee you wont regret listening to their discography once you get to the end!

[@SgtPoodleSlayer]

Yeah what they said ^ one of the best things about King Gizz is you might not like this album, but they probably have 10+ more coming down the line you'll really enjoy haha

[@urdr_urdr]

I've come to appreciate and love the first 2 sections of this album over time, but the third was always my favourite.

[@john757]

[Refrain] Balrog, balrog Balrog, balrog Balrog, balrog Balrog, balrog Balrog, balrog Balrog, balrog Balrog, yes, oh!

[@tangerinecarrots4282]

i get it man, the repetition in their music was the biggest gripe i had when first getting into King Gizzard. if you’re like me though, you’ll probably grow more appreciation for it over time. songs like Rattlesnake, Open Water, Trapdoor, Mycelium, The Dripping Tap, etc, are all songs that lean heavily into repetition and create a sort “zone-out” vibe to the music that i’ve really come to enjoy. if you aren’t like me, though, and find the repetition grating after multiple relistens, then that’s fine too! everybody listens to music differently, and with a band like King Gizzard there’s so much versatility in their music that I’m truly convinced that there’s something for literally everyone to admire. but at the same time, because of that versatility, i don’t really think all of their music is “for everyone”, if that makes sense. it’s completely understandable for some people to not fully connect with everything they do at first, or at all! it’s taken almost a full year since first discovering them for me to come to appreciate everything in their discography!

[@fbggo]

The KEXP perfomances are great, all of them.

[@hufflepuff8277]

If you didn’t like the tempo staying unchanged you’ll have to alter your expectations for nonagon. With the exception of one song the album keeps the same blistering pace pretty much the whole 40 minutes.

[@kyleaguiar3447]

The start of this music video cuts in with the beat and video for peoples vultures off Nonagon Infinity. It’s lore within the gizzverse.

[@XanoxTheArc]

Chapter 3 of MOTU is one of the most creative, amazing things they've ever done. Can't wait to see your reaction.

[@krentzplays]

"I would have took the Acrid Corpse and made that the Balrog" well, technically the Lord of Lightning did make the Balrog into the the acrid corpse so...

[@FruitPuppyYT]

Murder of the Universe was the 2nd album release of 2017; with Flying Microtonal Banana, Sketches of Brunswick East, Polygondawanaland and Gumboot Soup being the others. Polygondawanaland is my favourite album. It's currently tied for #1 with Petrodraconic Apocalypse. Can't decide rn. The Dripping Tap and Rattlesnake are two other notably repetitive songs, I think The Dripping Tap should be longer (i am completely sane)

[@maciekwoyda870]

Did the big turkey make you laugh? You will meet him while listening to Nonagon Infinity and get ready for special effects that will make your amusement reach an immeasurable level. Mood swings when listening to KGLW's discography is probably a natural phenomenon. I don't know a person who would love all 25 albums. Everyone has a different taste in music, and here we are dealing with a rare phenomenon. If the Beatles fans who love 'Yesterday' might have been shocked to hear 'Helter Skelter', here's a crazy musical rollercoaster. Stu mentioned it in one of the interviews: we love music, we listen to a lot of different music, we play what we like. A beautiful example of independence and following your own path. Concert halls full of people confirm that you can achieve success with this approach to your passion, instead of producing synthetic shit that will have two billion views on KZbin.

[@auzgirg6029]

Motu is their tenth album, eyes like the sky is their second album and the first concept album; spoken spaghetti western. That came out in 2013. After another two albums and we get to Im in your mind fuzz which is in my opinion, the start of their venture into more conceptual material. You could argue every album is a concept album, but from that point on its basically a main stay. Im very happy to see you still vibing, though i will agree that after lord of lightning it drags a little. Listening to the album all the way through definitely helps identify with the change ups more, as it feels more like 3 separate 15 minute jams; i hope experiencing the tale of the altered beast and now the lord of lightning and balrog all the way through can add to your experience. The throat singing is awesome, i had commented before how it has been peppered in throughout the years until PetroDragonic; this was the first time its been featured in their music if i recall correctly. Im very happy to have been given the shout out on this one dude, i love getting to live vicariously through you again. I am excited for you to hear the last chapter! I personally enjoy both watching you react to the music videos or just audios; whichever ends up working best. I would recommend at least checking some out on your own time, because having some of the vizual references will help the motifs and callbacks stick. Ive been trying to remain vague over them, because the experience is important and i want to see you genuinely catch them as we go through this discography. Cheers friend, great time i really love the journey

