Like a fine wine, Fu Manchu’s 1999 classic, King Of The Road, gets better with age and fans continue to demand hearing these tunes the way the band intended – on wax.Out of print since 2019, the Joe Barresi (Tool, Avenged Sevenfold, Queens Of The Stone Age) helmed work is back and this time on yellow and black splatter vinyl in a limited edition of 2000.This is a repressing of the 2015 remaster done by Carl Saff, which includes 2 bonus tracks: “Breathing Fire” (originally on the German vinyl release) and “Hanglider” (which was previously unreleased).“After a bit of a break from albums, not counting the Return to Earth singles compilation, Fu Manchu fully fired up and took off again with King of the Road, an album that doesn’t so much follow on from The Action Is Go as flat out continue it.Hill has a touch more bite to his vocals this time around, but otherwise there’s little to differentiate the two records — and that’s very much meant as a compliment.With plenty of touring and other things under their belts, the lineup has fully jelled and sounds it, Bjork’s bad-ass drumming (and occasional cowbells, of course) and Balch’s insane lead guitar crunch possibly even better than ever.Together it’s all one megariff and nasty, slamming rhythm after another, and face it, anyone expecting anything else from Fu Manchu really needs to find another band.Joe Barresi co-produces with the band, and while there’s no extra keyboard/organ weirdness this time around, it hardly matters.In as much as there’s a theme to King of the Road beyond the basics of driving, drugs, and that demon rock & roll, it’s driving — there’s a reason why the cover and internal art features a slew of great ’70s-era photos from a massive van rally.The one shot of the fully leather-covered interior of one mobile love nest, complete with black curtains, about says it all.Then there’s the megachugging title track (“King of the road says you move too slow!”), “Hell on Wheels,” “Boogie Van,” and so forth — call it a concept album that doesn’t waste time with elves and yogis.As with the last album, a punk/new wave nugget gets the cover treatment here — none other than Devo’s “Freedom of Choice.” Needless to say, now it sounds just like a Fu Manchu original.” ALLMUSIC
