The five years between 2009’s Signs of Infinite Power (discussed here) and 2014’s Gigantoid (review here) was at that point the longest studio drought of Fu Manchu‘s career. They didn’t break up or anything, but they toured and toured and toured, doing whole album celebrations of 1996’s In Search Of… (discussed here) and 1997’s The Action is Go (discussed here) on US and European runs that, yeah, were something of a victory lap, but also assured Fu Manchu could and were ready to deliver even if not yet on a new album. To put it to scale, the band released five LPs between 1994-1999, and that doesn’t count compiling two EPs into the full-length Godzilla’s Eatin’ Dust (discussed here) in 1998. Five years can make a big difference in the life of a band.

In 2014, Fu Manchu were embarking on self-releasing a new album for the first time, and in some ways, the story of Gigantoid is the story of the band being able to cement themselves as a DIY operation, balancing operating costs and creative endeavors, handling the logistics of promotion and releasing in-house. Fortunately Gigantoid was greeted with anticipation. It was the first Fu Manchu offering to come out during the mobile/social media era, and resonated with a new generation of fans accordingly. I don’t have numbers to back the assertion that for many it was probably their first Fu record, but even without the data point citations, I was there to see it happen, and Fu Manchu would benefit from the reborn word of mouth that dude-check-out-this-video direct sharing would allow, let alone the birth of podcasts, shitheel blogs and so on. The landscape had changed, and removing themselves from the traditional label model and finding that they could be sustainable — whole album tours are usually a crowdpleaser — must have made it an even more exciting time.

The band had just come through releasing two albums through (Century Media imprint) Liquor and Poker Music and then Century Media-proper in 2007’s We Must Obey (discussed here) and the aforementioned Signs of Infinite Power, and in them had incarnated the most aggressive take since Scott Hill was playing guitar in Virulence during Fu Manchu‘s formative hardcore punk days. Gigantoid represents another partial departure in their methodology. The tonal largesse of We Must Obey had carried somewhat into Signs of Infinite Power, and as “Dimension Shifter” gets underway on Gigantoid, that hard-on-the-beat sensibility isn’t completely absent, but the band — the established lineup of Hill (guitar/vocals), Bob Balch (lead guitar), Brad Davis (bass) and Scott Reeder (drums) — very pointedly go somewhere else, diverging after the first two minutes into a mellower slowdown as a setup for Balch‘s solo, leading into a further spaceout slow-roll from whence the fuzz riff picks up at the start of “Invaders on My Back,” soon joined by a rush of bass and drums.

Momentum is still very much a factor, but the band’s punk elements were sneaking back into the sound, and amid signature hooks, songs like “Invaders on My Back,” “Radio Source Sagittarius” and the later if-you’re-looking-for-largesse-here-it-is roll of “Evolution Machine” revel in it, let alone the actual punker tracks like “No Warning” or “Triplanetary,” both of which offset the broader-reaching fare on side B; Gigantoid very much playing out as two sides with individual purposes between them nonetheless fluid front-to-back as they maybe invariably would be when so much groove abounds. But prior to that redirect, side A unfurls a no-filler tour de force of Fu Manchu‘s songwriting at its any-era finest, “Dimension Shifter” leading the listener into its comedown as a setup for “Invaders on My Back,” emphasizing tempo malleability while staying straightforward and sans-presense in intent. “Anxiety Reducer,” which I think is about both floating uncontrollably in space Major Tom-style and weed, packs another wallop of a chorus and feels all the more made for the stage when they bring it to a big rock and roll crashout at the end, well enough by then earned, what with all the rocking.

“Radio Source Sagittarius” was my pick up of the bunch when Gigantoid came out, and its chorus remains choice; “Eyes wide on arrival/Got ’em running high and low…” and so on. It is exceedingly well placed as an apex for side A. It doesn’t actually finish the album’s first half — that task falls to the heavier and more lumbering but two-minute post-actual-hardcore riff setpiece “Mutant” — but it is a landmark just the same and a defining moment for Fu Manchu circa 2014. The fact that “Mutant” is shorter also smooths the transition into “No Warning,” which is all of 1:25 and sets up a direct contrast with the rollout of “Evolution Machine,” laying out a back and forth that continues into the final two tracks, “Triplanetary” and the near-eight-minute closer “The Last Question.”

