1036. Dokken / Return to the East Live [Live]. 2018. 2.5/5

The heyday of bands can stretch for any length of time, but once that heyday has been reached and passed there is no returning to it. Nostalgia can often carry a band to further heights at a later stage, and classic line up reunions can do the same. Dokken appears to have gone for most of those things combined with this live album release, and while there will be fans of the band out there who will lick this up, many others will rightly ask whether or not this release was necessary in any shape or form apart from being a money spinner.

The classic run for Dokken of Tooth and Nail, Under Lock and Key and Back for the Attack was completed by the release of the live album Beast From the East, which tied up the ends nicely before they disbanded for other projects apart from each other. Despite other albums coming and the band members changing once a reformation of sorts was accomplished seven years later, nothing has approached those four albums in the Dokken discography.
Once again though, the ‘classic’ line up reformed a couple of years ago, did a run of shows with their greatest hits through Japan again (where surely their main audience still resides), recorded a new tune and put this album together along with a live video of the shows and titled it Return to the East Live (2016). No doubt looking for the nostalgia buffs.
If you truly loved Dokken in the day, or discovered them later on, then there is no real need to invest in this package. To be honest, it is somewhat of an injustice to the memory of just how good this band was in the 1980’s where their greatest material was written and recorded. One of the first problems you run into on this recording is that there just doesn’t feel like there is any energy coming through. Dokken always thrived on stage, and on their studio albums you felt that energy pumping out of the speakers. Here however it is almost like they have produced an easy-listening version of their songs, and that they are playing in front of a crowd of grannies at an old folk’s home. It’s a soft comeback, and while I’m happy to attribute some of that to the advancing age of the participants on the stage, and perhaps even that this still wasn’t the happiest of reunions apart from being a grab for cash, it still doesn’t excuse the lounge act kind of atmosphere that most of this album seems to sound like.
One of the inescapable facts of the album is that Don’s voice just cannot do the things that it used to do in those more enlightened times. Every song has been tuned down and altered vocally so that Don can at least give a semblance of a performance of the lyrics, which is interesting because for the most part Jeff Pilson’s supporting vocals still sound the same as they ever did. So I guess for much of the time I spend listening to this album I keep hearing how the vocals SHOULD sound and in trying to marry that up with the way that Don HAS to sing them now, and it just doesn’t come together very well.

Is it a bad album? No it’s not, but it is different. This was all done better on the 1988 live album when the band was at its peak, and this is just a reunion show playing much the same material but 30 years later. The new single recorded for the release, “It’s Another Day”, does sound fine, mostly because it is recorded with the band’s current requirements being taken into account. There are also two acoustic track, “Heaven Sent” and “Will the Sun Rise”, which I can take or leave without too much trouble.
If you don’t know Dokken and want to see what they are all about, then the four albums listed above will give you the best chance to grow to love them. Unless you are a completely obsessive fan who is a die-hard lover of the band, you don’t need to hear this.

Rating:  Only for the mega-fan.  2.5/5

1011. Dokken / Under Lock and Key. 1985. 3.5/5

Having found their stride with their second album Tooth and Nail, Dokken was looking to further announce themselves with this third album, Under Lock and Key. In an era where hair metal was beginning to gain a greater hold of the airwaves especially with the soft rock ballads that were seeping through along with the advent of music videos, it’s interesting to find that while those kind of sounds do find a way onto this album it is not dominated by them as much as could possibly have been the case.

