Action Is Go
Despite the loss of two ostensibly crucial members--guitarist Eddie Glass and drummer Ruben Romano--Fu Manchu soldier on with the followup to their brain-numbing masterpiece,In Search of.... WhileThe Action Is Godoesn't quite equal the high-water mark the band set on its previous outing, it mines the same Sabbath/'70s hard-rock vein with slightly different results. Produced by White Zombie guitarist J. Yuenger, Fu's fourth album has less garage fuzz and more heavy metal crunch. Though Glass and Romano's replacements--Bob Balch and former Kyuss drummer Brant Bjork, respectively--do a good job handling the band's standard chug-a-rama, their feel for and interpretation of the material is dramatically different than that of their predecessors. Like every Fu Manchu outing,The Action Is Goheaves and grunts with monstrously heavy classic guitar riffs. There's absolutely nothing new about them--you've heard most of these riffs on any number of Black Sabbath and Blue Oyster Cult records. However, it's the little touches--such as guitarist/vocalist Scott Hill's plaintive, stoned wail and bassist Brad Davis's snaky, throbbing bass lines--that make Fu Manchu more than just pale imitators. While Balch and Bjork add their own personal touches to the proceedings, their contributions aren't quite as unusual as they might be, and ultimatelyThe Action Is Gosuffers from this lack. Though it's not a bad album, the garage edge that once gave the band a muscle up on the competition (Monster Magnet, Slo Burn, and others) is sorely missed here.--Adem Tepedelen