Murder of the Universe | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
![]() | ||||
Studio album by | ||||
Released | 23 June 2017 | |||
Recorded | Early 2017 | |||
Studio | Flightless HQ | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 46:38 | |||
Label | ||||
Producer | Stu Mackenzie | |||
King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard chronology | ||||
| ||||
Singles from Murder of the Universe | ||||
|
Murder of the Universe is the tenth studio album by Australian psychedelic rock band King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard. It was released on 23 June 2017 by Flightless in Australia, [4] ATO Records in the United States, and Heavenly Recordings in the United Kingdom. It is the second of five albums released by the band in 2017. [5]
The album was nominated for Best Hard Rock or Heavy Metal Album at the ARIA Music Awards of 2017, despite controversy over the band's win the previous year with Nonagon Infinity. [6]
Murder of the Universe is a concept album split into three separate stories, called suites, each containing elements of spoken word to carry a narrative. [7] The first two suites feature Leah Senior's narration, [2] while NaturalReader's "UK, Charles" text-to-speech application narrates the final suite.[ citation needed]
The first suite, The Tale of the Altered Beast, explores themes of temptation and tells of a human who stumbles on a mystical human/beast hybrid creature dubbed the Altered Beast. The story starts with the pursuit of the human being, who slowly takes an interest in the idea of being altered – something considered taboo in the human's society. The perspective then changes to the Altered Beast itself, who is filled with murderous intentions. Confronted by the Beast, the human experiences a craving for power and slowly succumbs to the temptation of becoming altered. Accepting their mutual fate, the beast and human merge, creating a newly altered beast, who now craves even more flesh. However, the Altered Beast suffers greatly from absorbing another consciousness – it loses track of its identity and eventually dies of insanity, decaying into the earth.
I think it's the most narrative-driven thing we've done – it's three distinct, but somewhat interrelated stories.
—Stu Mackenzie [7]
The second suite, The Lord of Lightning vs. Balrog, focuses on an epic battle between two entities dubbed The Lord of Lightning and Balrog, who represent the forces of light and darkness, respectively. The suite starts with a foreword from the perspective of a storyteller who recalls the battle. The action begins with the track "The Lord of Lightning", which is about the general destruction caused in a town by lightning fired from the entity's finger. He is perceived as evil and malevolent by the townsfolk. However, when he fires lightning at a corpse, it is somehow reanimated as a creature known as Balrog. This creature chooses to ignore the Lord of Lightning, and instead wreaks further havoc on the townspeople. The Lord chooses to fight the Balrog and defeats him, eventually leaving him as a burning corpse in "The Acrid Corpse". The Lord of Lightning then departs, choosing not to harm the townsfolk anymore.
The third and final suite, Han-Tyumi & The Murder of the Universe, is about a cyborg in a digital world who gains consciousness and, in confusion, decides to strive only for what a cyborg cannot do: vomit and die. He decides to create a creature dubbed the "Soy-Protein Munt Machine" whose only purpose is to vomit. When the creature rejects his love, Han-Tyumi decides to merge with the machine, which causes it to lose control. This machine explodes and infinitely expels vomit, which eventually engulfs the entire universe in a type of grey goo scenario: and so the universe is murdered.
Aggregate scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
Metacritic | 73/100 [8] |
Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
The A.V. Club | D+ [10] |
Clash | 8/10 [2] |
Classic Rock | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Exclaim! | 6/10 [12] |
The Irish Times | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
The Line of Best Fit | 7.5/10 [13] |
Paste | 7.4/10 [14] |
Pitchfork | 8.0/10 [15] |
Under the Radar | 8.5/10 [16] |
Murder of the Universe received positive reviews from music critics. On Metacritic, the album holds an average critic score of 73/100, based on 15 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". [8]
AllMusic's Tim Sendra wrote in his review for the album that "King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard's second album of 2017 is a rampaging, feverish blast of sci-fi prog punctuated by whizzing synths and robotic voice-overs." [9]
Exclaim!'s Cosette Schulz commented that "The 21-track album is certainly the strangest and most draining release that King Gizzard have made to date; not as ambitious as the seamlessly looping Nonagon Infinity, or this year's earlier release Flying Microtonal Banana, but a feat nonetheless." [12]
Publication | Accolade | Year | Rank | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
Rough Trade | Albums of the Year | 2017
|
24
|
All music composed by King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard; all lyrics written by Stu Mackenzie; stories written by Mackenzie, except "Murder of the Universe" written by Joey Walker and Mackenzie.
Most vinyl releases have tracks 1–12 on Side A, and tracks 12–21 on Side B; "The Lord of Lightning" is split between the two sides. [18] 2023 reissues include two records, with each of the suites getting its own side, with an etched fourth side.
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "A New World" | 0:57 |
2. | "Altered Beast I" | 2:23 |
3. | "Alter Me I" | 0:45 |
4. | "Altered Beast II" | 4:28 |
5. | "Alter Me II" | 1:25 |
6. | "Altered Beast III" | 2:14 |
7. | "Alter Me III" | 1:26 |
8. | "Altered Beast IV" | 5:10 |
9. | "Life / Death" | 1:00 |
Total length: | 19:48 |
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
10. | "Some Context" | 0:16 |
11. | "The Reticent Raconteur" | 1:05 |
12. | "The Lord of Lightning" | 5:06 |
13. | "The Balrog" | 4:29 |
14. | "The Floating Fire" | 1:54 |
15. | "The Acrid Corpse" | 1:00 |
Total length: | 13:50 |
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
16. | "Welcome to an Altered Future" | 0:55 |
17. | "Digital Black" | 2:46 |
18. | "Han-Tyumi, the Confused Cyborg" | 2:21 |
19. | "Soy-Protein Munt Machine" | 0:30 |
20. | "Vomit Coffin" | 2:19 |
21. | "Murder of the Universe" | 4:09 |
Total length: | 13:00 |
Credits for Murder of the Universe adapted from liner notes. [19]
King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard
Additional musicians
Production
Chart (2017) | Peak position |
---|---|
Australian Albums ( ARIA) [20] | 3 |
Belgian Albums ( Ultratop Flanders) [21] | 139 |
Belgian Albums ( Ultratop Wallonia) [22] | 115 |
New Zealand Heatseekers Albums ( RMNZ) [23] | 9 |
Scottish Albums ( OCC) [24] | 58 |
UK Albums ( OCC) [25] | 94 |
US Billboard 200 [26] | 106 |
US Independent Albums ( Billboard) [27] | 6 |
US Top Alternative Albums ( Billboard) [28] | 15 |
US Top Rock Albums ( Billboard) [29] | 20 |
While their 2017 progressive metal album Murder of the Universe suffered from unnecessary content,