Buckcherry
Confessions
(Century Media Records)

Big staccato verses push the nasty “Gluttony,” the first tune on Buckcherry’s Confessions, a well-produced rock/metal release of a sixth studio album. It’s pretty much what you’d expect from this quintet.

“Wrath” features a fantastic bass from Jimmy “Two Fingers” Ashhurst, a pulsating verse and a real break-out lead guitar section from Keith Nelson. “Seven Ways To Die” is the first song I felt had that recognizable Buckcherry strut and features dead-on drumming from Xavier Muriel. “Air” sees some great riffery and slicing from Stevie D.’s rhythm. I love that distorted fat bass on “Envy,” the punk-like Iggy thang the band gets into on “Lust” is fun (the lyrics are better than most here), and again Muriel kicks ass on “Give ‘Em What They Want” with Keith Nelson finally giving something not so cliché in his lead playing; this one truly chunks along, like “Air.”

I regard Josh Todd’s vocal style (his overall voice), which is akin to Halestorm’s ”Lzzy” Hale and others in that it’s interesting, powerful, but will grate on the listener after a while because of its limitations. The point being, 15 songs in here, I had had plenty of Confessions and Todd’s supposed concept album of his life’s journey.

But the album rocks if you like this sort of thing.