{"id":4468,"date":"2019-03-14T05:00:48","date_gmt":"2019-03-14T05:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/?p=4468"},"modified":"2019-03-14T08:18:25","modified_gmt":"2019-03-14T08:18:25","slug":"buckcherry-warpaint-century-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/?p=4468","title":{"rendered":"Buckcherry – \u2018Warpaint\u2019 (Century Media)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>It\u2019s just a few days since I was last sat behind the keyboard waxing lyrical about the return of Swedish sleaze rockers Backyard Babies, now Century Media are at it again, messing with my musical memory banks with the return of Buckcherry, another band who thankfully saved me from a life a beige back at the tail end of the nineties.<\/p>\n

The connections don\u2019t end there either as just like with BYBs I pretty much fell out of love with Buckcherry around the time their albums started to contain the same amount of ballads you\u2019d expect to find on a Celine Dion long player, and then when the news broke In May 2017 that guitarist Keith Nelson was leaving the band you\u2019ll forgive me for thinking that things might just be over for Buckcherry.<\/p>\n

How wrong could I be though, as here they are back with a bang in 2019 with studio album number eight and wearing the \u2018Warpaint\u2019 this time around singer Josh Todd is the sole survivor from the \u2018Lit Up\u2019 years whilst guitarist Stevie D is still there at his side from Crazy Bitch\u2019 era. Also in attendance this time around are ex-Orson man Kevin Roentgen on guitar (he was also in the rather splendid American Pearl who opened for Buckcherry back in the early 00s), bassist Kelly LeMieux and the already departed Sean Winchester on drums.<\/p>\n

Having rolled my eyes into the back of my horse\u2019s head at the band\u2019s pointless cover of Nine Inch Nail\u2019s \u2018Head Like A Hole\u2019 which is also included here, I\u2019d deliberately stayed away from any other album teasers as I really wanted to fall in love with Buckcherry all over again, and with \u2018Warpaint\u2019 kicking off with the album\u2019s title track I’m pleased to say that some of that initial fire the band had in their stomachs around the time of their first two albums appears to have returned, BUT, and this is a big BUT, the overall feel I get is one of a band slightly holding back, as the acoustic lead \u2018Right Now\u2019 proves. This is a track that should explode from the speakers after the initial strut of the verse but instead, it pops and fizzes along where it should really be ripping your throat out.<\/p>\n

I thought it was me initially, but I\u2019ve also noted some other people on social media commenting about the mix being a bit subdued, however to point the finger solely at Mike Plotnikoff (who manned the desk on this project as he had done on their third album\u201915\u2019) to me seems a bit harsh as when the band do ultimately slip into ballad territory as they do on \u2018Radio Song\u2019 and \u2018The Hunger\u2019 the sound simply soars. Surely there were more pairs of ears in the control room than Mike\u2019s when the bite and crunch that should be there on the guitars on the opening riff for \u2018The Vacuum\u2019 end up muffled below the rhythm section? Still, it\u2019s a good song, with a great vocal melody from Todd. I just wish again that the killer instinct was a bit more to the front.<\/p>\n

Where \u2018Warpaint\u2019 does score a full 10 for me is on the superb \u2018Bent\u2019 (a track that could have fallen off the band\u2019s classic and hugely underrated \u2018Time Bomb\u2019 album) and on the double time almost country-tinged shuffle of \u2018No Regrets\u2019, both tracks showing that Buckcherry are anything but a spent musical force.<\/p>\n

Likewise, the gospel-tinged \u2018Back Down\u2019 is a sultry little number that could be a sleeper hit single whilst \u2018Closer\u2019 thunders along on an AC\/DC like staccato riff that immediately has me tapping my hoof.<\/p>\n

Look I\u2019d love to say this is the best thing Buckcherry have recorded since \u201815\u2019 just like Josh Todd is doing in the press rounds right now, but I can\u2019t, simply because it isn\u2019t, and tracks like \u2018The Alarm\u2019 plus album closer\u2019 The Devil\u2019s In The Detail\u2019 just aren\u2019t up there with the likes of \u2018Onset\u2019 and \u2018Broken Glass\u2019 the tracks they (kind of) correspond with if you stand the two albums alongside one another.<\/p>\n

Make no mistake though \u2018Warpaint\u2019 is still a really decent hard rock album, and it is a breath of fresh air compared to the turgid bullshit being peddled as the next big thing by certain other record labels, it\u2019s just for me it lacks that immediate knockout punch that some of the band\u2019s previous album possessed in spades, so for now, I\u2019ll leave my love-light on standby.<\/p>\n

Buy ‘Warpaint’: Here<\/a><\/p>\n

Website<\/a><\/p>\n

Facebook<\/a><\/p>\n

Author: Johnny Hayward<\/p>\n