You can trust Louder Our experienced team has worked for some of the biggest brands in music. From testing headphones to reviewing albums, our experts aim to create reviews you can trust. Find out more about how we review.
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.
