Josh Todd YOU MADE ME (Todd Entertainment)

As the name of his new label implies, former Buckcherry singer Josh Todd has yet to make a full recovery from those heady days in the late ’90s when his growling cocaine voice was a staple on active and modern-rock radio. But after their sophomore effort failed to ignite much interest, Todd’s former band found themselves back on the outside, staring in on a heavy-metal resurgence that now includes a diverse roster of such like-minded rock classicists as Queens of the Stone Age and the currently exploding Darkness. Song titles like "Wasted," "Broken," and "Mind Infection" let you know that Todd hasn’t changed his focus much since Buckcherry — he’s still a tortured tattoo’d bad boy with a penchant for the seedy side of the Hollywood hills. As he screams against a vaguely industrial, Helmet-style backdrop of drums, bass, and overdriven guitars marching forward in the lockstep staccato of "Broken," "Pills in your mouth my love dead/It’s a shame everything got broken."

Of course, you could take that two ways — it is a shame for Todd that Buckcherry ended up so broken so quickly. And he hasn’t really fixed much on You Made Me. There are a few more hints of power-ballad crooning here, and fewer obvious homages to the power-chord blitz of AC/DC. But even the band photo on the back cover doesn’t look all that different from a Buckcherry shoot. If it’s a long road to the top for those who want to rock-and-roll, then the route down always seems a bit steeper.

(Josh Todd comes to the Hard Rock Café, 131 Clarendon Street in Boston, next Friday, March 12; call 617-424-7625)