Unfortunately, their five year break only weakened the band’s sound. With their latest record, “15”, the band ditches most of the sound that made them a potential force to be reckoned with, and turns themselves into an inoffensive, run of the mill bar band.

With tracks such as “Brooklyn”, and the classic rock sounding “Carousel”, lead singer Josh Todd sounds bored, and the band appears as a shell of its former self. Most of the material is uninspired and looks like that the band just wanted to get material back in the marketplace, and didn’t really care what it sounded like.

Only glimpses of the former Buckcherry surfaces on the 11 track, 42 minute disc. The first single, “Crazy Bitch”, has the swagger and dirty lyrics of older Buckcherry tunes. But when the first single is the best song on the record, any listener has to be worried. Other halfway decent tunes include the grimy “Out of Line” and the straight ahead hard rocker “Sunshine”.

But throughout most of “15”, Buckcherry is looking like the equivalent of a long shot nominee in the Oscar Race; they are just happy to be here. Unfortunately, with the reputation of their last two albums, “just happy to be here” makes for a very disappointing listen.

GRADE: C-