112. Dokken / Beast From The East. 1988. 4/5.

Over the course of the preceding four years, Dokken had been scaling the heights of the music mountain, releasing three studio albums in support of their debut album some years before, refining their sound and in the process breaking into the glam metal market that had risen in popularity in that time frame. On the back of their 1987 hit album “Back for the Attack”, the band had not only had a hit single with the song “Dream Warriors”, which had been written for and appeared in the movie “A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors”, but their profile had increased in tandem. The rhythm section of Mick Brown on drums and Jeff Pilson on bass, on Dokken’s amazing vocals complemented by Pilson’s soaring back ups, and George Lynch’s scintillating guitar, had all combined to bring the band to a prominence that they had not seen before.
All of this led to Dokken being added to the bill for the 1988 Monsters of Rock Festival alongside Van Halen, Metallica and Scorpions, and a chance to shine in front of their biggest audience to that time. Prior to this appearance, the band had booked dates for a headline tour of Japan, and the decision was made to record several shows and then release a live album. It was a canny decision given the increased popularity of the albums they had released to that point of their career, and the album in retrospect contains some of the bands most well known and loved songs, and perhaps more surprisingly was eventually nominated for ‘best metal performance’ at the Grammy Awards two years later in 1990. Though it didn’t win, missing out to Metallica, this live album which came to be titled “Beast from the East” became a pivotal point of the band’s career. For more reasons than one.

Even today, 35 years on, if you were to pick a best of Dokken album, this would just about cover all bases. All of the band’s four albums released to this point in time are represented in the song list, containing Dokken’s best known songs. And they all sound great here. Don’s vocals are fantastic, probably at their peak in his career at this point in time, and all through the album the support from Jeff Pilson and Mick Brown is superb. They actually enhance the songs here from their studio versions because you can hear the three distinct vocals when they come together, and it makes these songs sound enormous. Then add George Lynch’s amazing guitar into the mix and you have a terrific live experience.
Everything about this album mixes well and plays well to the ear. “Breaking the Chains” is both the band’s first album and first single, and still sounds great on this album in the live environment. “Under Lock and Key” has three songs featured, the opening track “Unchain the Night” which kicks off the album in style, and “In My Dreams” and “It’s Not Love”, both the power ballad like tracks which still sound palatable here. Arguably the band’s most favoured album is “Tooth and Nail” which has five songs featured here. The title track “Tooth and Nail” is a beauty. “When Heaven Comes Down” and “Into the Fire” are both great live versions here, with a greater energy live than their already excellent studio versions contain. “Alone Again” again moves into the power ballad territory, but is performed well enough here to ignore its pitfalls, while the hit single “Just Got Lucky”, arguably the bands most famous and best track, is turned up to 11 here.
The four songs from the album they were touring on, “Back for the Attack” are wonderful here. “Dream Warriors” as the movie soundtrack song comes across perfectly, uplifting and building to the belting ending. Great version. This is backed by “Kiss of Death” which rushes at you with that fantastic Lynch riff powering its way through the track. “Heaven Sent” is in the power ballad class of song, but to give it credit it sounds good here. But the star is a cracking version of the instrumental “Mr Scary” which has always been a great vehicle for Lynch on guitar but is enhanced here with his own solo work before the actual entry into the start of the track. Great stuff.
The album also contains a new studio track “Walk Away”, something that seems unnecessary given the brilliant quality of what has come before it, but this was the age of getting in a new song to encourage people who felt they weren’t going to outlay their money for ‘songs I already have’ to actually buy the album. It was a different time, that’s for sure.

I was unfortunately a little late on picking up Dokken as a band. As I have said on previous episodes on this podcast in regards to Dokken, they so suited exactly what I was listening to in the mid-1980's that it is incredible that it took me until over a decade later before I really found them and all of these albums from that time. Including this one. What surprises me more is that this album isn’t spoken of more often when it comes to comparing or listing the greatest live albums of all time. Because every song on here is a great song from the band, and every version is a great live version. Whether you are a fan of the band or not, you can’t help but be impressed with the clarity and range of the vocals, and the mastery of the guitar from George Lynch, and the great support acts on bass and drums. Everything about this album sounds fantastic. The performance, and the material. The album did well at the time, but didn’t really raise any flags as to its quality. And every time I put this on and listen to it, I can’t help but shake my head at that revelation. But perhaps there is a reason for this. This was a high water mark for the band, but within months of it being released the band broke up, essentially from both personal creative differences finally becoming unmanageable between Dokken and Lynch. Lynch and Brown went off to form Lynch Mob, Pilson formed the band Flesh and Blood on lead vocals before playing with MSG and Dio, while Dokken himself put out a solo album. It was not the end of the band forever, but it drew a curtain on the golden years of the band. And if you are going to do it, then a terrific live album is not the worst way to do it.