-- Fu Manchu - Start the Machine | (Audio CD) MSRP $ 16.98 Amazon Price $ 16.98 Savings $ 0.00 | |  Release Date: 14 September, 2004, Drt
TRACK LISTING - Written In Stone
- I Can`t Hear You
- Understand
- Make Them Believe
- Hey
- I`m Gettin` Away
- Out To Sea
- Open Your Eyes
- Today`s Too Soon
- It`s All The Same
- Tunnel Vision
- I Wanna Be
Usually ships in 24 hours | | | strong fu release | | the fu can do no wrong. i`ve been a fan since 1991 and this is a great album. 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 | | This is my favorite fu manchu album, certainly worth five stars. Don`t listen to all the negative reviewers their just a bunch of old burned out hippies. 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`re reading this, chances are you`re already a Fu Manchu fan. 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. 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. | | |
-- zzzz
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