Dokken- Lightning Strikes Again (2008)

Music Review: Dokken - Lightning Strikes Again (2008)

By Wendell Muthafuckin Rose • May 13, 2008

Official Bar Score:

Singer Don Dokken says he set out to prove something in 2008 with Dokken’s tenth studio album, Lightning Strikes Again. Taking its title from a track on the band’s 1985 classic album, Under Lock & Key, the new songs bring the group’s sound full circle. ‘It’s time that our brand of music is still valid,’ he says. ‘Our goal was to create an album that was our best since our heyday.’ Dokken returns to the band’s roots for its Rhino Records debut.

Well aparently this is the album Dokken fans have been waiting for, if there is any Dokken fans. I will say that this album screams 1987 with its melodic hair band vocals and 80’s riffs and harmonics. Even the album cover looks 80’s and thats not a bad thing but Dokken wasn’t even that great in the 80’s I mean they had some songs but in comparison to other groups of the genre they lacked. I do like the sound to the album and the power ballads but it sounds the same as any other Dokken album.

Lightning strikes again, has gotten some pretty good reviews from bigger Dokken fans than myself. So if I was you and I loved Dokken I would check it out. But I’m not you and I went into this thinking that Dokken was going to pull a Sabastian Bach and drop a 5 beer album and I was wrong. Maybe that was a bad comparison.

I do appreciate the fact that Don Dokken despite all the changes in the music world would stay true to his genre and resurrect the sound of 80’s hair bands. I like to see the old rockers let the world know that they are still around and can still rock a riff or two. His voice hasn’t changed much even though the original line up has, I give them an a for effort but only 3 beers, not the 80’s masterpiece I expected. The ballads are tight though.

Amazon.com Widgets