The opening song “Unchain the Night” has that hard hitting mid-range tempo that Dokken liked to settle into in their prime, with the solid rhythm of Mick Brown and Jeff Pilson allowing Don Dokken to showcase his great voice, backed by the harmony of Jeff and Mick, and then opens up for the smooth flowing George Lynch guitar solo that highlighted the best tracks. There’s nothing outstanding about the opening track, but it is a solid opening to the album. “The Hunter” is similarly structured and is again another wholly enjoyable song without it ever stepping out and announcing itself as an outstanding track. “In My Dreams” moves down a different track, not being the ballad type of song that is yet to come, but with a somewhat gentler and higher vocal range being used it engenders a different feel from the opening two tracks despite retaining that hard rhythm throughout. The harmony vocals are especially prevalent here rather than Don being distinctly on his own.
“Slippin’ Away” is far too much in the soft rock ballad area for my tastes. As always, I understand the need for hair metal bands to indulge themselves in these types of songs in order to draw in that part of their supporter base, but to me it just acts as a distraction to the other great material on the album. “Lightnin’ Strikes Again” picks the tempo up again nicely, with the energy in the music driven by Don’s great vocals supported by the chorus of Jeff and Mick. This leads into George’s solo punctuation which is the centrepiece, before we come to the conclusion of the song where Mick’s drumming adds to Don’s piercing high octane vocal into the finish. It’s a terrific song to finish the first side of the album.
Side Two opens with “It’s Not Love”, the tougher side of Dokken’s drawing power. The lyrics may well be about the kind of subject that rock ballads could be crafted around, but the music and attitude here ensures that this is nothing like that. A great rhythm seconded by the George Lynch guitar riff and solo, along with Don talking tough throughout makes for a song that is at the heart of Dokken’s success. Somewhat disappointingly (for me anyway) “Jaded Heart” finds its way somewhere between this kind of song and the power ballad, so although we get the tough sounding vocal in the middle of the chorus of the song, we have the cry for passion like vocal as well, while the music is designed much slower and looking more for the ballad effect than the previous song did. From here we dive back in to “Don’t Lie to Me” which is much more like the Dokken I love, with the hard riffing guitar and harmony vocals through the bridge and chorus. This is their standard go-to song, not the power ballad but not the heavier material either. And while we run a similar course with “Will the Sun Rise”, the album concludes with the upbeat and jaunty “Til the Livin’ End” which has that faster pace and Don reaching for the limit of his range.

This is an album that for me showcases the hard-working and durable side of Dokken. No song on this album will come out at you and suggest it is an ‘all-time classic’, but the album as a whole tends to work well. As the middle release of what I would consider Dokken’s highlighted triumvirate of album, bookended by Tooth and Nail and Back for the Attack, this album mightn’t be spectacular but it is still very enjoyable.

Rating:  “When the lightning strikes again”   3.5/5

713. Dokken / Tooth and Nail. 1984. 3.5/5

Being in a band, starting off from nothing, and trying to build to something from which you can truly launch a career, is not the all-glamorous road-to-riches story that some people believe it is. It’s the reason that bands that seem like they have it all don’t actually ‘make it’ and end up falling apart. Hard work isn’t always enough, on many occasions luck plays its part. For Dokken, the road to the release of their sophomore album showcases a story like that. The band had had to go to Germany in order to find a record contract, and their first album “Breaking the Chains” (originally released under the name Don Dokken before being corrected for future pressings) had come through contacts such as Accept’s producer Michael Wagener and manager Gaby Hauke. During this time, Don actually recorded vocals on demos for Scorpions for their album “Blackout”, as their lead singer Klaus Meine had damaged his vocal chords and was unsure if he would be able to return to the band. Don’s backing vocals survive on the album. The other three members of Dokken at the time, guitarist George Lynch, drummer Mick Brown and bass guitarist Juan Croucier, worked as studio musicians for German singer Udo Lindenberg on his 1982 album Keule.
On their return to the US, Croucier left the band to join Ratt, and in his place they brought in Jeff Pilson as his replacement. The band had also picked up Cliff Bernstein as their manager, who got them signed to Elektra Records, who remixed and re-released their debut album for the US market. However, the album failed to ignite the charts, and Elektra was on the verge of dumping them. The band’s management had to fight enormously hard to convince the record company executives to give them a second chance, to prove that they could produce an album that would satisfy their needs. Eventually, Elektra agreed to give them one more album. It was this fight from their management to get them the chance to record a new album, and the fight the band knew they were up against to produce an album that would save their career, that brought forth the title of the album. That album is what became “Tooth and Nail”.

