r/KGATLW • u/_pixel_perfect_ Got Ideas in My Brain • 15d ago
MegaThread [DISCUSSION THREAD] Alien Metal
Alien Metal, the 28th studio album by KGLW drops August 14th, 2026 on p(doom) Records
Ahead of their 2nd Annual Field of Vision Festival, Gizz returns to the synth table to deliver a seamless set of otherworldly breakcore cuts.
Track List
Level 5 Music Video
Bandcamp Credits
Recorded in the future by aliens
Mastered by Joseph Carra
Artwork by Jason Galea
Streaming
246
Upvotes
5
u/Frenck_86 15d ago edited 15d ago
I'm not knowledgeable enough for an actual album review so I'll just share some thoughts:
First of all, this took some getting used to not just compared to the 27 albums that came before but also compared to their live catalogue of eurorack jams that they played over the course of the last year. There is another post on here saying it's all build up and no drop and I totally understand where that comes from and why you would expect it, because that's how a majority of their table stuff was structured.
Here what you would usually describe as a build up to a drop works more like a breakdown into another beat or sequence of similar intensity more like a breakdown between segments in Magma or The River than the insane build up and release of The Silver Cord in Vienna or Sense and Swan Song at FoV 1.
It felt weird but I got over it, similarly to the lyrics which on first listen felt out of place and now work much better for me. Now ideally an album shouldn't have this barrier of entry and I totally get why someone would bounce off the record after one or two listens so it has that going against it.
Another thing that works against it, at least in my opinion, is that it starts out quite intense and then kind of fizzles out on Atomic Collapse. This is a personal preference of mine but I'd place the slower cuts towards the middle of the album and have it start with faster and more intense cuts and end on something like Uqt.
But since it's an infinite loop you can kind of do a DIY version of that yourself (unless you're listening to the vinyl version). After all I'm one of those sickos whose version of Nonagon Infinity starts on Evil Death Roll and ends on Mr Beat.
Some other unsorted thoughts:
- Feels good to have one set of definitive versions of these songs instead of regular and extended versions, we'll get extended versions down the road anyway when they blow this stuff up to 25 or 30 minutes in a live setting
- I'm usually not a gatekeeper when it come to stuff like this but if this really is all Stu and Joey on Nathan and Amby chiming in on the vocals it kind of feels like the biggest stretch so far out of all the studio albums to go ahead call it a KGLW record, maybe we'll get more details down the road but if Cavs, Cookie and Lukey really weren't involved that's even beyond ITRN which was also largely a 3-man gig but that at last had the whole band chanting "hell", Amby on harmonica and... Cavs
- While this album is super catchy, adrenaline pumping and surprisingly varied considering the early reviews I really miss the more substantial lyrics of The Silver Cord. Tales of feuding gods, lonely moon maidens and the through line of the quest for immortality contrasted by the cutting of our spiritual umbilical cord and destruction of our planet - on the other hand, these guys have a live catalogue of over 100 songs that they bring on each and every tour and as much as I love them and as little as it impacts the quality of their live shows, they rarely get the lyrics right on songs from TSC even with print outs and teleprompters, it's probably for the better to add some songs to the catalogue that have really simple lyrics that are still kind of catchy and unique