T&N (Dokken members)

So I finally grabbed a copy of the new T&N album with Lynch, Pilson, and Brown from Dokken (yes, Brian Tichy was the real drummer) and had some high hopes due to the impressive reviews on Amazon and various e-zine sights--Eddie Trunk even plugged the album as being a very hard rocker.

Please tell me I'm not alone in my assessment of the album, but I feel like it was a total misfire.

The original content was all over the place with very little regard for hooks or melody, and we all know hooks and melody are what Dokken were all about. Worse than that it the guitar being buried way down in the mix, even lacking the same drive Lynch used to employ. The band did pull them off well--Pilson is a sick vocalist, I'd say a hair better than Don!--but they just weren't memorable.

The "covers," or "re-visits," were interesting, but that's about it. Doug Pinnick was simply awful singing like a drunk on Tooth & Nail; I was surprised to find most websites giving him the most props for carrying a Dokken tune. Sebastian Bach--once upon a time this guy was my hero--crooned Alone Again quite well, but his voice has gotten quite bland over time and isn't helped by Lynch's redux of the solo, turning it into a oddly dull improv. Into the Fire has a new midsection which plods along with a strange Beatlesque acoustic vibe; it's out of touch with the heaviness of the original and adds too much length to the song. The only redeeming quality on this album is Kiss of Death with the good man Ripper Owens singing; I have to say he adds a new dimension to a song that we all should consider the heaviest and most metal of Dokken's catalog. The guy really does have the Halford shriek down, sometimes sounding like there's a razor caught in his throat. F'n cool.

I'm not sure why so many Amazon reviewers and e-zines thought this was a great "return to form." Along with Broken Bones, it shows that Dokken has really lost touch with who they were, a heavy metal band that skirted around with glam metal tendencies by fuzing addictive melodies with large hooks, yet always maintaining a very metal edge.

And is it me or does George not shred like he used to? Even watching him on That Metal Show with all the gaffes and reliance on bluesy passages, it seems like either arthritis is getting to his knuckles or he's a bit tired now.

I have not heard a note from this album, but reviews I hav read have not been favorable.

What a first post though!

I thought it was kinda cool. Nothing special, but a lot better than the crap Don has been putting out.

Haven't heard it.... with all the bad word of mouth it's been getting, I haven't been in a hurry to track it down.

It's a good album, but far from amazing. I dig the covers, but you can't compare them to the originals. They'll never hold up.

But yeah, nothing amazing. I'd rather Pilson just do more War & Peace albums, which are all far better than anything Lynch has done outside of Lynch Mob.

Maybe if the band had not tired to revisit their own past, and concentrate on just new material it might have been better received.

As soon as I heard they were re-recording a few Dokken classics, my interest level dropped to zero. The reviews for both online and in print have been less then encouraging

I thought the covers were fun to listen to, nothing mind blowing but decent. I actually liked it more then I thought I would as the early reviews I read were all over the place.

Glad to know I'm not alone here. Pilson really is an amazing singer--at this point better than Don!--so I guess he should get some credit there. War & Peace was an amazing project and yes should be continued. Pilson's the shit. Lynch Mob has always been a bit underwhelming and repetitive to me.

The covers are quite good. Anyone who complains about the differences of a cover compared to the original is clearly not objective enough to give a fair opinion. Covers should be different.

This sounded like a good idea on paper and I was looking forward to getting it. However the many lukewarm reviews it has received have pushed it futher and futher down the priority list. I'd still like to get it at some point, but I'm in no rush to do so.