King of the Road (album)

The Japanese and European releases contain the track "Breathing Fire" in place of "Drive". "Breathing Fire" was on the demo version of the record that was sent to radio stations, clubs, and fans.

The album was produced by Joe Barresi at Monkey Studios. King of the Road contains a cover of Devo's "Freedom of Choice", which was praised by Mark Mothersbaugh.

The Austin Chronicle wrote: "King of the Road is another rock & roll road trip back to the early days of the Carter administration, sounding like an album that could have been made in 1977 It's full of obscenely fat guitar licks à la Frehley, Blackmore, Iommi (and the most perfect AC/DC break you've ever heard in the middle of 'Over the Edge'); treble free tones; and more songs about driving and vans. It'd be stupid if it weren't so thoroughly convincing and didn't rock so unrelentingly." The Morning Call wrote that "like the Ramones (and most great rock 'n' roll in general), the [monolithic] concept is based on visceral rather than cerebral response." The Riverfront Times deemed the album "a happy hunting ground of beefy, bong rattling RAWK AND ROLLLLL." The Chicago Tribune called it "one bad, bone jarring tour of the Great Riff Valley in all its arid, inhospitable majesty." The Windsor Star noted that "Fu Manchu even flesh the primeval metal groove out of a new wave tune, Devo's 'Freedom of Choice', giving the song a beefy bottom end." The Washington Post opined that "true believers might call Fu Manchu's approach to headbanging odes of the road conceptually pure; skeptics could deem it moronic." The Boston Globe thought that "guitarists [Scott] Hill and Bob Balch's aptitude for the big guitar sound popularized by Kiss and AC/DC locks into a monster rhythm section, ensuring that listeners are laughing with Fu Manchu, never at them." In a review of Fu Manchu's next album, California Crossing, USA Today deemed King of the Road a "creative peak" and "a stoner milestone of turbo revved guitars and West Coast slackerdom." The New York Times advised: "Think Tommy Lee riffing with Jerry Garcia."