King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard Murder of the Universe *

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. Murder of the Universe is broken into three chapters, each telling a tale of humanity being driven out of existence by AI-driven machines and cyborgs. Subtract the story and it's trademark King Gizzard, with pummeling guitar riffs pitched between garage punk and heavy metal, Stu MacKenzie's yowling yelps at the mike, and the rhythm section's unstoppable drive combining to make exhilarating music that flashes like lightning trapped in a bottle and hits harder than Thor's hammer. The first two chapters work the best. "The Tale of the Altered Beast" has electrical sparks shooting from the riffs, sticky hooks that slice through the gnarly guitar crunch, and pleasantly evil voice-over work by Leah Senior. "The Lord of Lightning vs Balrog" brings back large chunks of Nonagon Infinity's sound, even reprising some of the melodies and w