The writing of the album came together basically in two separate groups, the combining of George Lynch who was putting down riffs on a four track being joined by Mick Brown and Jeff Pilson to flesh them out, and Dokken himself who worked on his own and also with Pilson.
The production and recording of the album was a chaotic hot mess, and on the face of it, it is truly amazing that the album was made at all. Dokken himself wanted to use Michael Wagener again, who had produced the first album, but George Lynch was so dissatisfied with the way that album sounded he fought against it, and Pilson and Brown took his side. Instead, the record company brought in Tom Werman, most noted for Motley Crue’s “Shout at the Devil” album. One wonders if that experience helped him for this job, because his troubles were about to begin. Due in no small amount to the copious amounts of cocaine and alcohol in the studio, relationships between engineers and band members alike were at fever pitch. So difficult was Werman’s job, and so poor was the relationship between Dokken and Lynch, that he came up with a schedule to separate the parties at all times. Lynch, along with Brown and Pilson, would record during the day, while Dokken would come in and record on his own at night. It’s interesting that this arrangement, the fact that Lynch and Pilson never saw each other during the recording process, carried on for the entirety of their time together in the band, not just this album. This didn’t solve all of Werman’s problems, and when Lynch reacted badly to some of Werner’s suggestions, he point blank refused to continue to work with him, and Werman quit. Dokken of course then went straight back to suggesting bringing Wagener back in to complete the recording and mixing of the album, which the studio agreed to, but his three band mates would not.
The compromise? Amazingly, the record company brought in TWO producers. Roy Thomas Baker, who had produced Queen and Journey, was brought in to keep the band occupied and recording during the day shift, while Wagener recorded Dokken’s lead vocals at night and mixed the album, secretly (of course) with Dokken by his side. Like I said, it is a miracle this album ever saw the light of day.
The album opens with all of the best aspects of the band at the fore. “Without Warning” is the instrumental opening composed by George Lynch, building from acoustic to electric, and bursting into the frenetic beginning of the title track “Tooth and Nail”, highlighted by Lynch’s terrific guitar solo through the middle stretch of the track and a punchy chorus sung with gusto by Dokken. This slides into “Just Got Lucky”, the second single released from the album, relying heavily on Dokken’s great vocals and Lynch’s excellent riff and solos again. I never fail to be reminded of George's solo, which in the video for the song he was playing on the side of a volcano, and his boots were apparently melting from the heat while he played. Great commitment. Everything bounces on this track, and it is one of their best tracks.
The middle of the album settles itself into a constant groove, with a whole bunch of songs that find themselves in a similar style and structure, an even rhythm, and one that may sound as if it is slightly repetitive as a result. Each of the songs - “Heartless Heart”, “Don't Close Your Eyes”, “When Heaven Comes Down”, “Into the Fire” and “Bullets to Spare” - have their differences of course, but at times you could almost sing the lyrics of one song over the music of the other, and not have much difference in effect. Just instances such as “You got a heartless heart, got a heart of stone” and “Don't close your eyes, don't close your eyes or I'll be there” and “Cause I’ll be waiting, when heaven comes down” and “Into the fire I'm falling” and “Cause I've got bullets, bullets to spare”. The way they are sung, and the rhythm of the tracks, seems to meld in places.
Then comes the power ballad, Dokken and Pilson’s reworking of a song Don had written ten years earlier to become “Alone Again”. This is pure sugar-coated fairy floss, something Dokken and Pilson both do very well. It’s interesting that Lynch was against the song being included on the album as he felt it compromised the rest of the songs, but he was eventually talked around by Pilson. “Alone Again” became the best performing single from the album and drove album sales as a result of its chart position and rotation on radio throughout the US in particular. And the album closes out with the fastest song on the album, “Turn on the Action”, a song that mirrors the opening track for its upbeat tempo and riding the rails to generate the excitement of the fans.

While it is certainly the case for other bands as well, with Dokken, I absolutely missed a trick when it came to first discovering them. This album, along with their next two, should have been prime time listening for me as I finished my high school years, and they should be albums that I recall to this day with the memories of those heady days. Instead, it wasn’t until the turn of the century that I finally began to listen to their albums, and soon realised what a massive mistake I had made not finding the band earlier.
So, I pretty much first came across “Tooth and Nail” at the same time as the other 1980’s released Dokken albums and listened to them all in one big lump. Eventually they came to stand apart and be judged as their own entity, and while “Back for the Attack” was the immediate stand out for myself, this one came in at a close second. With so much of the album coming from the trio of Lynch, Brown and Pilson, it all comes together nicely, with “Tooth and Nail” and “Turn on the Action” being the best examples of this. They appealed to my enjoyment of faster tracks, and for me set up and closed the album nicely. Don’s vocals are terrific, and with the added support of Jeff Pilson’s voice as well combines to make that side of things perfect. Mick Brown’s drumming, alongside Pilson’s bass guitar, are the solid grounding that the album needs, and George Lynch on guitar is superb as always, especially on those songs that he has composed. The success of this album eased all of the pressure that had come before its recording by the threat of being dumped, and despite all of the shenanigans in the studio it comes out as a terrific product. In many ways, it could be said that Dokken the band had really... just got lucky.

