The album artwork looks like it was done by a high school art student for his senior project. That's about all I can contribute. Carry on, Frodrick.

I have this album, but I don't remember it. That might just say it all right there! I think that I'll bust it out today!

I have it, but haven never listened to it!

After Long Way Home, I avoided this one but I guess I will eventually track it down. I assumed it was yet another mellow disc.

Upon further review..... it's pretty decent. It's mostly rockin' mid-paced tunes and two(maybe three ballads, one of which continues the Beatles vein that he was doing the past few albums.). Sounded really good in the car!

...and dammit, yet AGAIN I forgot to pull Dokken's next CD off the shelf today so I could give it a listen before adding it to this thread. Sorry, folks, I've been severely slackin' on this one lately.

Wow, it was August the last time I commented on this thread! Where has the time gone?

Ah, 1987's "Back For the Attack"...Is there a better guitar riff to open an album than that of "Kiss of Death"? Unfortunately the rest of the album does not equal up to the opening track, but that certainly doesn't mean that the album suffers. I would call it a solid Dokken release. Perhaps the album could have been a better one had the band not been imploding before our eyes. I would be lying if this then 16 year old didn't think the world of this release, especially since my musical tastes within the world of metal were becoming much more extreme. Anyways, I really enjoyed 9 of the 12 tracks. Favorite tracks in order: Kiss of Death, Dream Warriors, Mr. Scary, Burning Like A Flame, Standing in the Shadows, Prisoner, Cry of the Gypsy, Night By Night, & Heaven Sent.

When "Beast From the East" came out in 1988, I was not the biggest collector of live recordings (I think I had KISS Alive, Priest Live, & Scorpions World Wide Live). When you're 17 years old, money wasn't exactly falling from trees, so store purchases were relegated to that of studio recordings. Plus, there was always that musical quagmire, regarding purchasing two tapes or to get one on C.D, and in essence enhancing one's musical pleasure. Oh, the dilemmas of music purchases in the late 80's...Anyways, I got this one on tape and I remembered being satisfied. Needless to say, I had no idea that the band would be calling it quits soon. I finally owned this live album on C.D about two years ago, as I found it at my favorite used C.D store where I live. It was a nice revisit, as it transported me back to 1987/1988, my love for Dokken, and where I was when I first listened to this live recording.

Wow, eight f*cking years since Dokken last recorded a studio album! The funny thing, I never even got this album up until three years ago. It was another used C.D store purchase, since I really had no idea what this sounded like. I had remembered hearing Don's solo effort and that of Lynch Mob, but neither one of them grabbed hold of me. It wasn't that they were bad, I just wanted that original incarnation back together. By 1995 the musical climate had changed , and to be honest, I couldn't even tell you what was drawing my interest during that year. I've stated this before, I think 1995 was the WORST year for music in all of my years. There really weren't many significant metal albums that year, grunge was sort of collapsing (which I got into a little), and I had all but given up on any AOR/Pop music. Those were gloomy days folks. Anyhoo, "Dysfunctional" is really a solid album. I think Dokken did a good job of not falling into the trappings of making an album that sounded like something that came out of the 80's, yet it didn't abandon the Dokken sound either. Of course, it doesn't come close to that of their first four albums for myself, but I've heard much worse from metal acts, who made that transition from the 80's into that of the 90's. My favorite tracks on the album in order are: "Too High To Fly", "Shadows of Life", "Long Way Home", "Lesser of Two Evils", "What Price", & "Hole in My Head".

I didn't purchase "One Live Night" up until about a month ago. This was another purchase at the used C.D store. I remember MTV or VH1 playing this back in the day, but I didn't really pay much attention to the show. By that time in 1995, I was so sick of the acoustic performances that we were being inundated with. I give Dokken credit though, they didn't totally abandon their electric sound. I gave this a spin on a trip last weekend, and it's decent. It certainly isn't earth shattering, but it has its cool moments. Hell, it was a $3.99 purchase!

