I like Stryper. I never understood the crap they got because of their views on Christianity. Most interviews focused on that aspect and very rarely on the music.
“To Hell With The Devil” was released in 1986. It went platinum in the U.S, and it remained the best-selling Christian metal album until P.O.D.’s “Satellite” in 2001, which I also have.
To Hell With The Devil
The drum beat from Robert Sweet is simple but powerful. The chord structure is standard Am to F to G, but the guitar leads and harmonies make it unique.
How good are just the vocals and drums in the first verse?
And make sure you check out the leads from Oz Fox and Michael Sweet.
Calling On You
The lead break reminds me of “Sweet Child O Mine” but this was released before.
I’m always a sucker for melodic rock songs like this.
Free
It’s the same message as “We’re Not Gonna Take It”, “Stand Up And Shout” and the like.
The Intro lead break gets me playing air guitar and they end the song with it, just in a different key.
They even borrowed from “Reason For The Season” for the vocal melody.
Honestly
It just wasn’t my thing. The sound of the piano reminded me of the music in TV shows I didn’t like.
But it sold the album.
The Way
The Judas Priest and Iron Maiden influences of Oz Fox are shining through on the riffs here. A metal tour de force.
Sing-Along Song
It’s got that “Turbo Lover” feel in the Intro/verse.
Holding On
It’s “Hungry For Heaven” in the Intro and the Chorus harmonies are straight from the grooves on the Boston record.
Rockin’ The World
The Intro/Verse is familiar, but I can’t remember from where.
All Of Me
My least favorite track leads into my favorite track.
More Than A Man
If you like “Lights Out” from UFO, you will like this. The F#m groove is at the heart of both songs.
The lead break at the start also borrows from “Soldiers Under Command”.
I can’t believe I haven’t written about this album yet.
“5150” achieved what “1984” couldn’t.
The Billboard Number 1 spot.
Actually all of the Sammy Hagar albums achieved what the David Lee Roth albums couldn’t.
Then again DLR needed to contend with Michael Jackson and “Thriller” and Adele with “21”.
Songs like “Why Can’t This Be Love”, “Best of Both Worlds”, “Dreams”, “Live Walks In” and “Summer Nights” take up most of the press and listens on steaming services but it’s tracks like “Good Enough” and “Get Up” which get me really interested.
Good Enough
Check out the head banging riff on “Good Enough” after Sammy screams “Hello Baby”.
It sounds like AC/DC on steroids but if you listen to the 1983 demo, it actually sounds like ZZ Top.
It was one of the first songs Sammy Hagar jammed with the band and he is at his creative best, telling us that a good looking women is like a good piece of prime grade beef.
Why Can’t This Be Love
Then they hit us with this.
Infectious and catchy. Almost funky.
Play that synth riff on guitar and it rocks your socks off.
Get Up
Speed rock. I love it.
Dreams
If the synth riff doesn’t get you singing out loud, then Sammy’s vocals would.
Summer Nights
Along with “Good Enough” this was the other song that Sammy Hagar jammed on.
It’s winter in Australia right now but this song is timeless, gets me thinking of good times. Almost nostalgic like.
Best Of Both Worlds
It’s “Highway To Hell” and I like it.
Check out the dynamics from EVH as he goes from loud to soft to loud again.
Love Walks In
It’s a great ballad. Play that riff on a guitar and you’ll hear how much it rocks.
5150
There’s a lot of guitar on this, but it’s the Chorus riff and vocal melody which hooks me.
Inside
Another funky and groovy rocker. Never played live.
Who would have thought that six months after the album release date, Bon Scott would be dead. There is no denying what a massive force he was in the band and since his departure, AC/DC got stuck in recreating the formula that Bon’s intensity brought to the band.
While Bon wrote about sex, parties and relationships, he was also very conscious of what was happening in society and how society was structured and the power struggle between the haves and have nots. AC/DC post Bon, eventually just wrote songs which had knees rhyming with please.
Eddie Kramer was brought in by the label to produce. Malcolm was less than pleased because it meant older brother George, was no longer involved. But the the pressure was on and the band was not delivering what the label wanted.