280. Dokken / Erase The Slate. 1999. 2.5/5

The band Dokken had been through some tumultuous times once the original foursome had agreed to reunite and reform in 1995, having split at the peak of their popularity in 1989 when the tensions between the band members became too much to continue working together. That 1995 reunion had come about through the producer and record company wishing to promote Don Dokken’s follow up second solo album under the name of the band rather than his name itself, and required convincing Don firstly to work again with guitarist George Lynch, with whom the main tensions existed, as well as bass guitarist Jeff Pilson and drummer Mick Brown. The deal was done, and the resulting album “Dysfunctional” (a name that fitted) was released to surprising success given the music era.
A follow up with 1997’s “Shadowlife” saw the band move towards an alternate rock sound that appeared to not be as enjoyable to the band's fanbase, and had seen the tensions between Dokken and Lynch continue to escalate once again. Lynch’s behaviour had already seen the band dropped by their label due to him leaving a live radio broadcast moments before the band was supposed to play, and having pushed the band into the new musical direction he was quoted in an interview as saying "This is the perfect record. This is gonna be the end of Dokken, and that is what I wanted to accomplish”. Suffice to say, Lynch was fired by the rest of the band after a long dispute, though he then tried to sue the band when they went on tour with a guitar replacement in Europe’s John Norum, an action that failed in court. After the tour, Norum was forced to leave due to other commitments, and so the band brought in former Winger and future Whitesnake guitarist Reb Beach as his replacement. Beach suited the band as he had been a prominent guitarist in the same 80’s era where Dokken had thrived, and so the foursome went into the studio to create their new album, aptly titled “Erase the Slate”.

Unlike another band of Dokken’s original era, Ratt, who released an album at this time as well, and whose sound is a considerable change from what the band delivered back in their halcyon days (an album that is coming up very soon on Music from a Lifetime), this album opens up in a style reminiscent of what everyone remembers of the band back in the late 1980’s. In typical Dokken fashion in fact. "Erase The Slate" charges out of the blocks, with Reb Beach immediately front and centre on guitar, Don’s discernible vocals supported by the excellent back up cast, and a typical upbeat sound from the band. This then careers into “Change the World” which mightn’t be quite as dominant but does have a harder element from both Beach and drummer Mick Brown through the middle of the track. On both of these songs, you can easily imagine yourself back in the band's golden era. They mightn’t be as uniquely arranged as the past, but it is a familiar scene that is being presented. “Maddest Hatter” motors along nicely too, and again presents an excellent face to the band in this latter stage of the 1990’s. Indeed, the songs would appear heavier apart from Don’s almost falsetto at time vocals. Both “Drown” and “Shattered” head down a similar path, though with their own quirks within the framework of the song that make them unique in their own way. “Shattered” in particular is a terrific song, channelling the heavier side of the band’s past and giving the three-piece instruments their time to lay the foundation of their art. “Voice of the Soul” draws in the great Dokken chorused vocals that are so much a part of the enjoyment of the band with a great sounding rhythm and Reb letting rip on guitar once again. “Crazy Mary Goes Around”, with Mick Brown on lead vocals, is a great riposte in the back half of the album. Mick’s vocals are fantastic, adding a different vibe and power to the song, an almost traditional rock n roll feel to the song with a heavier edge. This is one of the standouts on “Erase the Slate”. And “Haunted Lullaby” sits back in that mid-tempo range but is again dominated by Reb Beach’s excellence on guitar.
Not all the decisions made on this album though are for the greater good. The cover of the 1960’s pop song “One” - no, not the Metallica song, but the “One is the loneliest number” ... you know how it goes... - seems right out of place. Sure, the band has done a reasonable job of heavying it up and trying to produce a cover version that suits the band’s general genre, but that doesn’t make it any less strange that it should appear here. Were they short a son and needed something on the spot? Do they just like the song and always wanted to cover it? I don’t know. The power ballad stylings of “Who Believes”, which seems to be trying to draw its inspiration from a song such as “Heaven Sent”, doesn’t really capture the same energy of that track either. And “In Your Honour” is a little short of expectation. Dokken ballad-type tracks of the past have at least had an energy and drive behind them, whereas this song does not, with Don’s vocals sounding washed out, unenthusiastic, and just plain boring in the long run. It is a disappointing song, one that could easily have been left off, or left for a B-side or an unused collection later on. The fact that it is the song that closes out the album is even more disappointing, because it really does not represent the majority of the material that has come before it on the album.

