New Music Review: BUCKCHERRY ‘Hellbound’

Rating: 7 / 10 Stars

REVIEW – I will say this honestly. I was a fan of the debut album by BUCKCHERRY. I bought into the hype that they had the energy of AC/DC and the fire of GUNS ‘N ROSES. “Lit Up” was that song that I could not get out of my head. I call this the “Crazy Town” fix. I hear that one song on their first album and just think this band has something special while I ignore or excuse most of the other things on that album to think about that one song that just caught me on shock. Well, the cocaine guys put out more music since their debut 20 plus years ago. Well, they graduated to “stripper” song band next. Someone played me a song one night called “Crazy Bitch”. A few seconds later, I realized that was the band I thought would be huge and I immediately hated myself. A few years ago, I heard their cover of “Head Like a Hole” and I wanted to put my head in a hole for sure. This song could be like KILGORE covering AIR SUPPLY. I decided to hear the past twenty plus years of BUCKCHERRY before diving into this new album. I will say, “Warpaint” in 2019 was so painted by the numbers and void of personality and energy that I was wondering what happened to the second coming of KIX. I will say this, if BUCKCHERRY was a cat they would be at their 15th life.

This ‘Hellbound’ album is the closest we will ever get to the debut album and that energy and passion. I feel that this album in some ways could be the sequel to ‘Year of the Tiger’ that Josh Todd put out a few years ago then a true BUCKCHERRY album. I feel that Josh feels a pressure to be a certain persona for the 15 year old fans of BUCKCHERRY that he forgets that music is about having fun and just letting your hair down and going for it. “54321” is a good song. It is the way you start off a rock album. It has so much punch that you cannot sit still and listen to it. “So Hott” is also a riff gift that really delivers. I can picture him live doing his Iggy Pop dance to this one. The title track is another good song. It has the passion and attitude that got people to pay attention to the band. Where this album starts to lose me is how ballad heavy it is. “Gun” , while not a ballad, suffers from the album being so radio friendly. I wanted to like this bluesy funk gem more than I did. “Barricade” is a daring little song that P Funk could be a fan of. “No More Lies” is that trailer park warm beer song where people will smoke their weed and pass their date to their friends to try while hooting and hollering to the country vibe. The album as a whole is fair. It is safe, but some songs really stand out more than others. This album shows you that BUCKCHERRY is only a band in name. What that means is this is clearly Josh Todd’s vision. He is his own Yngwie and has his fingerprints all over every element of this album. This album has a ton of adventurous moments that Josh wants to show people what BUCKCHERRY is heading towards with the future. If this is the last album for BUCKCHERRY, this is their best album since the debut. (That statement may not be the best way to sell this album) If this is a new way for BUCKCHERRY with their next album, I would love to hear what is next. I just hope that we can get out of Aerosmith park with the emphasis on ballads and bubble gum pop.