If you search “Ominum Gatherum” online, you’ll find it loosely means a collection of miscellaneous things. That definition captures the essence of King Gizzard and the Wizard Lizard’s 20th studio album.

“Ominum Gatherum” has a song for everyone, from relaxed bossa nova to aggressive metal to gangsta rap. In an hour and 20 minutes, the band crafts dense, complex music that will mellow you out only to throw metal guitar and growling vocals in your face.

The album opens with an 18 minute beast of a song, “The Dripping Tap.” It lures you in with crackling vinyl and a soft, calming indie sound. The vocals have an old-style effect on them, making it sound like an analog recording from the 1960s or 1970s, over a soothing bassline and laid-back drums. That is, for the first minute of the song.

“The Dripping Tap” quickly becomes a psychedelic rock jam that can only be fully appreciated in a mosh pit. Layers of distorted guitar assault your ears, with shill bends over low harmonizing riffs. There are brief periods of verses with vocals that bring back the vocals from the start, but the face-melting guitar solos essentially never stop.

If the Grateful Dead became a metal band, it would probably sound similar to this song.
After “The Dripping Tap” knocks your socks off, the band brings down the energy a little for “Magenta Mountain” — the second single for the album. A peaceful synth with a timbre reminiscent of the 1980s somehow gives you the image of a majestic, hazy mountain as a gong introduces the drum kit and more layers of subtle synth and guitar. The instrumentals create the overall feeling of being in an enchanting nature scene, yet with a looming, ancient intensity brought by the ominous synth chords.

The images and feelings of the instrumentals reinforce the lyrics about the “Magenta Mountain” — a magical mountain the narrator swears exists.

Themes of fantastical nature, people and places carry through the first half of the album — each song with a different musical genre. “Kepler-22b” is a jazz-pop alternative song telling the story of a child aspiring to be an astronaut, yet when they don’t make the cut they find their own way to discover aliens. “Sadie Sorceress” starts like a 1980s fantasy movie, then becomes an intense 1980s hip-hop song about a medieval sorceress. “The Garden Goblin” uses nature samples of tweeting birds amongst layers of upbeat synth, drums and percussion to devise a peaceful home for the Garden Goblin.

“Gaia,” the fourth track, introduces metal to the album with intense riffs and vocals that bring you back to Megadeth or Metallica. Although KGLW can’t quite match the powerful strokes of the metal gods, the vigorous riffs and growling vocals still effectively give the mythological Earth goddess, Gaia, an evil perspective. Over the guitar heavy riff, Stu Mackenzie rasps “Giant body parasite / Gaia lives while others die,” like an all-mighty god.

The second half of the album brings back metal and alternative pop/rock sounds, as well as some gangster rap. In “The Grim Reaper,” rap flows over fuzzy synthesizers and guitars that sound like sitars. Gongs and a whimsical flute give the feel of a desert in Southeast Asia or the Middle East.

KGLW brings the album to a close with songs in a soothing bossa nova/beach sound. The second to last song, “Candles,” has an easy-going drum beat with percussive drums quietly adding layers and depth. A subtle bass line holds the chords together under more enchanting synthesizers and gives the song a magical feel. The refrain of the song repeats “candles” over and over, creating its own image of tranquility. The lyrics are ambiguous, but possibly referring to a religious ceremony.

“The Funeral” rounds out the album with a similar sound to “Candles,” but also bringing in vocal harmonies that sound like a group of ominous, ancient deities over Mexican-style guitar layers. The drum and bass lines add to the looming sense in the song. It is simultaneously relaxing and eerie.

“Omnium Gatherum” will affirm for King Gizzard and the Wizard Lizard fans why they love this band, and may even bring in new fans due to the breadth of musical styles it taps into. That said, music nerds will have the most fun listening to — and picking apart — the album’s complex layers of sound.

No matter what kind of music you like, there is likely a song for you on this album.