Dokken – ‘The Elektra Albums 1983-1987’ (BMG)

By David O’Neill

One of the most successful of the American glam/hair rockers of the ’80s and ’90s, Dokken have decided to re-release four of their early albums that gave them their major commercial success in the ÜS and Europe. These are ‘Breaking The Chains’, ‘Tooth And Nail’, ‘Under Lock And Key’ and ‘Back For The Attack’. It is a limited edition five LP or four CD set. Featuring the original band line up, these albums sold millions, and a quick look on Spotify indicates they’re still very popular with their fans when tracks like ‘Alone Again’ and ‘Breaking The Chains’ having amassed more than 70 million streams.

Being from the ’80s MTV era, the tracks generally come in at around typical three minutes on the first album and demonstrate the style and musicianship of time. There are some good vocal performances by Don Dokken and George Lynch delivers some catchy riffs and solos throughout.

The recent success of TV series such as ‘Stranger Things’ giving rise to rock music exposure to a different audience may have prompted this release, especially as ‘Dream Warriors’, the theme from ‘Nightmare On Elm Street 3’ is included in the collection.

The second album, ‘Tooth And Nail’ shows the development of the bands identity with tracks that are a bit longer and more guitar centric at the breakdowns with some prolonged solos and different styles that move away from the MTV three-minute formula. The title track is a good example of this. ‘Just Got Lucky’ has the ’80s written all throughout. I can see why they made a bigger impact in Europe than the ÜK as they have a very European style akin to early Scorpions and other stylistically similar sounds. This is readily highlighted by ‘Into The Fire’ with the echo on the vocal and the synthesizer underneath the verses.

‘Under Lock And Key’ continues the stylistic progress but starts to get a bit more bass driven on ‘Unchain The Night’, and whilst the vocals and guitar sounds are the same as the previous offerings, the title track is a bit more bass led. ‘The Hunter’ has a more Scorpions sound development and a really good guitar solo that would do Michael Schenker proud. ‘Don’t Lie To Me’ is so similar to ‘Rock You Like A Hurricane’ in the intro it’s going to ring a few bells with Scorpions fans; however it has to be remembered that it is from roughly the same year (1984/85).

The final album in this quartet is ‘Back For The Attack’ from 1987. The tracks on this album further demonstrate the commitment of the record company to the artistic integrity of the band by allowing them to record songs that are all four to five minutes long. Kicking off with ‘Kiss Of Death’ the guitar is more dominant throughout the track with the underlying riff carrying the song from opener to breakdown and outro solos. The vocal style and backing vocals continue in the same vein as the first three albums in the higher register of Don Dokken.

‘Heaven Sent’ is a slight change from the style but still gives a blistering solo during the breakdown by Lynch. ‘Mr Scary’ is much heavier four minute-plus instrumental that may nave been written to accompany ‘Dream Warriors’ for the ‘Nightmare On Elm Street 3’ soundtrack but not made the final choice. This is 13 tracks of essentially the same formula, and if its not broken don’t try to fix it. However, it does make listening to all four albums in a row a little tedious when there is so little variety. However, with over 300,000 followers on Facebook I’m sure it will generate a significant number of sales in physical copies and tour ticket sales.

Whilst a lot of older bands are still performing live and delivering new music even after 40-plus years in the business (Ozzy Osbourne, Saxon, Magnum, Iron Maiden for example), for a variety of reasons others try to capture the new audiences associated with the current music markets. If they manage to garner enough support then why not. We all have a tendency to try to recapture our youth, and if you can, why not. This is a solid collection that will probably get existing fans to renew their physical copies of older music.

‘The Elektra Albums 1983-1987’ is released on Friday (27 January). You can get your copy HERE.

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