They released several psychedelic and progressive rock albums in the early 2010s, and incorporated a broader range of musical styles later in the decade, such as jazz fusion on Quarters!

Subsequent releases integrated heavy metal, synth-pop and progressive rock, and feature lyrics that address environmental themes and a connected fictional universe termed the "Gizzverse" by fans.

Mackenzie said the album was inspired by Western films and Red Dead Redemption, among other things,[18] and was written as a response to being typecast in their previous releases.

[29] 2015 saw the band launch Gizzfest in Melbourne, a two-day music festival that was held annually and toured Australia, featuring both local and international acts.

Drawing upon jazz fusion and acid rock, the album's more laid-back sound was described as "unlike anything they've released before" by Tonedeaf magazine.

[33] On 17 August, King Gizzard released the title track "Paper Mâché Dream Balloon" as the lead single for the album with the same name.

[40] Described by Mackenzie as a "never-ending album", it features nine songs connected by musical motifs that flow "seamlessly" into each other, with the last track "linking straight back into the top of the opener".

[44] The album received high praise from critics, with Pitchfork's Stuart Berman writing that it "yields some of the most outrageous, exhilarating rock 'n' roll in recent memory".

[45] Happy Mag's Maddy Brown described it as "an intensely striking, ferocious sound that gets the blood flowing and heart racing".

[51][52][53] The music video for "Rattlesnake", directed by Jason Galea,[54] was described by Happy Mag's Luke Saunders as "a masterclass in hypnotism".

[56] It is a concept album divided into three chapters: The Tale of the Altered Beast and The Lord of Lightning vs. Balrog (released on 30 May), and Han-Tyumi and the Murder of the Universe (11 April).

The band made their international television debut on 17 April, performing "The Lord of Lightning" on Conan on TBS in the United States.

[64] As of August 2023, 363 different versions of the album have been recorded on the physical music database Discogs,[65] and it has been called "the ultimate vinyl release" by Louder than Sound.

[66] In December, the band announced a new album, and two singles were released digitally: "All Is Known", which had previously been performed live, and "Beginner's Luck", an entirely new song.

The band had also produced a film to be released, titled Chunky Shrapnel; however, also due to the outbreak, the initial viewing was postponed for a later date, and then cancelled.

[88] A live album of the same name was released on 24 April, featuring recordings from numerous shows on the tour along with three ambient studio tracks.

[92]Again due to the pandemic, the band postponed the marathon shows and North American tour for a second time, with the new dates being for October 2021.

Sections of both "The Dripping Tap" and "Satanic Slumber Party" were adapted from these sessions, and a special limited-edition 12" vinyl, Hat Jam, contained both releases.

[121] In August, they cancelled the remaining 13 dates of their summer European tour so Stu Mackenzie could return to Australia for treatment in his battle with Crohn's disease.

[148] On 29 October, the band released a single titled Phantom Island and announced it would be part of their 27th studio album, comprising 10 additional songs written at the same time as those on Flight b741, but with an orchestral section added.

[149] On 22 November, the day after the world tour ended, Lucas Harwood's second band, Heavy Moss, released its debut album Dead Slow under the p(doom) label.

[158] In describing their style, Chris DeVille of Stereogum wrote, "It's a rare group that can convincingly blur the lines between Phish, Neu!, King Crimson, and the Osees while never sounding like anything less than themselves.

[172][173] Many of the band's releases are based on a unique concept yet share lyrical themes and feature characters that form a recurring cast, one of the most frequent being Han-Tyumi, a "confused cyborg" who appears across multiple albums and whose name, according to cultural theorist Benjamin Kirbach, represents "a vaguely nipponized anagram of 'humanity'".

[174] Their songs also tell stories of "gamblers, cowboys, Australian Rules footballers, people-vultures, Balrogs, lightning gods, flesh-eating beasts, sages and space-faring eco rebels".

In a 2017 interview, Stu Mackenzie confirmed that the band's releases are all connected, saying, "They all exist in this parallel universe and they may be from different times and different places but they all can co-exist in a meaningful way".

[176] The band's lyrics often feature environmental themes,[168] meditating on topics have such as the collapse of civilisation and climate change,[168] particularly on the albums Infest the Rats' Nest,[177] Flying Microtonal Banana, Fishing for Fishies,[171][178] K.G.

Having released [twenty-six] studio albums to date since 2010, their frenzied pace evokes less LSD-inspired free love perhaps than Adderall-infused twenty-first-century despair.

Indeed, their thrash metal sci-fi epic Infest the Rats' Nest includes a song about a global pandemic which sparks a working-class revolution (the album was released in 2019, a scant six months before COVID).

Yet the tension between human and technology in King Gizzard’s œuvre is rarely presented as a clichéd Fall of Man, as if romanticizing some idyllic pre-technological past.

[181] The following year, the label opened Flightless 168, a public record store located on Lygon Street in the Melbourne suburb of Brunswick East.