As per episodes already recorded for this podcast on Dokken albums, I was an unfortunate latecomer to the band. More is the pity, given if I had discovered them in my high school years, then my high school years would have been even better musically than they already were. It wasn’t until the very late 1990’s that I was first truly introduced to the band, and discovered the joy they produced for myself.
What that meant for me was that I discovered almost all of the Dokken discography at the same time, rather than getting albums every few years to engage with and devour before moving on to the next one. And while I found plenty on this album to enjoy, the fact that I had just discovered “Tooth and Nail” and “Under Lock and Key” and “Back for the Attack” at the same time, those albums really dominated my listening at that initial stage, and “Erase the Slate” found itself the poor cousin when it came to time allocated to listening to it. When I started my album review blog under this same name I listened to it quite a few times, and looking back on that review prior to this past couple of weeks, I was a bit blase about the album itself and what I wrote.
So now I'm back on the wagon again, and from the moment I put this CD back in my stereo for this podcast, I was drawn in. This wasn’t really how I remembered this album at all. From the outset, it sounds like a Dokken album that, theoretically, could have been released as the follow up to “Back for the Attack”. The Dokken sound is there in spades. Sure, it is a modified sound given the time between the star 1980’s albums and its release in 1999, but I can’t help but like it. Yeah, there is the odd song that doesn’t quite work, but overall – this is a really good album! Mick Brown on drums and Jeff Pilson on bass have never sounded better. I love Micks drumming throughout this album, it is powerful and engaged, hitting hard and anything but simple. A real treat. Jeff’s bass playing is always top shelf, and both of these musicians contributions also to the backing vocals is terrific, and Mick’s lead vocal on “Crazy Mary Goes Around” is superb. Don’s vocals again are excellent. They on occasions have that reedy, softer feel where perhaps a tougher vocal line would work better – but that’s Don Dokken and that’s what he offers. Nothing wrong with that. And Reb Beach, who had the toughest job in taking over from George Lynch on guitar, is a revelation. His guitaring on the album is superb and an absolute highlight throughout. Anyone who enjoys Dokken will get a kick out of this album, but I suspect anyone who does already has it. The downside to this was that it was the only album Reb Beach played on in Dokken, as he had other commitments to move on to, and it was also the final album that almost founding member Jeff Pilson played on. All members and former members have continued to record and tour since this album’s release with reasonable success, perhaps just showing that the excellence that gathered for this pre-millennial release was indeed well worth the wait.

257. Dokken / Dysfunctional. 1995. 3/5.

You know that a band, or certain members in a band, are not getting on, when at the peak of their powers and popularity, with the music world at their feet, they disband. This was definitely the case for Dokken, who in the late 1980’s on the back of albums such as “Tooth and Nail”, “Under Lock and Key” and “Back for the Attack” had built up a huge following based around the excellent rhythm section of drummer Mick Brown and bass guitarist Jeff Pilson, vocalist Don Dokken and guitar hero George Lynch. After the huge tour to promote ”Back for the Attack” which then spawned the excellent live album “Beast from the East”, the build-up of tension within the band must have come to a point of no return. There had always been a simmering tension between Dokken and Lynch, both of whom had their own ideas on the direction the band should be heading, and many always guessed it would only be a matter of time before the two found a way to part terms. In March 1989, this is exactly what happened, and all four members went their separate ways.
Over the next five years each had their own successes. Lynch and Brown peeled off together and formed Lynch Mob, releasing two albums, “Wicked Sensation” and the self-titled “Lynch Mob” to solid reviews. Pilson plied his trade in several bands including Flesh & Blood, appearing on the McAuley Schenker Group’s third album “M.S.G.” before joining Dio for the “Strange Highways” album. The first signs of a melting in tension came from Lynch’s solo album, “Sacred Groove”. Pilson made contributions to two tracks on the album, co-writing the lyrics to the song “Flesh and Blood” and playing bass on the track “We Don’t Own This World”. Perhaps more importantly, Don himself co-wrote “We Don’t Own the World” and at one point was going to sing lead vocals on it as well. If nothing else, it showed that the friendships still existed there in part at least.
Dokken had written and recorded a solo album in 1990 called “Up from the Ashes” by a group that included Europe’s John Norum on guitar, Accept’s Peter Baltes on bass and Mikkey Dee on drums, which had been well received, and now in 1993 he began to put together his second. Mick Brown had come on board having left Lynch Mob, and they then convinced Pilson to come on board as well, and the three began composing songs for a new album. It was suggested that it might make good commercial sense to see if Lynch would be interested in playing on the album, and so the three sent him the material they had been composing. Lynch was sufficiently impressed that he agreed to return, and thus saw the return of the band under the name Dokken. With no big name label to distribute it was initially released in Japan simply under the name Dokken, but once they were picked up by Columbia the album was remixed and a couple of extra tracks recorded and added. And thus came the return of Dokken the band, and the first album to be released in their new era was perhaps fittingly titled “Dysfunctional”.

