Artist: DOKKEN
Album: LIGHTNING STRIKES AGAIN (CD)

Year: 2008
Media type: CD

Dokken exploded out of the boiling hard rock/heavy metal scene in Los Angeles in the early 1980s. 1983's debut album “Breaking the Chains” with its catchy title track, set the stage for Dokken becoming the most dominant creative and commercial force in the world of Melodic Hard Rock for the following years. Such classic albums as “Tooth and Nail”, “Under Lock and Key” and “Back for the Attack” all became Multi-Platinum selling smashes and the live “Beast from the East” went gold in Europe and Japan. Songs like "Alone Again", "Just Got Lucky", "Into the Fire", "In My Dreams", "Unchain the Night", "Dream Warriors", "Burning Like a Flame" and "Heaven Sent" are still nowadays regarded among the genre’s finest.

Dokken shared the stage with AC/DC, Metallica, Aerosmith, Judas Priest, Van Halen, Kiss, Scorpions, as well as Bon Jovi, just to name a few. The band hit stadium status in 1988, playing in front of over a million fans in just five weeks. It seemed Dokken was on the verge of superstardom. But like so many other bands that have come before and after them, they broke up in 1989.

In 1994 the legendary A&R man John Kalodner offered Dokken a recording contract on the condition the group had to be original members. The band released the appropriately titled “Dysfunctional” in 1995, selling 250,000 copies which by the mid '90s was considered by industry standards very respectable. Dokken was really happy and excited, but just as they were on the verge of releasing a second single, filming a video, starting a world tour and "taking it all the way", as Don Dokken puts it, the baggage from their past reared its ugly head, and again the group began to unravel. Soon after guitarist George Lynch again left the group, replaced by Reb Beach (Winger, Whitesnake).

They released “Erase the Slate” in 1999 and “Live from the Sun” in 2000. In 2001, Beach was replaced by John Norum (Europe) and Barry Sparks took Jeff Pilson place on bass. 2002 also saw the release of the album “Long Way Home”. In 2004, John Norum left to join a reunited Europe and was replaced by Jon Levin with the subsequent release of the album “Hell to Pay”.

Dokken are now coming back with their tenth studio album. “Lightning Strikes Again” is, already from its title, which echoes one of the band’s classic songs off “Under Lock & Key”, a true and definite return to the classic sound of the heydays.

From the first time since the reunion, Dokken is going back to the roots of its sound and exposes with the power and the might of the new Millennium the hot riffs and incredible melodies that built the band’s success. “Lightning Strikes Again” rocks hard but still caresses with velvet melodies, this is exactly what the fans have been asking for more than a decade !

DOKKEN is now Don Dokken (vocals), Mick Brown (drums), Jon Levin (guitar) and Barry Sparks (bass). The album was mixed by Wyn Davis (Great White, Dio).

Dokken survived and kept their loyal fans in a time when people's tastes change as fast as Britney Spears' wardrobe, but they have been also embraced by a whole new generation of rock fans. They say a cat has nine lives and it seems Dokken is enjoying more than a few as well!

TRACKLIST:

01. Standing On The Outside
02. Give Me A Reason
03. Heart To Stone
04. Disease
05. How I Miss Your Smile
06. Oasis
07. Point Of No Return
08. I Remember
09. Judgment Day
10. It Means
11. Release Me
12. This Fire

LINE-UP:

Don Dokken (vocals)
Mick Brown (drums)
Jon Levin (guitar)
Barry Sparks (bass)