Album Review: Buckcherry - "Hellbound"

If you tuned in to last week's Sounds From The Junkshop, you'll have heard me waxing lyrical about Buckcherry and how their peerless 1999 debut album gave me a much-needed shove in the right direction when it came to defining my music taste. Unfortunately, now I'm gonna have to say something not so nice about them, namely that that classic record was 22 years ago and while I hate to say it, Josh Todd (now the band's sole remaining original member) and co have been on something of a slippery slope in terms of quality over the last decade. And on this evidence Hellbound isn't going to be the album to turn things around.

The trouble with Buckcherry these days is that there's been next to no evidence of progress for well over a decade with their last really killer album being 15 way back in 2005. I suppose if there is a plus point to this album, it's nowhere near as awful as their twin creative low points of 2013's Confessions and 2015's Rock 'n' Roll but nearly everything here seems to scream "retreading old ground but not doing it as well as we used to".

Case in point - the title track is basically the group's signature tune Lit Up but with a less memorable chorus, ditto the token ballad The Way which is basically a poor relation of the soaring For The Movies from their classic debut. Gun and No More Lies attempt to go into Chilis style funk metal territory but just don't have the chops to merit a second listen and 5-4-3-2-1 has plenty of promise with a storming opening riff but quickly sinks into Buckcherry-by-numbers mediocrity.

There's the odd frustrating glimpse here and there of what Todd and co are capable of - Here I Come at least has a bit of the barrelling aggression of old and Junk is a solid LA Guns style slice of snarling menace. Wasting No More Time, meanwhile, despite a more than passing similarity to Aerosmith's What It Takes is at least a convincing slice of regretfulness at a life less than wisely lived. But ultimately they're occasional flashes of inspiration in what's overall a decidedly underwhelming album.

Reports of Buckcherry's demise have often been exaggerated in the past but on this evidence they're a group who badly need a shot of inspiration sooner rather than later or it's gonna get to the point where even Bruce Campbell isn't gonna be able to resurrect them...

NITE SONGS RATING: 🌓🌓🌓🌓🌓🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑 (5/10)

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