King of the Road
Cars, motorcycles, vans, choppers, and bongs--it's easy to see where Fu Manchu find their inspiration, and it's clear this isn't cerebral rock. These boys, who hail from the synapse-frying heat of the California desert, go for the gut. They have the riffage to do it, sounding partStoogescircaMetallic K.O., partBlack Sabbath, part stoned teenage garage band. Singer Scott Hill shrieks like a psychopathicTed Nugentand his guitar emits fuzzed-out, grooved-up slabs of thunder--with lightning. The drums and bass are heavy but never fast; when they crank up the intensity the pace slows even further: volume is job one. "Hell on Wheels" starts with the throbbing guitar and slowly morphs into a deadly thunderous roar. "No Dice" finds its lyrical inspiration from the Jeff Spicoli character inFast Times at Ridgemont High("No shoes, no shirt, no dice!"). And "Weird Beard" is pure THC-inspired giggling lunacy--with a backbeat. All in all,King of the Roadis an unadulterated blast of an album that reminds the teenage boy within why you fell in love with rock in the first place.--Tod Nelson