Wedged in between new albums by Aerosmith and Guns N'Roses, it's a particularly apposite time for the second album by LA sleaze rockers Buckcherry to be released. 'Time Bomb' is a ratty, raucous, extravagant, Sex Pistols-tinged ramalam. Apart from the aforementioned records, it sounds superbly incongruous amidst the angst, angles and ill-advised rapping of most metal circa 2001.
The world of Buckcherry and their inevitably rakish singer Josh Todd is one where Sunset Strip goes on forever. "We get up and we never come down," he screeches on the fine 'Ridin'', presenting his impressionable young charges with a life where there's always more dirty deeds to do, so long as there's time in the morning for a bit of soul-searching. You've got to have some material for those big ballads, after all.
In the grand tradition of AC/DC, then, Buckcherry are unapologetically Cro-Magnon in attitude, probably think straight types should be pistol-whipped, and rock like bastards. There's nothing quite as outrageously ace here as their debut single, the paean to cocaine that was 'Lit Up'. Still, as Todd observes charmingly, "Life ain't nothin' but bitches and money," on the title track, or announces, "I'm a big dick muthaf**kin' porno star," on 'Porno Star', you can't help feeling they must be taking the piss a bit.
What else is there to say? There are loads of great guitar solos, some played by a man called Yogi. A couple of lardy ballads for the lighters-aloft crowd, notably 'Without You', full of that macho mawkishness favoured by big hair rockers. If it was 1985, they'd be the biggest band on the planet. As it is, The Gunners' 'Chinese Democracy' will still have to go some to beat this. Party on, dudes.