[@jpak8]

I feel like you'll find the last suite at least more interesting. Whether you'll like it or not is another story. I love that shit so much, personally 😂

[@cmhmania]

Lol when you were saying you were super excited for the balrog song i knew it was gonna bomb haha. I had a similar reaction the first time i heard it too cause i lovw LOTR

[@mushtombofficial]

The music & Bird snippet at the beginning is from thier music video for "People Vultures". You can make that song fade seamlessly into this one. Thier music is in a connected universe & the beginning snippet is acually its own 20 second track called "Some Context"

[@tangerinecarrots4282]

shh no spoilers 🤫

[@HarryWful]

I agree. As a self proclaimed gizzhead i am slightly underwhelmed by this album when compared to the love it gets. It still makes my top 15 of their albums though and i do enjoy it a lot. How it fits in with their entire discography I appreciate

[@bloodhoundsoldier7445]

i'm a huge gizzhead and one thing i've seen from all other gizzheads is we love seeing someone else's journey into the gizzverse. glad you're enjoying the music man

[@kyleaguiar3447]

The Mongolian/Tibetan throat singing is not a staple of Gizz. While it does appear in maybe 3 albums I wouldn’t say it’s a staple sound for them like the Wooo or certain delay lazer beam effects.

[@john757]

I can't wait for you to hear Digital Black!

[@AyyyGabagool]

ALSO you may really enjoy seeing this live. The Red Rocks '22 of balrog is soooo good

[@justin_laclair]

The beginning clip in the TV is from their People Vultures music video lol, and the same musical motif is used as the intro

[@SgtPoodleSlayer]

Haha, no worries man you're allowed to dislike stuff! Definitely took time to grow on me as well but now I love some of their more repetitive songs - especially the live versions which have become quite the crowd-pleasers. Just for some background on this album it's the second of 5 albums they put out in 2017 where each album had a very different concept but also plenty of cross-pollination happened with some ideas from earlier albums. For example this album had a lot of krautrock elements which are those repetitive, driving, motorik beats you mentioned. I'm pretty sure this is also the album they learned the throat-singing for in the first place which is pretty neat. You've been a good sport jumping straight into this album for your second full album! This one is somewhat divisive among the fanbase.

[@AyyyGabagool]

This is one of five albums that came out that year. You're definitely supposed to listen to this album all the way through at a single time, and you get those 3 big shifts, all about 15 minutes apart. You can't grasp the power of the record unless you listen to it all the way through. This is hardly an album to pick and listen to individual songs from, so you kind of have to take that into consideration. It's not a normal LP.

[@ohmy7795]

when king gizz released Murder of the Universe(2017) they already had established their heavier psychodelic/surf rock tone, they had it back when im in your mind fuzz released (2014) and nonagon infinity(2016)

[@oImighty]

Murder of the Universe was released in 2017. It was their 3rd album that year (out of 5). Back then, the bands' music was way more repetitive. Doesn't make this album bad, but they definitely grew a lot since 2017. Still, I like 2nd chapter way more than the 1st one. The 3rd one is the best, though. It's sad to see your disappointment, but I'm with you here: Balrog pretty much sucks. You asked whether it was the best way to go through the chapter, and I'd say no. I absolutely recommend reading the lyrics along the way. Trust me, it makes this particular album so much better! Also, it sounds quite more dynamic live, so you might wanna have a look at that. Have fun with the next chapter and stay awesome!

[@krentzplays]

Final note (nothing wrong with some comment spam, right?), but I think this was a great way to review this chapter! The additional reactions to the video were interesting and a good addition to your thoughts on the music.

