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Fu Manchu - Start the Machine Audio CD

A fair review of the Fu Manchu "Start the Machine" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Fu Manchu reviews here, or go back to the Fu Manchu tabs.

Fu Manchu Band: Fu Manchu
Title: Start the Machine
Rating:
Release Date: 2004-09-14
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Written in Stone 2: I Can't Hear You 3: Understand 4: Make Them Believe 5: Hey 6: I'm Gettin' Away 7: Out to Sea 8: Open Your Eyes 9: Today's Too Soon 10: It's All the Same 11: Tunnel Vision 12: I Wanna Be

Short, but Good
Now they are on a new label -- DRT -- and it's been three years since their last release. It's been a while since Fu Manchu started (over twelve years) and guitarist Scott Hill is the only one of the original members still standing. The Album opens with "Written In Stone" which is a Fu Manchu stoner rock meets punk not being completely one style or the other song. You can't categorize their music. Then you have the more punk-ish track "I Can't hear You", which is hard driven and is filled with energy.

Vocalist Scott Hill blends his voice with the music rather nicely together. Other tracks on the album are "Make Them Believe", "Understand" and a more trippy, slower tune called "Out To Sea". It has twelve tracks in a mere thirty five minutes but I still like it.


strong fu release
i've been a fan since 1991 and this is a great album. the fu can do no wrong. scott r is an awesome drummer, following well in brant's style and there are very well constructed songs here with the usual great riffs and lead. best songs: hey, it's all the same and i wanna be.


Great Album
Don't listen to all the negative reviewers their just a bunch of old burned out hippies. This is my favorite fu manchu album, certainly worth five stars. This is more modern rock. Just because this one is too edgy to trip out on doesn't mean it aint good. Go out and get this CD as well as Dare Devil, Action is Go, and California Crossing. .


Tone & Vibe Just Not "Hear"
If you have yet to purchase any of Fu Manchu's albums, they are an unbelievably great band and you definitely need several of their albums in your collection. If you're reading this, chances are you're already a Fu Manchu fan. So skip the rest of this review and enter "Fu Manchu" & "Go For It Live", "King Of The Road" or "Daredevil" in the search box now; buy all three ablums if you've got the extra cash. For my other Fu Manchu brothers & sisters out there, I'm really disappointed in this album. Coming off the heels of a Marshall Stack, Tube Tone drenched, sonic powerhouse live album, this cd is very disappointing. The first listen reminded me of the line from the song 'Ojo Rojo', "She wanted nothing & I delivered". The songs, melodies, song structures and lyrics are classic Fu Manchu, but there is something in the overall sound & vibe of this record that just doesn't make it. The term "over-produced" sounds cliche, but it seems to apply here. The earlier Fu Manchu albums which were technically under-produced really serve the band's sound so much better. Anyone familiar with guitar amps knows the debate & preference of warmer, smoothing sounding "tube" amps over the somewhat lifeless, electronic, transistor ones. "Start The Machine" sounds very transistorized and compressed with very little "warmth & tone". I bought this after listening to the live album for a few weeks in my car. An album where the sounds of Balch's lead guitar in the left channel and Scott's rhythm guitar in the right channel are so friggin' powerful and in your face. Balch still plays some wicked leads here; but often the guitar sounds are just meshed & blended together sounding like a mono recording at times.
Reeder's drums are very powerful (rather than groove orientated) and up front in the mix, almost too upfront (the guitars should be louder). Reeder is a excellent drummer (his drumming on the live album reminds me a lot of Bill Ward's drumming on Paranoid"); but on this album, it seems he's trying to be David Grohl. On several songs here, the Nirvana fixation is quite evident; in some instances, the album sounds more like Nirvana than late 90's Fu Manchu. Brant Bjork's grooving, bass drum heavy sound (ala "King OF The Road") seems much more complimentary to the bands overall sound. Still this is still a good hard rock album (very little, if any "stoner" present here). I'm hoping this was just an unfortunate production job and not the start of a trend (dare I say more commmercialized trend). So longtime fans would be best served to hit eBay or zShops for this one. Wait a few months & I'm sure the price will tank somewhat.


MONGOOSE AND PIGEON TOE
Age has a way of mellowing even the hardest of metal tacticians. Returning once again to the candy metal shenanigans of TAIG and CC, Fu Manchu have apparently reneged on the promising power resurgence of KOTR--probably for good. For those who wish to revel in Fu's pinnacle of power, please seek out the Eatin' Dust EP from 1999. The last two songs, as cited in the header, form one of the heaviest, most primordial one-two punches in the entire metal canon.


You can see a complete list of all Fu Manchu discography, or go back to the Fu Manchu tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.

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