Cars, motorcycles, vans, choppers, and bongs--it's easy to see where Fu Manchu find their inspiration, and it's clear this isn't cerebral rock. These boys, who hail from the synapse-frying heat of the California desert, go for the gut. They have the riffage to do it, sounding part Stooges circa Metallic K.O., part Black Sabbath, part stoned teenage garage band. Singer Scott Hill shrieks like a psychopathic Ted Nugent and his guitar emits fuzzed-out, grooved-up slabs of thunder--with lightning. The drums and bass are heavy but never fast; when they crank up the intensity the pace slows even further: volume is job one. "Hell on Wheels" starts with the throbbing guitar and slowly morphs into a deadly thunderous roar. "No Dice" finds its lyrical inspiration from the Jeff Spicoli character in Fast Times at Ridgemont High ("No shoes, no shirt, no dice!"). And "Weird Beard" is pure THC-inspired giggling lunacy--with a backbeat. All in all, King of the Road is an unadulterated blast of an album that reminds the teenage boy within why you fell in love with rock in the first place. --Tod Nelson