[@bloodhoundsoldier7445]

that bass line in the end of lord of lightning is also in mind fuzz, that whole little section actually is the backing for the first four songs on mind fuzz

[@AlexTheKid48]

Don't worry man, there is so much Gizz out there that its always possible that some of it doesn't resonate with you as much as other stuff. They do definitely have that kinna "run on - repetitive" vibe at times. Personally I enjoy it still, and find some of those songs to be a lot of fun! Funnily enough however at times its that they have grown on me. I know others are mentioning rattlesnake in comments as being a heavy repetitive number of theirs, and I didn't really like it at first, and now I love it. Especially hearing it live at shows! Its a lot of fun! Lots of suggestions for albums, but I'd still suggest Gumboot Soup or Omnium Gatherum as very good options as they are a Smörgåsbord of styles! or Paper Mâché Dream Balloon as a total switch up. But I don't think you can go wrong with whatever you pick, but maybe do something between this and Nonagon as you may find them a bit similar in ways (without trying to spoil anything) :)

[@Mana_Screw]

You have the right not to love every song, haha. You love the band; good enough! Keep it going!

[@TheReviver73]

Honestly it took me years to get into the altered beast section. Not sure if you’ll read this far down, since you’re heading into Nonagon soon loosely look at each individual song as more like they’re all 1. As someone who loves this album I don’t ever pick a random song in a chapter. I listen to a chapter in its entirety as one “song” cheers loving your honest opinions on the gizz keep ‘em coming!

[@maxmagnus377]

Altered beast still doesn't do anywhere near as much for me as the han tyumi arc. This second act, ironically, is sort of in between for me. I think Altered Beast and Sketches are really the only bits of gizz music I'm lukewarm for xD

[@zarzaparrilla67]

Altered Beast chapter really grew up on me, and I love how they use time signatures during the whole chapter, like how the Alter Me songs are in a straight 4/4 throughout the whole songs, while the Altered Beast songs uses different odd time signatures. Altered Beast I has bars in 6/4, 14/4, 4/4 and 11/8, Altered Beast II has bars in 9/8, 4/4, and 9/4, Altered Beast III has bars in 7/4, 6/4 and 4/4, and Altered Beast IV has bars in 11/8, 7/4, 6/4 and 4/4, and still they sound fantastic, and not over complicated. King Gizzard made me a real odd time signature nerd 😂 Also they are very fun songs to play on the guitar. I didn't really enjoy MOTU the first time I listened it, but now it is my favourite KG album, the more I listen the more I love it.

[@scotthayes8450]

It took a while for me too. But the whole album became a masterpiece to me once my brain sorted it out haha

[@cmhmania]

If you can, you should have the lyrics up for the next section. It will make a huge difference in your enjoyment.

[@andrewrigney5888]

Agreed, having lyrics up for the 3rd chapter is a must

[@danalvarez6498]

Without getting too much into spoiler territory, you might end up appreciating this song more after hearing the other albums it references. Also on the repetition, you’re going to find more of that as you go along. Part of the reason for that is based off of their influences- King Gizz are big fans of German experimental rock from the 70’s, like Can and NEU! (Joey wears a Neu! Shirt on the cover of their 3rd record). Repetition was a hallmark of that scene.

[@RandyMoonihoawa]

The last chapter is definitely the most "evil," for lack of a better word. Without spoiling too much, be prepared for a LOT of spoken-word passages. EDIT: Also, since it sounds like you might be doing Nonagon Infinity next, I wanna say that that might not be the best idea. MotU and Nonagon share a lot of the same sounds (MotU is definitely crazier in comparison), so it might come across as more of the same to you. I highly recommend jumping to one of their other projects. Polygondwanaland and Fishing for Fishies offer totally different sounds for you to check out.

[@Sergei_WHY]

The more repetitive parts do not hit the spot every time, but sometimes they are great when I really want to see the fourth rattlesnake. Don't worry, with the range that King Gizz covers, there will inevitably be parts that not everyone likes!

[@msgesus4518]

The high sounding riff is just a dd3 delay with lots of quick repeats and almost fully wet. They use that heaps, trademark gizz / stu. But also nick reinhart from tera melos and john dwyer from ohsees probably influenced it a bit.

