If you are reading this, you are wasting time. Buy Fu Manchu's We Must Obey and buy it now. The album's already a few months old, yet without a review on Scene Point Blank. Injustice I say, injustice! Fu Manchu's tenth album orders you to buy it, to cherish it, to love it. And well... We must obey!
For the ignorant, stupid and mentally retarded: Fu Manchu's one of the more legendary names within the noble genre of stoner rock. One can claim, and I'm one of those claiming it, that these guys are among the true legends of the genre. Forming in 1987 as a hardcore punkband, they became Fu Manchu in 1990 and the rest, as they say, is history.
How to describe this album? It's one of the better stoner albums I have heard in a long time. We Must Obey has a smooth flow, impressive bass parts, heavy and impressive guitar play and massive dry drums. The entire album is one full load of Heavy with a capital H! The band manages to find the perfect balance between the musical quality and the lyrical immaturity. There's only one downside I can think of, and that's "Sensei versus Sensei". Not because it's a bad song, but because it falls out of line with the atmosphere the album holds.
So... Everybody could have told you this. Stoner rock is always heavy, usually flows smoothly and often nonsensical. There is no way I can deny this, so the question remains... Why do you have to obey and buy this album..?
...Because it has this awesome vibe.
It's hard to define "vibe", I know. But imagine this: You're road trippin' with your two favourite allies. Fully loaded with snacks and supplies, while you're cruising down the highway with Joshua trees filling up the desert scenery. You and your buddies are on your way to Las Vegas for some drinking, whoring, gambling, skating and rocking. Got this pleasant image? Awesome. That's the vibe you get from listening to We Must Obey.
To conclude: Fu Manchu shows us that the genre is far from dead, and that it's actually very, very much alive. I'm not complaining. Should We Must Obey be added to the Holy Albums of Stoner Rockology? Well... No. Although it's good, it's just not as legendary and timeless as Kyuss' Welcome to Sky Valley or Monster Magnet's Dopes To Infinity. Who gives a damn anyway? Let's go roadtripping..!
