Fu Manchu’s previous album, 2018’s Clone Of The Universe, was a very cinematic trip, lurching violently from a fistful of two-minute stoner-punk ragers into a 20-minute couch-of-woe space oddity. It was a long way from the desert rock band’s salad days of skate-ready jams about vans and weird beards.
New album The Return Of Tomorrow takes us further into the weeds (pun intended). The first half is all crushingly heavy dope-rock jams in a burly, Monster Magnet-meets-Clutch sorta way, full of menacing riffage and crazed soloing.
It’s the heaviest shit Fu Manchu have ever done, and it’s fantastic. The second half is a slight return to their 90s heyday, with easier tempos and mellow(ish) vibes.
Like Clone, The Return is meant to be unspooled in order, a journey to the centre of your mind care of stoner rock’s undisputed kings of the road. I recommend you follow their orders. I’ve been levitating for three days now.
