Review Summary: The ’68 Chevy Impala of stoner rock ready again to trip into the universe
Let’s just take a quick peek back in the past. The last time So-Cal stoner rock legends Fu Manchu has dropped an album was 2018: Donald Trump was still president, nobody knew what Covid was, TikTok was mainly a thing for Chinese influencers, and I was actually writing reviews at this place time-to-time while having a job that paid so bad, I kept having depressive breakdowns about my future. Crazy just how much things can change in six years, yet for some bands its like a flash. Especially for ones that represent their genres with such consistency, energy and relentless passion, that they start to feel less like a group formed by people, but musical institutions that are destined to be around forever.
Fu Manchu honestly feels like one these bands. Scott Hill and co. have been blasting our eardrums with their dynamic, at times punkish, at other times slower, and sometimes even spacy batch of fuzzy desert rock riffs for nearly forty years now with their 90’s output consisting some of the most purely entertaining collection of songs in the stoner genre and a perfect entry point to everyone who wants to know what the deal is about. Their formula seems almost dirt simple, yet its executed with such effortless groove and vibrancy, you instantly get caught up in the vibe and imagine yourself speeding through the endless charred fields of the California mountains smoking a large blunt. A fusion of heaviness and catchiness that can take any side-trip from mellow breakdowns or psychedelic jam-freakouts.
With The Return of Tomorrow being their 13th studio album, you know the question is not going to be whether the group might change up their sound, that’s not gonna happen. You press play on a Fu Manchu record in 2024, you’ll know exactly what you’re gonna get. But which Fu Manchu are we gonna hear on this album? The no-holds-barred half-Sabbath, half-hardcore influenced, skate rock of the early days? The more laid back, surfer-cruising vibes of the 2000’s? Or the more adventurous, trippy Fu of the 2010’s? The albums says: How about getting a slice of every one of these on one record? Sounds like a great deal to me!
With its crunchy-sounding, menacing high-tempo chugging, Scott Hill’s trademark shouty vocals, gang chorus and chaotic leads, the opener “Dehumanized” is your quintessential Fu Manchu and so is the slick, mid-paced “Loch Ness Wrecking Machine”. Both songs could’ve easily fit on any of the band’s older catalogue if you wanted proof the band’s seemingly ageless vigor and devotion to perfect a sound that is both recognizable and yet never once overstays its welcome. And even when you know all of their usual quirks, they managed to throw in some real unique flavor to their songwriting, like “Hands of the Zodiac” that after two minutes of regular stoner riffage breaks into an extended, Jimi Hendrix-inspired solo section or “Haze the Hides” where the band really turn up the 70’s Sabbath/Blue Cheer influences up a notch with some of the punchiest rhythms on the album. Or when they just go full Electric Wizard stoner metal on “Roads of the Lowly”.
While first half of the record is dominated by these massive headbangers, the second half shows off the more mellow, relaxed sessions. Songs with slower, calculated build-up to a fiery climax (“Lifetime Wating”), a road trip-like six minute “epic” that switches between its groovy assaults, clean guitar sections with whispering vocals (“What I Need”), subtle dosages of atmosphere and even some further trips to a more space rock oriented sound (“Solar Baptized” “High Tide”) while never losing that straightforward tightness that has been one of Fu Mancu’s greatest strength since their first releases. Along with the laser tight musicianship, the sharp yet loose enough chord progressions and the production which is just dirty enough to not sound sterile, but doesn’t muddies the instruments.
With a 49-minute runtime, The Return of Tomorrow is certainly among the longest releases of the band’s catalogue but also a well-rounded celebration of the band’s fully developed sound. Everybody will find their own favorite from the 13 tracks, where not one sound too much a weak link. Its four dudes who know what kind of music they’re supposed to play as well as each other’s strengths from the heart. There is no sense of flatness or tiredness coming from these raw, punchy, earthly, groovy, hip-shaking riffs and that’s the best a veteran band like this could ask. Innovation be damned, put in the disk, roll down the windows, step on the gas, and enjoy the ride!
