What’s happening with Buckcherry these days? Over the last few years we had a flurry of activity starting with the wonderful visit down-under in 2013 for the Stone Music Festival and a few select dates, then later that same year dates with Steel Panther and Fozzy that led to a second headlining tour since 1999 in March 2016. Of course during that time the band had been busy releasing music – the ‘F.U.C.K. EP’ in 2014 and latest album ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll’ a year later. Then in October 2016 after a ’10th Anniversary of 15′ US Tour and UK Tour again with Steel Panther and a November return to Canada and the US, things went a little quiet till in 2017 Keith Nelson and Xavier Muriel left the band allegedly “due to disagreements with Josh Todd over the band’s direction”.
Todd then brought in new members guitarist Kevin Roentgen and drummer Sean Winchester shortly afterwards. The band has played a handful of dates with the new line-up since May this year the latest being on 7th October at the ‘Mother of All Rock Festival 2017’ in Monterrey. As we speak Josh Todd and the Conflict kicks off their Tour to support ‘Year of the Tiger’. Josh though is happy telling a recent interviewer about Buckcherry that “the band is the best it’s ever been”. He is now of course the only original member.
Onto the new album by ‘…The Conflict’…
Let’s get things straight it isn’t the year of the Tiger and it won’t be for a good few years (2023 is the next) and Todd wasn’t born in the year of the Tiger either so we assume it’s just a cool name… So here we stand in the year of the Rooster with Josh and Stevie D from Buckcherry and the new band ‘Josh Todd and the Conflict’ comprising of Everclear’s Sean Winchester on drums and Greg Cash on bass.
The first thing that hits you is the aggression that comes with the album, like early Buckcherry with added spit and attitude. It’s certainly invigorating and none more so than on the title track which opens burning with a great beat and punk-fueled refrain that really hits hard! It’s followed by the more traditional adrenaline-filled hard rock of ‘Inside’ before more yet more ferocity ensues with ‘Fucked Up’ which has a light almost industrial meets hip-hop undertow.
The most interesting track perhaps on the whole album comes next with ‘Rain’ a song that you couldn’t anticipate after that opening – a slow burning , persistent laid back number based on a great blues-lick that just builds into a powerful and emotive vehicle for Todd’s unique voice. It’s a real gem here that really stands out amongst some decent but rather more straight-forward propositions.
The real missed opportunity is placing ‘Rain’ right before ‘Good Enough’ the tingling warm, yet obligatory ballad here. The two slower number s almost work against themselves creating a lull in the album and ‘Good Enough’ coming off very much second best against ‘Rain’ which is a shame as its another decent song.
The Punk thrust and aggression of ‘The Conflict’ slaps you back in the face and the modern Foos-like Pop-Rock of ‘Story of My Life’ is nice enough, with a good solid hook and a sideways glance to radio rock programmers everywhere. One step further into radio-friendly territory comes the cover of Prince’s ‘Erotic City’ which features some nice guitars and really ups the ante towards the end. To be honest I was slightly surprised how good this one comes across being a long time Prince fan especially of this period and the song itself not being the obvious cover from the great man’s back catalogue.
The album closes out pretty strongly too: ‘Push It’ is smooth clean Buckcherry-lite and a decent rocker if a little smoother than some of the more aggressive tracks, while ‘Atomic’ seeks to stride down the RHCP highway and it’s a nice funky, rocky, hooky diversion meant to be turned up loud. We close with a ‘clean’ version of the best track here: ‘Rain’ which as you might expect sounds pretty much the same if a little watered down (not of course that is possible literally with water)…
I liked this, it’s not quite Buckcherry but it’s not a million miles away either. There’s variety but not quite as much punk as I expected and overall it’s an album that deserves a hearing.I for one would love to see these guys play this live. As to what happens with Buckcherry and in particular Keith Nelson -man I’d really love to hear what he comes up with next. In the meantime it certainly looks like Josh and Stevie D have a decent head-start!
