King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard
Phantom Island
p(doom) Records [2025]
“King Gizz take a symphonic excursion on their 27th LP”
Album Overview: Over the course of the last decade and a half, Aussie rockers King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard have covered more ground than just about any other band. From the garage and psych of their early albums to their detours into metal, electronica, prog, microtonal music, folk-rock and more, the band keeps things fresh by constantly challenging themselves and their fans’ expectations. For their latest side quest they’ve teamed up with arranger Chad Kelly and a group of classically-trained musicians to create Phantom Island, a full-blown symphonic rock album that adds new textures to their ever-expanding sonic universe.
Musical Style: The orchestral elements mesh well with the band’s approach; horns, strings, and woodwinds add new colors to the mix, but in a way that feels like a natural fit. It’s also a more diverse record than you might imagine before hearing it, with enough twists and turns to keep things from stagnating. It’s still a rock album at its core, but you can tell a lot of thought went into creating arrangements that complement each song’s individual mood.
Evolution of Sound: King Gizz is one of the most “evolutionary” bands out there, with every album adding something new and building on what came before. There are elements of previous records to be found, though; some of the mellower tracks recall the baroque folk-rock of Paper Mâché Dream Balloon or the jazz-fusion prog of Quarters, while the more upbeat tunes share some DNA with their previous album, Flight b741 (which makes sense given that both albums are drawn from the same recording sessions). But the more complex structures of Phantom Island allow for a greater appreciation of the band’s songwriting and arranging skills, factors that sometimes get overlooked in favor of their musicianship and prolific output.
Artists with Similar Fire: Phantom Island draws from the long history of “symphonic rock” bands, with touches of Chicago, ELO, and Procol Harum detectable at various points. There are also moments reminiscent of more modern acts that incorporate orchestral elements into their sound, like Radiohead, Andrew Bird, and Black Country, New Road.
Pivotal Tracks: The first two singles and first two tracks on the album, “Phantom Island” and “Deadstick,” provide a pretty good sense of the album’s full range. The former is a winding, multi-part suite that includes passages of catchy pop, knotty jazz, and tense classical music that feels almost like a film score, while the latter is a bluesy rocker accompanied by soulful horn stabs and fuzzed-out guitar solos. “Silent Spirit” ups the jazz touches, with layered horn charts and Middle Eastern-inflected guitar solos, while closer “Grow Wings And Fly” develops a motif first heard way back on the Butterfly 3000 track “Shanghai.” For my money, though, the album’s best moment comes right in the middle with “Spacesick,” a song that perfectly melds sophisticated arrangements, heartfelt songwriting, and an energetic groove.
Lyrical Strength: The lyrical concerns of Flight b741 continue to be explored now that the band has landed on Phantom Island. But while that record tended to play fast and loose with its aviation theme, here those ideas get dealt with in ways that are at times more abstract, and at others more personal. The latter in particular makes sense, as members of the band have started families and crossed into their 30s over the last few years. That’s not to say that Phantom Island is a more somber or serious record, though—just one that certain audience members might be able to relate to on a more literal level.
Final Groove: Like any record where King Gizzard makes an abrupt left-turn, some fans may not connect with Phantom Island as much as previous releases, at least not right away. For those with an open mind, though, the album offers a fun and rewarding listen, one that establishes new possibilities for what a King Gizzard album can sound like. In that sense, it’s a typically atypical album from a band that continues to keep their fans guessing from one album to the next—which is ultimately what keeps us coming back for more.
KING GIZZARD & THE LIZARD WIZARD REVIEW HISTORY
Flight b741 (2024) / The Silver Chord (2023) / PetroDragonic Apocalypse (2023) / Changes (2022) / Laminated Denim (2022) / Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms And Lava (2022) / Omnium Gatherum (2022) / Butterfly 3000 (2021) / L.W. (2021) / K.G. (2020) / Chunky Shrapnel (2020) / Infest The Rats’ Nest (2019) / Fishing For Fishies (2019) / Gumboot Soup (2017) / Polygondwanaland (2017) / Sketches Of Brunswick East (2017) / Murder Of The Universe (2017) / Flying Microtonal Banana (2017) / Nonagon Infinity (2016) / Paper Mâché Dream Balloon (2015) / Quarters (2015) / I’m In Your Mind Fuzz (2014)
KING GIZZARD & THE LIZARD WIZARD LINKS
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