Josh Richter and The Bad Things

Josh Richter and The Bad Things is the sound of a musician letting his hair down. Josh Richter is best known for his work in Bather, the independent death metal band where he built a reputation for heaviness and craft, and where he learned how to make aggression feel intentional rather than loud for its own sake. The Bad Things is the other side of that coin. Here he takes the aggression down a notch and turns the fun factor all the way up, trading blast beats and growls for swagger, hooks, and the kind of choruses that stick to you on the first listen.

The result is rock and roll with its sleeves rolled up. The Keep It Clean EP, released at the end of 2021, is a tight little run of songs that knows exactly what it wants to be. There is no overthinking here, just guitars, attitude, and a wink. You can hear the years of metal discipline underneath it all, in the precision of the playing and the way every part lands where it should, but the spirit is loose and grinning.

"Loud Boys" opens the door with exactly the rowdy, fists-up energy the title promises, the kind of song built for a sweaty room and a crowd that already knows the words. "Between Me and You" leans into melody, showing that Richter can write a real hook when he wants to, not just a riff. "She Knows She's Bad" struts in on confidence and groove, a character sketch with a grin, while "Motormouthin'" is pure momentum, fast-talking and restless and gone before it overstays its welcome. The EP closes with "California," a nod to the wide-open, sun-bleached myth that rock has always chased, and a fitting place to leave things.

What makes The Bad Things worth hearing is the perspective Richter brings to it. This is not someone reaching outside his range and hoping it works. It is a serious musician choosing, deliberately, to make something playful, and that choice shows. He has talked openly about wanting a breath of fresh air from extreme music, and you can feel that exhale across these tracks. The songs are short, punchy, and unpretentious, the work of a player who has nothing to prove and is therefore free to simply enjoy himself.

That dual life suits him. The same hands that build crushing, technical metal in Bather can also knock out a three-chord ripper with a smile, and hearing both sides makes each one read clearer. The Bad Things is the project where Richter gets to be a fan of the loud, dumb, glorious fun of rock and roll, and he plays it with the conviction of someone who genuinely loves the form. Throw on Keep It Clean, turn it up, and let it do its job. It does not ask for much, and it gives back plenty.