The album begins with the very sultry "Unchain the Night". Like a much heavier Bon Jovi, the song is poppy, but contains a killer riff from George "Lynchmob" Lynch. Lynch is a great guitarist, and his long absence from Dokken partially explains their lack of commercial success as of recent years. The song is simply infectious, 80s metal at its best. "The Hunter" is another killer track. Bassist Jeff Pilson is especially of note here, the bass is simply amazing, a very underrated rock bassist. Again, the song is very pop, but contains enough crunchy guitars and harmonics to satisfy metal heads. Dokken somehow reached the perfect balance between pop and metal, heavy but melodic, crushing riffs, but not alienating. Don Dokken's vocals are quite good, his range a bit limited, but the high production and backing vocals hid any limitations, very good song. "In My Dreams" completes a trio of great songs. The Def Leppard-like harmonies are great, classic 1980s production. I beg you not to pound your fists to this song, pop-metal pefection. I could have used a bit heavier guitars on the chorus, but the song-writing and production are very strong. Lynch kills on the solo, unleashing guitar tapping majesty on the masses. Great stuff, a relic of yesteryear.
"Slippin Away"is too sappy and syrupy for me. Pilson still shows great bass skills, but this ballad plods and seems to go on forever. Mick Brown is a very capable rock drummer, but at low speeds he seems to lose the beat, and the timing feels all wrong in this song. The song feels forced, like a record company request for a prom song, an unnecessary and cheesy ballad with fairly lame production and lyrics. "Lightnin Strikes Again" (why do Dokken hate the letter G)? picks up the pace again. A Judas Priest-esque riff provides a driving beat. Dokken delivers a very good vocal here, almost reminding of Badlands/Sabbath singer "Ray Gillan", very melodic. The solos may lack some technical complexity, but many can George Lynch smoke on the six-string, one of the best shredders from the 80s. The drums sound a bit flat and Dokken stretches his voice to its upper limits, but who cares, a great song. "It's Not Love" reminds of "Unchain the Night" structural. Not one of my favorites, my problem lies with the grunting group vocals, fairly cliche and standard. Not a big fan of the "jazz-metal" main riff either. There is nothing especially wrong with this song, it just fails to stand out in a sea of so many classic tracks. "Jaded Heart" has another slightly jazzy riff, this time, one that works very well. The Beatles-like bass part from Pilson is the highlight of the song, great stuff. The thundering chorus helps too, very heavy. The balance between a soft verse and hard chorus on this song shows that Dokken were very skilled at the "loud/soft" balance that many artists strive to achieve. Pretty good song.
"Don't Lie To Me" reminds of "Scorpions" and their hit "Rock You Like A Hurricane". I have no idea if this was intentional or not, but very European-sounding. This is of course not a bad thing, but the growing influence of power metal can be heard hitting the American metal bands as evidenced by this track. Dokken bridged the gap between "glam metal" and early "power metal". Not really completely either genre, the stood out from the crowd of poseurs that plagued the 80s metal scene. In any case, a pretty good song. A little bare on production (for this album), but fairly catchy and different sounding for the band. "Will The Sun Rise" is somewhat corny track on an otherwise great album. The lyrics are fairly vague and I really have no idea what the song is about after multiple listens. The chorus repeats again and again, and begins to grate your nerves. The most puzzling production choice is a very strange keyboard sound near the end of the song, it sounds like a flock of birds flying close to your head, very strange and scared the pants off me. Not a classic for me, even the solo is somewhat anti-climatic, deflated and dull from the stellar Lynch. The album heats up again with "Til The Livin End". Clearly influenced by horror and the macabre, the band would contribute this theme by providing the main theme to Nightmare on Elm Street 4 in 1986. Not a bad song, the highlights being the very good drumming from Mick Brown and guitar aerobics from Lynch.
"Under Lock and Key" is a very good album, a near masterpiece. A few songs could be categorized as filler, but this is true with most albums. Dokken would never better themselves, and would go on to release a steady stream of fairly mediocre and sometimes awful albums in the 1990s and 2000s after the departure of George Lynch in 1989. For casual fans, there is no better start to get into Dokken than this album. Great songs, great vocals, smokin guitars, complex bass, and nice, hard rock drumming. Dream warriors indeed.
Rating-8.5/10
No comments:
Post a Comment