Mars for the Rich: Two Metamodern Heavy Metal Jeremiads Against Technofuturism

In this paper, I will look at two popular music artists who express prophetic critiques of space colonization as a solution to the ecological crises of our time. The first is the 2019 thrash-metal album Infest the Rats' Nest by the protean Melbourne-based rock band King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard (KGLW). The second is the 2024 "yacht doom" album How to Think Like a Billionaire by the Nottingham prog rocker Bill Fisher. Placing Fisher's and KGLW's music in the context of metamodernism, an emerging cultural dominant characterized by superhybridity, as well as the work of Mary-Jane Rubinstein on science and religion, I will argue that both artists draw on science fiction, mythical images of fiery destruction, and the tropes of heavy metal to dash the dreams of technofuturists at a time when SpaceX and Blue Horizon were positioning themselves as the ones to sell humanity a post-apocalyptic future.