Like a fine wine or a classic car, the machine that is Fu Manchu seemingly just get better with age and with their latest, The Return Of Tomorrow, the California Fuzz Rawk quartet prove that statement without a shadow of a doubt on a record (A double album no less!) that might be their best yet!
Six years since their last outing, Fu Manchu return with a record that is a re-energized re-emergence that’s more a renaissance and less a resurgence from the Desert Rawk legends. Boasting 13 tracks across two LP’s each focusing on a different vibe, The Return Of Tomorrow is like the ultimate Fu Manchu experience with the first 7 tracks representing the side of the band most fans know and love with many a song timeless FM tales that’d fit in anywhere amongst their storied sonic career which began some 30+ years ago. As for the last 6 that complete this double affair? Well, that’s a side you may not be too familiar with if you’re a casual fan with a focus on the slower, groovier side.
Kicking it all off with “Dehumanize” gives listeners a classic Fu Manchu as a reminder of the band’s everlasting potency and relevancy on a song that’s pretty frelling crushing from the get-go and definitely reminiscent of the band’s early ’90’s output with Scott Reeder’s big drum attack accenting the pointed riffs that Bob Balch and Scott Hill are laying out with Brad Davis’ low end rumblin’ rambling on so poetically. “Loch Ness Wrecking Machine” is a riffy stomp fest with Hill’s uncanny vocals seamlessly switching between a sort of spoken word bark and that signature harmonious howl with “Hands Of The Zodiac” embodying everything that Fu Manchu does right turned up to “11” as another Reeder penetrating percussive performance rolls on alongside the Balch and Hill wails.
The appropriately titled “Haze The Hides” is all wall of sound and fuzz with the line blurred between guitar and bass and later in, “Destroyin’ Light” ends LP1 on a decidedly, ahem, high note with some big crunchy riffs out the gates before the FM groove machine enters.
“Lifetime Waiting” kicks off the second part easing listeners in with Hill’s voice and some wailing guitar tones before a big groove washes over all like crashing waves, “Solar Baptized” is fuzz incarnate and a righteous spaced out jam, and “What I Need” is a relatively somber sonic excursion that has airs of former FM brethren Kyuss with its’ Desert Rawk vibes. The title track is as big as the double album it resides on while “High Tide” gives fans Fu Manchu’s own “Planet Caravan” on a fitting psychedelic spiritual closer that’s unlike anything the band has produced so far.
The Return of Tomorrow drops through At The Dojo Records on June 14th with pre-orders available now by heading here or here. For more from Fu Manchu, including all upcoming dates on the Clutch/Rival Sons bill which hits Boston’s House Of Blues on September 17th, follow them across the interwebs by clicking here, here, or here.