Dokken - Lightning Strikes Again
|
List Price: Our Price: $5.88 You Save: $13.06 (69%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $3.16 (click here) Category: Music CD See more new music releases 
|
|---|
Buy this Music CD at online store in your country
Canadian Music Store
Canadian Music Store
Free Music Notes for Lightning Strikes Again
Free Music Review: Awesome Sound
Hit: 4 Stars
This CD is great. It is pure heart pounding rock from beginning to end I would recommend it to any Dokken fan.Free Music Review: This is good
Hit: 4 Stars
if your into 80s music and love Dokken, ihave to say this is a pretty damngood albumFree Music Review: The True Missing Ingredient is...
Hit: 3 Stars
Jeff Pilson.
That's right. Not George Lynch. Jeff Pilson. And this is coming from a Lynch fan of over 20 years. Let me explain:
Back for the Attack was a great record. It didn't have the stylistic range of Under Lock and Key (really soft ballads to fast metal anthems and everything in between), but it contained great songs and even better performances by Don and George. Even though Jeff's name is all over the songwriting credits and his background vocals are great, I never realized HOW much he was bringing to the table.
Then the band broke up. Jeff went his own way, George formed Lynch Mob and Don put out a solo record. Don's record (Up From the Ashes) was as much a Dokken record as any before it... except it seemed like it was missing the excitement and fire from the previous 2 albums. At the time, I thought it was the loss of George Lynch. That maybe the rivalry between them brought out the best in Don's performance (Hey, I was 16, bear with me!).
The band reunites in 94 and put out Dysfunctional. Everyone sounds re-envigorated and I feel that I must have been right about my theory, even tough George barely wrote anything on it and practically came on board at the last second. In 99 they put out their first record without Lynch (Erase the Slate). To my surprise, the songwriting, riffs and most of all vocals were great! "Hmmm, maybe George isn't the main ingredient". I couldn't believe it. Then the answer came when Jeff left the band and Dokken put out Long Way Home. While there are some good songs on it, overall, the CD is weak. Don lost his fire. If it wasn't obvious then, it became paifully so when Jeff helped George write the best stuff he had put out since he got kicked out of Dokken (Wicked Underground), and Don went on to put out another dissapointing Dokken record (Hell to Pay).
This brings us to today. Lightning Strikes Again is better than the last 2 CDs. Don decided that he's gonna recapture the classic sound on this new record. For the most part he succeeds. Even though it has an excess of ballads, the style of the songs is old-school. The guitarist, John Levin sounds like he's possessed by George's ghost, and I'm talking about his tone and performance. This is hard for me, but it's safe to say that George has been effectively replaced. On the other hand, the songwriting is still missing something, even though it's Don's best writing since Up From the Ashes. The vocal performance is another matter. Don has lost his ability to sing like he used to. That's a shame, 'cause he tries. It's clear to me now that it was Jeff who was responsible for most of the awesome melodies in Dokken and also for the fire in Don's vocal performance in those days.
If Don plans to continue Dokken, he needs Jeff Pilson. They make a great songwriting team and he sure could use Jeff to challenge and to back him up vocally.
Thanx for reading my book ;)
Free Music Review: Its Alright...
Hit: 3 Stars
This is not a bad album. I was always impressed with Under Lock and Key and Back for the Attack. However, I'm not one who feels every album has to sound like the preceding one. Change can be nice. Admittedly, I didn't care for the grunge sounding Dokken of the 90s or much of anything that followed Back for the Attack, besides the acoustic One Live Night. Of course there's always a good song here or there. Some of the songs on Long Way Home, for example, were decent even though they didn't sound like typical Dokken, which is fine. So with all this said:
Everyone compared this album to Back For the Attack. It is even titled after one of their fast impressive songs from Under Lock And Key, so I thought, Wow! this album is going to be impressive! YET . . . there is not ONE song on this album that has the drive of "Kiss of Death" or "Lightning Strikes Again" or the unforgettable groove of "Heaven Sent." Arguably, the only one that even comes close (to kiss of death and Lightning Strikes Again) is "Point of No Return." Nonetheless, the album has some good songs on it, such as the slower tempo songs "How I Miss Your Smile" and "I Remember." The song "Oasis" has a decent hook to it. The first three songs and "Judgment Day" sound good and are clearly channeling the Back For the Attack guitar sound. However, I don't want to say it, but I must: The song Disease is monotonous with a dry chorus. The last three songs also sound like fillers or duds. While they're not awful, they're forgettable and kind of boring.
Overall, its still a good album. But we are talking about music... a matter of opinion.
Free Music Review: Hmm.......
Hit: 3 Stars
It is hard to write a review of an album like this for me, because I have been a Dokken fan since the "Breaking the Chains" album. This was the group that introduced melodic hard rock to me.
So, for starters, its a good cd. But I don't know how ANYONE, including Don D himself could say this is a return to form. Every album after "Back For The Attack" has sounded extremely depressing and lacking in that high energy that was a staple of ALL their earlier work. The lyrics are as usual very good, and the guitar work is very good for what it is, and the tunes are catchy in a very laid back way.......but there is something missing. These are just NOT, sing along fist pumping tunes. Don's voice sounds very scratchy and depressing. The tunes here are just not dynamic, the way they used to be, on albums like "Under Lock and Key", "Tooth and Nail" and "Back For The Attack".
Although John Levin is awesome on the guitar, I think Don needs to get some guys that inspire him, and push that energy he used to write with, instead of being his backup band.
Sorry Dokken, but this cd is still far too dark to be included in the same catagory as your classic albums.
On its own, without comparison to the past?, nice album, good songs, worth buying. Far better than the last few, but your not gonna hear a flashback here.
Best track?
"Oasis"
-BLS-