Fu Manchu – Clone Of The Universe – Album Review

Taking a quick glace at some of the bands releasing new work in 2018 and you could be forgiven for thinking we were back in the stoner/doom boom of the mid to late 90’s!

With COC having already laid down an early contender for album of the year and both Monster Magnet and Orange Goblin also set to decimate eardrums later in 2018, next up are those Californian riff-lords Fu Manchu with their twelfth album Clone Of The Universe .

If you’re in anyway familiar with Fu Manchu then you know exactly what to expect; big fuzzed-up bastard riffs with plenty of sunny southern Californian good time vibes! Fu Manchu are never going to reinvent the wheel, with them it’s all about riff worship and the likes of “Intelligent Worship”, “Don’t Panic” and the title track are top quality slices of stoner rock, topped off with Scott Hills distinctive vocals.

The highlight though is the truly gargantuan “Il Mostro Atomico”, which at 18 minutes long closes the album on one hell of a high point. Here, Fu Manchu truly cut loose from balls-out rock to bluesy mellifluous soloing, going from lead heavy to meandering in no time at all and it’s a joy to behold.

Simply put, Clone Of The Universe is yet another solid album from these ever reliable lads and if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, right?! 7/10