Favorite Dokken albums to this point:

1. Tooth & Nail
2. Under Lock & Key
3. Breaking The Chains
3.(tie) Back For the Attack
5. Dysfunctional

My apologies for the slack-age on this thread lately, folks. Time to pick it up again, we've only got a few more releases to go...



Dokken's next release was 2007's archive live disc FROM CONCEPTION: LIVE 1981, courtesy of the band's new U.S. label, Rhino Records. The album is composed of tracks from an undated, long-forgotten live tape that Don supposedly discovered in a box while going through the band's archives. It's a cool document of an early live performance from the band's young & hungry days. In the booklet Don speaks of having to "rescue" the crumbling, severely degraded tapes by baking them in an oven (!) before they were able to clean them up and master them for this CD.

The band's performance is excellent and even though Dokken has released numerous live albums over the years, this particular disc is worth picking up due to the appearance of three previously-unreleased songs that have never appeared on any of the band's studio albums: "Goin' Down," "Hit and Run" and "Liar."

The date of "1981" in the album's title is debatable for numerous reasons. First, Jeff Pilson is credited with the bass playing on this recording and he didn't join Dokken till 1983. Second, Don introduces the song "Breakin' the Chains" to the crowd by saying "You might have heard this song on the MTV..." which, again, wasn't possible in 1981 because the album/video was not released till 1983. Therefore I wonder why Don plucked the "1981" date seemingly out of thin air. Maybe he's more fried than we thought.

Most fans (who apparently have better research skills than Don) estimate that this gig was actually recorded sometime in late 1983, possibly for the "King Biscuit Flower Hour" radio program.

The following clips are not from the actual "FROM CONCEPTION" album because it appears none of the songs from it have been YouTubed. These are just the closest-vintage clips that I could find. Revel in Juan Croucier's pre-RATT presence and Don's bad-ass red and white stripey shirt! So not metal.

I was surprised when I saw this album at Walmart, since I had no idea Dokken were releasing anything at all, and when I saw the year 1981 I snatched it up immediatley.

I remember being somewhat confused about Jeff Pilson's involvement on this live recording, til I joined the HoM and asked about the recording, and it seems like the tapes were not only things baking in Don Dokken household.

These songs sound way better live then their studio counterparts and the band is hungry, you can hear it in the playing. The unreleased and possibly unrecorded songs are pretty good and it makes me wonder if these were up for consideration for 'Tooth and Nail' were swept aside for other material that eventually appeared on the disc.

Great album that I still spin from time to time.

I have a promo of this, but have only listgened to it once. Need to rectify that.

Maybe somebody should buy Don a calender for Christmas

I like this release as it displays the band when they were young and hungry. The date of 1981 is clearly wrong but that doesn't bother me much. I always assumed it was from 1983.

I like this record. whether it was 81 or 83 it is still cool and a great time in my life. Alot of great bands in that period. Not my favorite Dokken album but still a great disc.

Gack! It has been dog years since I last updated this thread... sorry folks... will have LIGHTNING STRIKES AGAIN up here sometime over the holiday break, I swear!!

Dokken's most recent studio album, LIGHTNING STRIKES AGAIN, was released in May of 2008 on Rhino Records in the U.S. and Frontiers Records in Europe. After a string of albums where the band attempted to "modernize" their sound somewhat, with varying degrees of success, L.S.A. was intended to be a "classic" style Dokken album, according to Don himself, who cited numerous requests from fans to quit screwing around and just kick it old school.

The album title alone - cribbed from a track off of 1985's UNDER LOCK AND KEY - should indicate the band's "retro" mindset on L.S.A. Once again, Jon Levin's guitar playing is astoundingly Lynch-esque, making this whole disc sound like it dropped out of a time capsule from 1986. The only thing that gives away that it's a new album is Don's vocals, which are a bit raspier and more "aged" sounding that they were in his glory days.

I particularly dig "Standing on the Outside," the slamming "Disease" and "Point of No Return" off of this record but quite frankly, it's solid all the way through and anyone who has been missing Dokken's old school sound should be more than pleased with LIGHTNING STRIKES AGAIN. Rumor has it that this may wind up being Dokken's swan song, and if that's the truth, then they're goin' out on a high note.