The first thing that must be said about this album is this – don't come into listening to this thinking it is a Dokken album that sounds like their 1980’s releases, because it is not. This is 1995, it is the very back end of the grunge movement and the beginning of the morphing into the alternative rock and metal movement. And that is what you are going to get here. An album that is atypical of the era, featuring four excellent individual musicians who are very good at their job. The question that remains is, does it work? Well... it is an interesting proposition.
The return of producer Michael Wagener is of obvious benefit. He and Don had been friends for over 15 years at this point in time, and his help in mixing and or producing the first three Dokken albums had proven a positive influence. And given the time this was released, he was going to have to be at his best in order to get the best from the band in an era when most of their contemporaries had moved on to other careers.
“Inside Looking Out” gets a little repetitive in both rhythm and vocal, But Lynch’s solo breaks bring a different energy to the track that gives it a kick at the appropriate time. “Hole in My Head” has a dual vocal between Don and Jeff that almost sounds like it wants to be like Alice in Chains without the harmony. It’s an interesting style, one that I am never sure as to whether I like it or abhor it. Once again though George arrives to change things up in the middle of the track and kick some energy back in when it is needed. I’m not sure that it is a good thing that both opening tracks only seem to come alive when his distinctive soloing arrives, but its a good thing it does. “Hole in My Head” segues straight into “The Maze”, and we are stuck in a very basic yet solid rhythm that lays the base for the duelled vocals throughout again. Here the pace drops back to a slow mid tempo, and the clockwork chug of the rhythm riff sets itself for the five minutes duration of the song.
Stick that tempo on repeat people, as we move into the lengthy “Too High to Fly”. If you listen to the album you’ll know the story by now, the alternative rock grunge riff holds court through the song, fading in and out at times to highlight the solid 2/4 drum beat that barely changes throughout. Don’s vocals offer varied varieties of energy dependent on the mood of the piece. It seems like a strange song, length wise at least, to release as a promo single, but its musical style probably best suits the age of the album and perhaps was a fair reflection of what they wanted to highlight from this album.
It wouldn’t be Dokken without a ballad or two, and the first on this album follows with “Nothing Left to Say”, a Don and Jeff special with acoustic guitars and orchestral pieces added in, and their dual vocals showcasing their best qualities here. Acoustic ballads are for the most part far better than power ballads, and here there is a lot to enjoy with George’s guitar and the vocals. “Shadows of Life” proves to be the most aggressive song musically on the album, with Mick hitting his drums harder, George riffing harder, and Don’s vocals... well... he’s trying to be heavier, but with his voice that isn’t an easy proposition. This is followed by a great opening riff from George to start off “Long Way Home”, one that sets this off in the right direction. This has characteristics of Queensryche of the same era, another band that was struggling to rediscover its identity in the mid-1990's. Then comes the second acoustic based ballad of the album “Sweet Chains”, which follows the same formula as the first on the album did, though without quite the same result. They should have stuck to just the one. “Lesser of Two Evils” though brings the album back onto the tracks, with what really sounds like an 80’s track played in a 90’s theme, substituting the hair metal enthusiasm for the grunge seriousness, toning back the outward joy to portray the grown up band talking about grown up things.
“What Price” is the heaviest song on the album, a much ramped up song in every respect from anything else that appears on the album. The vocals finally have a bit of grunt behind them, Mick gives a great performance on the drums, and George’s two solo breaks, which simply not long enough on either occasion, are reminiscent of what he used to unleash in the 80’s. If you listen to the sound closely though, strangely enough there is a real similarity to stuff done by The Doors back in the day. It’s a stretch as a tangent. The song is barely structured, and perhaps that is part of it, but the mix of styles here certainly make it interesting. All of which is then brought back to earth by the cover of the Emerson, Lake and Palmer song “From the Beginning” to close out the album. You can tell this is a tack on, because it doesn’t really fit the album the way it has been written and recorded. It’s a strange decision, either by the band or label, and I guess in some ways does sum up what has gone on here.
There is a mix of influences on this album from my perspective, and I’m sure the band may well not agree. But I hear the band trying to incorporate sounds from bands such as Soundgarden and Alice in Chains in the same way Queensryche was on its album “Promised Land”, and that is where the conflict within me begins.