Malcolm and the bands new manager Peter Mensch then fired Kramer and hired Robert ‘Mutt’ Lange, who wielded his iron fist straight away and made the band work hard for three months. He even made Bon take vocal lessons.
And it was the start of the holy trinity of albums.
I never purchased this album until the early 2000’s. I just went over to a friends place with a bunch of blank cassettes and I taped every album he had, while we drank beers.
“Highway To Hell”
“Highway To Hell” is a rite of passage. It might have been about touring, however timeless songs have lyrics that can be interpreted in many different ways. The riff to kick it off is iconic. Credit Malcolm.
Livin’ easy, Livin’ free
Those words are exactly how we want to live life. Easy living. Free living. But it isn’t so. Nothing is free in life and nothing is easy. The people born between 1948 and 1962 inherited a rich country and bankrupted it. They first got into government by the early 80’s and by the mid 90’s they were all in positions to make decisions.
They passed laws and regulations to benefit their bank accounts and the bank accounts of their sponsors. If they did something wrong, the taxpayer would bail them out.
And in these pandemic times, living easy and living free is impossible. Free democratic countries are passing laws to enforce lockdowns that dictatorships don’t even have.
I’m on the highway to hell On the highway to hell
The Satanic panic begins. If this was played backwards, the subliminal message would say, “lleh ot yawhgih eht no”.
It’s so dangerous.
No stop signs Speed limit Nobody’s gonna slow me down
Nobody does this anymore. I tell my kids they go to school to learn, not to get a job. But people I speak to always tell me that schools are there for people to get a job. You see, money is more important than developing yourself and experiencing life. You should be free to spread your wings.
Payin’ my dues Playin’ in a rockin’ band Hey, mamma Look at me I’m on the way to the promised land
It’s why music was great. People paid their dues. It didn’t mean they would make it, or be global superstars. Hell, it didn’t mean they would make a living wage. But they could have. Bon’s lyrics are a lifestyle and six months later, Bon Scott, would be on his way to the promised land.
“Girls Got Rhythm”
If the intro riff doesn’t get you moving, check for a pulse.
I been around the world I’ve seen a million girls Ain’t one of them got What my lady she got
Only Bon could get away with confessing his cheating ways to his real love back in Oz via a song and still be in a relationship.
Love me till I’m legless Achin’ and sore
Is this even possible anymore?
Everyone is too busy parading on social media, joining movements of empowerment. There is no time for loving until the morning light, unless your on a Netflix TV series.
“Walk All Over You”
After the slow dirge Intro, a riff kicks in that The Romantics would use for “What I Like About You”.
“Touch Too Much”
How good is the Intro?
Seems like a touch, a touch too much Too much for my body Too much for my brain
Only Bon can put his bedroom ways into a song like this. In this case, the woman is just too much for him. He can’t handle her.
“Beating Around The Bush“
It’s the usual fast blues from “Let There Be Rock” which was inspired by the Peter Green Fleetwood Mac version. Check out the song “Oh Well”.
“Shot Down In Flames”
A few chords over a standard drum and bass canvas. It’s the AC/DC way.
“Get It Hot”
It’s like “Rock N Roll Ain’t Noise Pollution” merged with Chuck Berry.
“If You Want Blood (You’ve Got It)”
The Intro gets me playing air guitar. And the drum build, so simple and so sublime.
It’s animal Livin’ in the human zoo Animal The shit that they toss to you Feelin’ like a Christian Locked in a cage Thrown to the lions On the second page
Quick, call in the political correct activists.
Life is like living in a cage that you pay for, your whole life and you never really own it.
The crap they toss at us, is the wage we get for building someone else’s dream and we have three options, leave and try to build our dreams, stay and work on the side to build our dreams or just stay and be a slave. Because the system is designed to benefit the companies. If you don’t have a weekly wage, you cannot get a loan.
“Love Hungry Man”
It’s funky for an AC/DC song which Angus Young called as the worst AC/DC song ever.