Useless trivia: the European version of the album features the bonus track "Sunset Superstar" (see above YouTube link) and the Japanese version features "Just Leave Me Alone."

LIGHTNING STRIKES AGAIN was Dokken's best charting album in the U.S. in a number of years, achieving a position of #133.

In an odd bit of corporate synergy, the band's profile was raised around this time by appearing in a series of three hilarious commercials (each with a different ending) for Norton Internet Security (?) in which they portrayed a computer virus attempting to attack a computer hard drive, portrayed by a chicken. The ad's tag line - "Protect Your Chicken From Dokken" - became a viral sensation for a brief period.

Decent album and as you mentioned sounds like 80's Dokken. Unfortunately I didn't think it was as good as 80's Dokken, but still a decent listen!

http://www.teethofthedivine.com/site/reviews/dokken-lightning-strikes-again/

This was a great return to form for Dokken. Best thing they had done in a decade, easily.

Haven't heard the album, but I thought those anti-virus commercials were awesome.

I have totally forgotten about this thread...

I never got "Shadowlife", and from all the responses and briefly listening to the album on Youtube, it will undoubtedly be an omission from my collection of Dokken albums. I'm guessing the old Spinal Tap line applies to this album, regarding a review of the album "Shark Sandwich"....Sh!t Sandwich.

That takes us to "Erase the Slate", which sounds more like classic Dokken from the 80's. I actually didn't mind the direction the band was headed in with "Dysfunctional", but I'm a sucker for the old sound. Reb Beach does a great job following the departure of George Lynch. I don't think the band was fooling anyone, as we all knew that eventually George and Don would be at each other's throats. My favorite songs in order are: Change The World; Erase the Slate; Maddest Hatter; Voice of the Soul; Haunted Lullabye; Shattered & Drown...

The funny thing about Dokken's next two albums (Long Way Home & Hell To Pay), I've never given them one listen. Maybe I will get on Youtube today and check them out.

Due to this site and Dokken's website (which played the opening of "Standing on the Outside") , I checked out "Lightning Strikes Again" (about a year after the album came out), which to my surprise was a great album. I couldn't believe how Jon Levin channeled into that of George Lynch. I've always wondered if George was more flattered or outright pissed? One would think he's heard this album at some point. My favorite songs in order are: Standing on the Outside; Heart to Stone; Give Me A Reason; Judgment Day; It Means; This Fire; Point of No Return; Oasis & Release Me.


I saw Dokken in 2009 at a place called the Inner Circle in Cincinnati, OH on October 10th. The opening band for the night was the Mighty Swine (who were less than mighty). I was a little surprised that we only heard one new song that night, but I suppose the band knew that hardly anyone even knew they had an album that came out recently. A Dokken crowd comes for one reason, and that's to be transported back to the 80's. Don's voice on that night was less than stellar, due to his voice being so raspy. It was as if he had just smoked about 1000 cigarettes before going on stage. Hell, he couldn't even sing "Dream Warriors". When it came to the high notes, he simply would hold the microphone out to the audience, as if we're going to be able to hit the high notes. I was shocked the band even attempted to play the song, as the whole thing came off as embarrassing. Overall the show was fine, with the exception of Mick Brown piping off after every couple of songs. I think the only two words he knows are that of "F*ck" and "Sh!t".

This was the set list:

Without Warning
Breaking The Chains
Kiss of Death
The Hunter
Just Got Lucky
Into The Fire
It’s Not Love
Paris Is Burning
Too High To Fly
Tooth & Nail
Alone Again
This Fire
Dream Warriors
In My Dreams


My Favorite Dokken albums to this point:


1. Tooth & Nail
2. Under Lock & Key
3. Breaking The Chains
3.(tie) Back For the Attack
5. Lightning Strikes Again
6. Erase the Slate
7. Dysfunctional
8. Shadowlife

I have not listened to Long Way Home or Hell to Pay.