The Southern California-based stoner rock band, Fu Manchu, formed in 198 will have a special guest on their new record. Rush’s guitarist Alex Lifeson will be part of their new work, the 12th studio album, Clone of the Universe, on Feb. 9, 2018.
Lifeson guests on “Il Mostro Atomico,” an 18-minute, album-closing song that’s broken up into four sections. Fu Manchu are calling it the heaviest track they’ve ever recorded and, as guitarist and singer Scott Hill said in a press release, they’re itching to test it out in concert.
“We are excited to get out and play this stuff, especially ‘Il Mostro Atomico. We think it’s some the strongest music we’ve ever done. We really love the overall sound of the album and having Alex play on it is just incredible. It gives it that special validation for the idea that we had to try something like a side long song.”
Lifeson
Alexandar Zivojinovich, OC (born 27 August 1953), better known by his stage name Alex Lifeson, is a Canadian musician, best known as the guitarist (and sole remaining original member) of the Canadian rock band Rush. In 1968, Lifeson co-founded the band that would become Rush, with drummer John Rutsey and bassist and singer Jeff Jones.
Jones was replaced by Geddy Lee a month later, and Rutsey was replaced by Neil Peart in 1974; the band’s line-up has remained the same ever since. With Rush, Lifeson plays electric and acoustic guitars, as well as other string instruments such as mandola, mandolin, and bouzouki. He also performs backing vocals in live performances, and occasionally plays keyboards and bass pedal synthesizers.
Like the other members of Rush, Lifeson performs real-time on-stage triggering of sampled instruments, concurrently with his guitar playing.