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Because I’ve been enjoying the Lynch Mob album this week, I’ve gone back and dug out my Dokken albums. Lynch’s first band. I only have The Beast From The East and Back For The Attack, but both are similar to the Lynch Mob record in their song n shred mode.
The mid to late 80s provided quite a few bands of a similar ilk with a brilliant guitarist as the main attraction. There’s Cinderella whose Long Cold Winter album has some great riffs, as does their debut Night songs.
There’s plenty of Yngwie Malmsteen records which mix powerful songs with neo-classical shred or XYZ’s debut record which is more straightforward rock. The album by guitar heroes Joe Satriani and Steve Vai, Flying In A Blue Dream and Passion And Warfare are essential, as are the debut records by Warrant and Ratt. They are usually very well-produced and sound great. There was a definite shift in recording. It became much more consistent. At the time it was mostly still analogue, so the records sound warm and powerful.
For anyone brought up on 70’s hard rock, the guitar-heavyness of these albums is very satisfying. The lyrics are not up to much, but then you could make the same criticism of Deep Purple. Highway Star is hardly a philosophic treatise, after all.
The riffs are the best bits, chunky and rhythmic. The solos are often high speed chases up and down the fretboard but the dynamics are the hook, with extra beat thrown in to keep it interesting.
The era is often falsely branded as cheap and cliched songs about cars and girls and ballads about broken hearts, is in reality far more broad and creative and the records always sound great.
