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Virulence: If This Isn't A Dream... 1985-1989 Hardcore, Punk Rock Southern Lord Records January 19th, 2010
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Review
Anyone who has an ear to the ground of mainstream, whether by passing or intense intrigue, will know the band name Fu Manchu. Well, if you are a fan of that stoner rock act, or have ever been curious what the band's roots were prior to being signed, then you're in for a real treat. If This Isn't A Dream... 1985-1989 is a collection of recordings by Fu Manchu back when they first started out under the name Virulence. On If This Isn't A Dream..., you basically follow the band's starting career through a series of twenty tracks that were recorded between 1985-1989, of course. It is also very interesting to hear because, almost immediately in the early recordings, you can hear the band progressing towards the sound that they now have, and moreso from a sound that seems almost inspired by the track "Institutionalized" off the self-titled Suicidal Tendencies album, which is blatently clear as soon as the CD begins. It isn't until the third track, "Worse Than Misery", that the more Stoner aspect of the bands potential starts to kick in, and "Kindergarten" where the Stoner Rock sound is basically solidified as soon as the really slow drums kick in with the long held guitar chord. However, after the initial shock of the material on here in comparison to the already known material by Fu Manchu begins to fade, much of If This Isn't A Dream... becomes rather bland and repetative, effectively becoming material only die hard fans would really find greatly enjoyment out of. The best way to explain much of this release would be to say that this band effectively took the Suicidal Tendencies track "Institutionalized", molded it around various other tracks by that band, and then threw either a Hardcore Punk or a Stoner Rock feel to the track. There are some tracks on here that do not necessarily fit this pattern, but those usually come in around the middle of the album, with "Kindergarten" really showing where the band has some more originality music-wise. Of course the live material on here is about what you would expect from the era it was recorded, nothing too fancy at all and, of course, very raw, but still audible and sounds better then some live releases that labels will put out from cheap bootlegged recordings at concert venues to milk the fans of their money. And then, of course, you have the re-recorded tracks "Dead Weight" and "Wrapped Up" which show the band trying to fuse a little more of the Stoner sound to the music, mostly through the use of guitar distortion and changing the music up a bit, which actually leaves you wanting to listen to the original tracks thanks to the vocals conflicting with the much harder sound on these recordings. The most enjoyable material on here, however, would have to be the much later tracks on the release. The shorter, more Punk oriented live tracks "My Rules" and "Blacktop" really show a completely different band all together, completely void of any kind of transformation at all. These two live tracks are sort of a prelude to the much crisper sounding closing tracks starting at "All" that follow the same Punk influence. The shorter ones have some real speed behind them, but the better sounding ones are the longer tracks "No Fun", even if the vocalist does go off key a good number of times during the chorus, with a huge exception to "Something Went Wrong/Promise is Shot" as it sounds exactly like "No Fun", but with an slower, altered sound for the chorus. Looking at this release as a compilation for the die hard Fu Manchu fan, this is a must have release. As stated, it does a good job at chronicalling the band's start. However, if you're just looking for some Stoner or Doom based music from a label widely known for those types of releases, then this isn't really one you would want to pick up. Much of the release can get rather boring, as it does sound rather repetative after a while, almost as if the band has one particular idea of view and just branches off from that, but the more Stoner and Droning tracks on here, such as "Kindergarten" and "The Curse" really do make up for some of the repetition that appears at the start of the album up to "Blank Stare", and the live segments are just nice collectables to have on top of it all. If you're not interested in Fu Manchu, or into Punk Hardcore, Punk, or Stoner Rock at all, then it's wise to just completely avoid this all together.
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