Missing Dokken at their height of their career, at a time at the end of my high school years when they would have ranked as one of my favourite bands had I heard those first four albums at the time they were released, is a regret that I cannot change. It is such a shame, especially for Past Bill who would have enjoyed them so much, and would have air guitared and sung all of those songs all the way through my final year of high school. So it wasn’t until over a decade later that I began to listen to them in earnest, and went about getting those albums and discovering that regret that I now have.
What that meant was that I got this album at pretty much the same time as I got those great 80’s releases, and so my initial listens to the album were at a massive disadvantage. How could this album, with its revamped sound to deal with the changed landscape of the mid-1990's, ever hope to compete with “Tooth and Nail” and “Back for the Attack”? The answer is, it couldn’t. And that answer hasn’t changed. And that comment is not meant to slag off this album. It’s just a simple fact that Dokken was a very good 1980’s band that played great music of that era, and what they play here isn’t as good.
When I brought this album out to do this episode, it was with an open mind. Over the years since when I have listened to the album it a has been with a slow and building enjoyment. Because what the band has put together here is perhaps one of the better albums by an 80’s band released in the mid-1990's. The fact that it was also a reunion album, their first SINCE those heady glory days, is also quite a fillip. Now it isn’t a top shelf grunge album, or a top shelf alternative album. It isn’t a top shelf Dokken album. If you come in looking for a Dokken album you will possibly leave disappointed. If you are coming in for a grunge or alternative album, you will possibly leave disappointed.
BUT – if you come in with a love for what these four bandmates have done in the past, and you are willing to accept that the change on this album was a necessity of the times, and you want to hear what they can do with that genre of music... then I think you may find something worthwhile listening to. It isn’t all brilliant. A lot of it is formula driven, taking a colour-by-numbers look at the genre and trying to fit their styles and attributes around it. And some of it is more boring than it is diversified. For many it might be a bridge too far.
For my own part, I’ve enjoyed this again. It won’t rank on any lists of great albums or cutting edge albums or album produced in the 90’s. It reached #47 on the US charts on release, probably only for the fact that this foursome had reunited, and it quickly slid back into oblivion. But it gives an intriguing snapshot of the 80’s metal band still making a go of it in the mid-1990's and getting to a certain level of success.

153. Dokken / Breaking The Chains. 1982. 3/5.

The opening of the Dokken career is a strange one, with a difficult birth and then a just as difficult re-birth, along mixed in with the feeling that there was something here to work with. All in all in was a confusing couple of years in order to get the start they wanted.

The album was initially released as Breakin' the Chains under the moniker of Don Dokken in Europe. When it was eventually released in the US it was marketed under the Dokken banner as Breaking the Chains, with completely changed cover art, as well as having some of the songs remixed and even re-ordered on the album itself. It also managed to change the title of two of the songs. “We’re Illegal”, which initially was the closing song on side one of the album was rebranded as "Live to Rock (Rock to Live)" on the US version, though it retained its position as the end track of side one. Also the opening track to side two on the original release was “Paris”. 

However, on the US release, not only has it been moved to be the final track, it is also a live version of the song recorded in 1982, and is now titled “Paris is Burning”. This is actually one of my favourite songs from the album, and it is an improvement on the studio version of the initial release, most likely from the extra energy it gains from the live setting.

“Breaking the Chains” is a great opening song to the band and the album. It highlights most of what makes Dokken the band they became. A solid rhythm of drums and bass provided by Mick Brown and Juan Croucier, Don Dokken’s terrific vocals and George Lynch’s outstanding individualistic guitar work. It’s easily catchy and makes an immediate impression.

As for the rest of the album? In the main, apart from the title track and “Paris is Burning”, this is a straight up hard rock album that does the good things well without as much flash and glint as you might expect listening to the albums that followed this. “In the Middle” and “Nightrider” and “Seven Thunders” are all good songs, but there is nothing that jumps out at you and grabs you about them. The beat and rhythm stay intact, and the lyrics are simple but effective. George does a great job, but there is certainly none of the amazing stuff that he produced later on. It’s all very straight forward, and while there is absolutely nothing wrong with that, it just makes for an average album rather than a great album.

Rating: “Take a good look around you”.   3/5

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.

90. Dokken / Back In The Streets. 1979. 3/5.

The first release for the Dokken boys, an EP recorded an eon ago.

There is nothing startling on this release. It is a band still trying to find their feet, and is of interest mainly from a historical perspective, and of what they became.

Rating : Just starting out. 3/5.