[@krentzplays]

Haha when you said you were looking forward to the Balrog section I was like “oh no…” because the Lord of Lighting section is definitely the highlight of this chapter, and the Balrog part is kind of… meh When you mention them “running things into the ground” that is a very 2014-2016 era King Gizz thing. It might make some of the albums from that era a little bit of an uphill battle for you lol. But there’s still good stuff in there. You also ran into one of the reasons some fans like me don’t love Murder of the Universe as much as some other albums: the album is kind of like 3-4 good songs stretched across an entire record with a lot of stretched out sections and repetition to make room for the narration. It’s still a good album, but I don’t love the pacing. Also, for the next section you should try to have the lyrics up while you listen. It gets pretty wild and twisted, but the robot voice narrator can be difficult to understand, and I don’t want you to miss any of the gory details lol And yeah this music video was an accurate representation of the album version of the lord of lightning chapter

[@mysterioushiggs]

Uh oh... lol, your reaction to this makes me worried for your reaction to The Dripping Tap...

[@yohandermartinez2204]

you must listen to I`m in your mind fuzz to understand The Balrog section and more of the story told on this album.

[@izzymobizzy9991]

love these vids man, thanks! I feel mostly the same about MOTU chapters 1 & 2, they're just not that very interesting. Chapter 3 is a slapper though, get ready!

[@BlasphemousVerses]

Wasn't the biggest fan of the album when I first heard it, but Chapter 3 is easily the best on the album.

[@HarryWful]

Nonagon Infinity is 10/10

[@kyleaguiar3447]

Out of the 3 chapters altered beast is definitely the most repetitive you’ll realize when you listen too it like one suite.

[@pizzapirate55]

Infest the rats nest is easily closest to petro dragonic if you need another one.

[@vispian7688]

Honestly man as someone who has been a fan since their early albums came out. You will encounter albums and songs you wont like. MOTU is more appreciated now then when it came it. It was very very divisive. Not only the repetition but also the spoken word. The ending of this album is one of the weirdest most creative things they have done but people were like cool im not really gonna want to listen to that again. Rattlesnake is probably gonna be your least favourite song of al time. Despite FMB otherwise being an amazing and extremely creative album. You will run into albums you dont jive with. There are gizz fabs who are conpelte opposites of each other. And that to me is the best thing about gizz they release something you dont like the next thing you know they have done a 180 in genre and you may like them again. In my honest opinion explore their album do something you wouldn't normally enjoy. Listen to nonagon still its like their core album. But try a folk synth and poppy album in Fishing for Fishies, try them doign a western soundscape narrtive album in Eyes like the Sky to a smooth jazz album in Sketches from Brunswick East. That the best thing about the band an album for different moods. MOTU is weird. Its repetivie and split up segments allow them to work it randomly into their live sets. In random order sometimes played in reverse to what the album is. Then throw in merging it with other albums like nonagon. Its a cool thing. As well with genre switching, their live is completely different (not really kexp thats just a playthrough). They jam, merge songs together, extend songs, play different tempos at times. It makes songs you would not like really interesting. If you ever listen to rattlesnake their most repetivie song. Its arguably yheir worst studio track but live its a banger for some reason. Check out the red rocks version of rattlesnake its jam heavy different and hoenstly interesting. Its funny how the band works. Enjoy them and just no theres always somethign different around the corner

[@kyleaguiar3447]

Also want to explain this instance is more of a standalone when it comes to hard connections. A lot of time it’s riffs or melodies but lord of lightning was originally gonna be on nonagon but they decided it needed it’s own album. That’s why that song is a direct callback but this isn’t a common thing.

[@Mellow_Mike_Sup]

You might want to just look at the discography. Massive output, defined albums and defined eras, if you're trying to figure out the sequence you're going to be lost.

[@photonpilot__]

The storyline of this track is the Lord of Lighting has been reeking havok on the world and the Balrog comes in as his adversary to stop his reign of terror. The Balrog is no match for the Lord of Lighting who incinerates him with a bolt of lighting turning him to the smoldering corpse.

[@john757]

GIZZVERSE CONFIRMED

[@thomasvella1076]

25:05 wait til he finds out about Rattlesnake... lol

[@gagelarkin6277]

wait till he hears rattlesnake

[@Kablistikai]

Let’s fucking go

[@Tapia64]

Rattlesnake

[@kyles5513]

Hell ya! First one here

[@kyles5513]

If you want to listen to something different, Nonagon Infinity wouldn't be the best choice as it's basically the same rock sound. (Obviously a great concept album tho). Laminated Denim would be great tho.