You can trust Louder
After last year’s hilariously woeful Spraygun War album, the bar is set stupendously low when it come to new music with members of Buckcherry involved. Whether that bar is what makes Josh Todd & The Conflict so surprisingly enjoyable, or it’s the fact that the ’Cherry frontman is in more familiar hard rock territory here, is unclear, but even though Year Of The Tiger is as bombastic and daft as you would expect, it’s undeniably entertaining. Good Enough is as cheesy a ballad as you’ll hear, but suckers leech-like on to your brain on after one listen, and the rollicking Fucked Up might be mad as a lorry but it has an undeniable, bug-eyed charm. If you like your music over the top, absurd and unapologetic then you’ll love this. Serious musos might want to start running away now.
Since blagging his way onto the Hammer team a decade ago, Stephen has written countless features and reviews for the magazine, usually specialising in punk, hardcore and 90s metal, and still holds out the faint hope of one day getting his beloved U2 into the pages of the mag. He also regularly spouts his opinions on the Metal Hammer Podcast.