Review Summary: Not metal, still goes hard
King Gizz surely need no introduced in 2026. The cheeky Aussies started firmly a psychedelic jam band and have grown to build a strong following and critical acclaim through a) their absurd output, at one point putting out 3 or 4 albums in the space of the year, and b) their constant expansion into and experimentation with different genres, having previous released albums that are thrash metal, progressive rock, and rockabilly. On the first point, their output has slowed down to a more normal pace, with this being their first and potentially only project out in 2026. On the second point, they have experimented with electronic and club music before on 2023’s
The Silver Chord. Now, that was an album I didn’t care for, but it did show the group have a clear taste for electronic music, and since then they have only further indulged this with several tours playing DJ sets around the world. Alien Metal in that sense is a far more fully realised release that takes what the band have learned over the past few years of dabbling in the club scene and results in an album that is mostly a banger.
Throughout the album’s runtime, the group move between progressive house, 90s trance, deep house, old school techno, and breakbeat, with many moments that will remind you of acts such as BT, U-Ziq, Underworld, Sphongle and occasionally The Prodigy. Alien Metal operates as one flowing piece that could clearly be one DJ set. It’s like a rave on an alien spaceship. I particularly like how some of the percussion hits like bits of machinery rattling around in the UFO, which, along with a lot of the bleepy-bloopy keys sounding like switches and knobs being pressed, gives the whole thing has a super spacey vibe and personality.
The band do a great job of raising and lowering the intensity through the tracklist, there’s a real ebb and flow to it. The only real miss-step I think is the very end of the album, as the closer ends quite abruptly when it feels like a more blissed out fade-out would have been more fitting.
Even though this is a big stylistic shift for the band, it does still carry that trademark King Gizz DNA and personality – it still has that signature sense of fun and their sardonic social commentary, particularly on tracks like 'Kill For The Steel' where the vocals repeat the line
“we don’t wish upon you” in a way that feels very much like they DO wish death upon you (a commentary on the clearly dubious intentions of the growing tech oligarchy). That said, if you’re not so much into electronic music, this will hold limited appeal for you. There is no rock instrumentation present, minus some riffs which accompany the electronics on the penultimate track 'Uqt'.
I’ve seen some criticism leveled at the vocals and the heavy use of vocoder effects. They aren’t a deal-breaker to me; there are a couple instances where they feel unbalanced and take up too much space on a track ('Kill For The Steel') but on others are better integrated ('Level 5'), and in general add to the alien space rave feel as they at times feel like a martian DJ commanding over a speaker system and others more robotic, like you’re on the dance floor with a range of different species.
Standout tracks for me are the title track (which builds to a full on rave), 'Superheavy, Supercritical' (which is more euphoric and progressive house before building to a big drop), 'Level 5' (which begins with these blaring sirens and escalated the intensity up until it just goes hard as ***), the aforementioned 'Uqt', and the closer. Which, until that abrupt ending, sees King Gizz go fully into psychedelic trance – kinda reminded me of Hallucinogen‘s classic
Twisted album – deffo a track you can get
proper mashed up to.
Overall,
Alien Metal is not without a couple minor nitpicky flaws, and the band wear the influences very clearly on the sleeve, but they have a very clear appreciation and love for this music, and this is another success for Stu Mackenzie and the boys. Up the gizz!