On some level, that back and forth is a conversation that’s happening between songs all along, but it is starkest as they push through “Triplanetary,” which would love to hang out and chat but just doesn’t have the time, and “The Last Question,” which does have the time and takes it, answering the jammier side of “Dimension Shifter” with the goes-wandering-and-doesn’t-come-back psych exploration that begins even before its first half is done. As in the opener, as they round out, Fu Manchu are able to meander in ways their songwriting generally doesn’t have much interest in being. Neither “The Last Question” nor “Dimension Shifter” is the band’s first foray into jamming, but it’s something they don’t always do on a given record and it was a side of their sound that on Gigantoid was particularly served by the production and mix by Moab‘s Andrew Giacumakis.

The way Gigantoid balances fullness of tone, clarity and raw performance vitality is a standout against whatever you’d want to put it next to in Fu Manchu‘s catalog. With five years’ separation from what came before it, it felt like the beginning of a new era for the band, and in the 12 years since, it has kind of turned out to be just that; a low-key highlight of the discography that, whether you were there in the ’90s or not, is ready to welcome aboard listeners from across generations.

As always, I hope you enjoy.

—

This week was a lot. Túl sok, I might tell my Hungarian teacher. Wednesday night we went to a hockey game for the New York Sirens, which is the plays-in-Newark team for the PWHL, the Professional Women’s Hockey League. It was The Pecan’s first evening game, and it was the Pride game — I guess because they don’t play hockey in June, they did it in April — which was the first game we went to last year, so way fun. They were losing when we left but came back to win. Fair enough. The Pecan made it till about 9PM and then was crazypants and ready to go. We had open seats on either side of us and front and back, so she had room to dance and wiggle and get on the jumbotron like four times with a sign she poured her heart into making and came out pretty well — she’s always been able to draw and never does; if I could draw I would never stop, the way I never stop writing — but it was recognizable when she was done and it was time to leave.

Yesterday there was a phone call and a low-key meeting at school, Hungarian was Monday, Tuesday and Friday instead of Tuesday, Tuesday and Thursday, my sister bought a car and there just wasn’t a lot of letup. Monday night The Patient Mrs. was out to dinner, or a meeting or I don’t know what, and The Pecan’s OT is Monday and Thursday, so it was just bang-bang-bang all week. This weekend she’s got a birthday party (I’m not going) and archery, and then we go right into next week for more of I don’t even know what leading to another booked out weekend next weekend. And so on into where-did-the-years-go perpetuity.

You might’ve noticed yesterday and today, not a ton of posts. That’s me actively choosing quality over quantity. I did three full reviews this week, for Kal-El, C.O.C. and Truckfighters, as well as an album premiere for Occult Hand Order and a video premiere for Slow Draw that had a whole album review with it, so that’s five reviews Monday to Friday, which felt both oldschool and pretty awesome in terms of productivity. I did not feel like those hours would have been better spent chasing down some filler news story. I was quite pleased to get those reviews done.

Next week, uh… well, I was gonna go to Hopsmoker in Massachusetts OR Grim Reefer Fest in Baltimore, but money’s pretty tight, so I think neither is happening. Plenty of writing to do here, I suppose.

Zelda update: I don’t know where I last left off, but I beat Wind Waker like a week and a half ago maybe and started a game of Echoes of Wisdom, which I like a lot. Playing as Zelda instead of Link is fun, and the way the combat works where you have to generate monsters to fight for you is fun, less Pokemon than it sounds on paper but still of that ilk, I guess, in a Zelda-y way. I’m not using a guide or anything, like the last run through Wind Waker, just kind of playing to enjoy it. Been a couple weeks since I touched Tears of the Kingdom, but I know it’s still there and that’s fine.

Oh, and we went last weekend, maybe last Sunday, to see the Mario Galaxy movie. I was good and stoned and I feel like that was every bit the way to experience it. If you go, I don’t recommend lucidity.

I hope you have a great and safe weekend. Have fun, find solace amid the horrors. I’m checking out the Nine Inch Noize record today, might close a week with it at some point. Whatever you’re up to, enjoy, unless you’re a nazi, in which case you can fuck yourself off the side of a cliff to make the world a better place. I’m back Monday with more shenanigans and a review of something or other.

FRM. Anybody want a shirt that says ‘riffs against fascism?’

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Tags: At the Dojo Records, California, Fu Manchu, Fu Manchu Gigantoid, Gigantoid, San Clemente

This entry was posted on Friday, April 17th, 2026 at 11:15 am and is filed under Bootleg Theater. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.