“Flamethrower” is a fast metal track with chugging guitars and polyrhythms that brings the end of PetroDragonic Apocalypse’s story. Rising into the air, the gila monster-turned-dragon decides to rain fire on Earth to destroy humanity. Lighting gasoline, the dragon scorches the planet in flame and oil while also destroying the International Space Station — the last place in the galaxy to host human life. The song ends with a five-minute long outro, which goes from a distorted metal riff accompanied by metal drumming in six, to a new version of the riff utilizing synthesizers and electronic drums. This leads listeners into the next album in the band’s discography The Silver Cord, while also making one last reference to PetroDragonic Apocalypse with a chant from “Motor Spirit” over a melody from “Witchcraft.” (as well as “Dragon”, “Hell’s Itch” and “Chang’e.”) Alongside all this, “Flamethrower” references “The Great Chain of Being” by using the line “I disrupt the natural order,” connecting the ascension on that track to the rampage of the dragon.
In a 2023 Reddit AMA Stu mentioned that PetroDragonic Apocalypse had the working title of Flamethrower. Before release, the song had been hinted at by the band. For example, a presale code for the band’s 2023 tour was “flamethrower”. Then on March 12th, 2023, the band uploaded a clip of Joey playing a snippet of the song and headbanging to it with Stu, the caption reading “New album locked and JOEDED.” First heard played over the PA on 2023-06-08, the song was released as the finale of PetroDragonic Apocalypse on June 16th, 2023.
It was later referenced on the extended edition of The Silver Cord where during “Extinction” the chorus chant from “Flamethrower” can be heard.
King Gizzard played a majority of PetroDragonic Apocalypse in 2023 but “Flamethrower” was the odd one out. While it had seen some teases such as during “Her And I (Slow Jam 2)” from 2022-11-02, the band did not play the song proper. That changed on 2024-05-15. That day Lucas posted an image of a laptop screen showing the Twitch streamer NegaGrier playing the song with the caption “V helpful thanks random twitch guy.” Later that day the band gave the song its live debut (minus the outro) at the Forest Natural in Brussels and teased it elsewhere in the show. The band would continue to play the song as it appeared at that show, including a gap after the song’s first chorus. Footage of Cavs playing the song on 2024-05-27 was uploaded to the band’s YouTube channel as the video Flamethrower. seeya. These versions feature a gap at 1:30 of the studio version, giving some time to breathe before plunging back into the frantic metal tune.