88. Dokken / Back For The Attack. 1987. 4/5.

Dokken had taken a long and winding road on its way to finding its place near the top of the 1980’s hair metal scene. Having initially moved to Germany in order to land a recording deal, it had come in the form of the debut album “Breaking the Chains”. With Juan Croucier leaving the band after its recording to join Ratt, the introduction of Jeff Pilson on bass brought about the band’s classic line up, and also brought about great success with their following two albums, “Tooth and Nail” and “Under Lock and Key”. Both had contained successful singles, and showcased the best the band had to offer, in the great rhythm section of Pilson on bass and Mick Brown on drums, the electrifying guitaring of George Lynch and the pulsating vocals of Don Dokken. “Tooth and Nail” eventually reached #49 in the US and “Under Lock and Key” up to #32. Along with bands such as Motley Crue, Bon Jovi, W.A.S.P and Ratt, Dokken had found their niche in the hair metal market and found their popularity well and truly on the rise.
At the start of 1987, Dokken had recorded a song for the soundtrack of “A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors”, a song that became the title track of the film and increased their standing as a result. After a constant touring and recording schedule that had stretched over recent year, the band decided to take a six month break before returning to write and record their follow up album. Moreso for this album than what had occurred on their previous albums, there was a mixture in the writing grouping of the songs. In fact, four of the songs do not credit band leader Don Dokken at all. Some of this has been put down to the increased tension within the group and between certain members, with the more obvious example of that between Dokken and Lynch. Despite this, the band managed to create their longest album to date, at over an hour in length, with songs ranging from the soft metal ballads that were a major part of the scene at the time, along with some heavy material that showcased the part of the band that could play with the best around when they wanted to.

“Back for the Attack” has a great range of songs that touch most genres of the metal scene that Dokken played in during the mid-to-late 1980’s. In the effort to find radio airplay, and perhaps even more important, MTV airplay, it was the pop friendly songs that found themselves released as singles. “Burning Like a Flame” was the first single released from the album, and it was followed the following year by “Heaven Sent” which was the most ballad-typed class of song that appears here.
The great advantage Dokken had during this time was that Don Dokken’s voice lent itself to both forms of the metal songs that the band was producing, able to croon away on songs like the singles, but also punch out great harder vocals and hit the real heights with his pitch on the top shelf songs on the album. And along for the ride is George Lynch, whose guitaring had been a highlight on the earlier albums and continued in the same vein here. Some fans have felt he was wasted in Dokken, and only truly came to the fore in his following band Lynch Mob, but that would be to take away just how good he is on these songs. Let’s face it, his intro to the album, the opening guitar riff on the opening track “Kiss of Death”, is what really gets you into this album, and the track is one of Dokken’s best. Lynch’s performance on that song alone is enough to convince you that he is not being wasted in this band. Then there is the instrumental “Mr Scary”, written by Lynch and Pilson, and completely focused on Lynch’s guitaring. These are two examples of where his guitaring is in fact the centrepiece of the band, not the lack of focus of the band. And that is not to draw the shades on the performance of both Pilson and Brown here as well. This foursome is a tightknit unit – musically at least – and every song here oozes with their magic.
This album became Dokken’s biggest selling worldwide, reaching #13 in the US and having each of its singles gaining significant airplay. And given the fact that the singles were, at least to me, the least attractive of the songs on the album, proves that it is the strength of the entire album that pushes the greatness of “Back for the Attack”, and not just one song that drives those sales. And “Mr Scary” is the epitome of that.

Life is often cruel when it comes to my music tastes, and once again I feel I didn’t get the rub of the green when it came to Dokken and especially this album. Because despite all of the wonderful music and albums I was exposed to during my latter high school years, Dokken and “Back for the Attack” somehow missed me. And that is a crying shame, because when this album was released I was just completing my final year exams, and while it would then have missed being a part of that year’s music soundtrack that still exists in my head, it would surely have become an awesome addition to the Summer of Bill that followed prior to going to university the following year.
As it was, I didn’t come across this album until the turn of the century. Sure, I had heard and seen the singles and music videos on MTV, rage, Beatbox and the such, but I had never gotten around to finding their albums, especially once we moved into the 1990’s and the grunge slash industrial slash power metal scene. So it wasn’t until the nostalgia stage of coming up quick on the age of 30 that I thought ‘I really must check out bands I’ve missed’. And it was the nostalgia that drew me in, chasing old NWoBHM bands and old hair and glam metal bands to bring back the memories of those high school years.
And “Back for the Attack”, from its first moments, was a hit for me. And by the end of that first listen, recalling the great age of Nightmare on Elm Street movies, I was wondering how on earth it had taken me this long to finding this album, and this band, something I very quickly rectified. And it has been over 20 years now since I first got this album, and I still play it often. It remains at the high end of my music rotation when I’m looking for a CD to put on the stereo at home. And I still can’t believe I didn’t have it back in the day.
The band broke up following the tour for this album, and has never been the same since. This was the third of the great trilogy of Dokken albums, and is a must for anyone who loved that hair metal scene of the 1980’s - in fact, it’s a must for anyone who lived through the 1980’s. Where great music and horror movies went hand in hand.