“Night Prowler”
While this song would become popular for all the wrong reasons, in its essence it’s a slow blues dirge and a favorite.
5x platinum in Australia, 7x platinum in the U.S and various other certifications around the world is proof of its longevity.
At the peak of making it from a B level act to an A level act in the late 80’s, they broke up. Then they realised that they are better together than apart, so in the mid 90’s they gave us one of their best records in “Dysfunctional” and one of their worst in “Shadowlife”. Lynch was subsequently booted or he left, depending on whose story you believe, and Reb Beach was hired to “Erase The Slate” and kick start a new era for Dokken in 1999.
But that version of the band didn’t last long. Beach was out and Pilson went to court against Don Dokken over his actual departure and the dissolution of the partnership band agreement. Dictator Don was finally in full control of his name.
In 2002, “Long Way Home” was released. It is the only Dokken album to feature Europe guitarist John Norum, who also worked with Don on his solo project “Up From The Ashes” and the first to feature bassist Barry Sparks who had done time with Michael Schenker, UFO and Yngwie Malmsteen. This album also started a “sort of” trend on using song titles from earlier albums as album titles on future releases.
Production duties on the album were handled by Don Dokken.
“Sunless Days”
Looking at the credits, its written by Don Dokken, John Norum and Kelly Keeling.
Keeling had previously done work with Norum on one of his albums and was enlisted here to help write the album and do some vocal production duties. Also if you are a fan of Blue Murder, Keeling spent over 2 years with John Sykes on the “Nothing But Trouble” album, only to leave the band or be fired, on the day of the shoot for the “We All Fall Down” video.
A foot stomping riff, similar to “Change The World” from the “Erase The Slate” album kicks off this song. It’s a riff that Norum would tweak and use in “Start From The Dark” from Europe.
And this is the first album, when Don decided to keep his voice in the bass/lower baritone range.
“Little Girl”
Written by Dokken, Keeling and Mick Brown. Dokken was fascinated by adding sounds which I call, “The Beatles” sounds or the “Led Zep” sounds. This song is evidence of that fascination.
“Everybody Needs (To Be with Someone)”
A cut written by Dokken and Brown.
It has a vocal melody that is inspired by “Action” from Sweet. Instead of singing “everybody needs a piece of the action”, you just sing, “everybody needs to be with someone”.
“You”
Written by Dokken, Norum and Keeling, the heavy groove gets me interested.
“Goodbye My Friend”
A cut written by Don. It’s just an acoustic guitar and an excellent piano riff which sticks around after the song is finished because it mimics the vocal melody on occasion’s.
If anything, Don sounds very Eric Clapton’ish, like the Unplugged Clapton.
“Magic Road”
A Dokken and Norum cut.
One of my favourites.
Musically, Norum brings his love of 70’s classic rock to the song with his bluesy riffs. Something which he would also do with Europe, especially on the “War Of Kings” album.
“There Was a Time”
Its written by Dokken and Keeling. Another song with a strummed acoustic guitar, a simple drum beat and an catchy vocal melody.
“Heart Full of Soul”
An excellent cover from The Yardbirds.
“Under the Gun”
Written by Dokken, Norum and Keeling it’s a classic Dokken cut, with a feel and tempo like “Lightning Strikes Again”. Another favorite.
“I’ve Found”
Written by Dokken and Keeling. It’s another great track, just acoustic guitars and Beatles like vocal melodies.
If there is a fault on this album, it is the lack of opportunities Norum has to fly, because like most albums in the early 2000’s it suffered from a lack of lead guitar.
But it’s still a good listen and tracks like “Sunless Days” and “Under The Gun” could be in a best of set list.
I was probably too young or too dumb to understand why the writers of the music mags kept trashing the sound of this album as “lite Rock”.
To me, it was and still is a hard rock album and my fandom with Judas Priest started with this album, “Ram It Down” and “Painkiller”. Then I went back into the catalogue.
If anything, the addition of synths to their sound, was no different to ZZ Top’s and my fandom with them also started with “Eliminator”.
From a production point of view, Tom Allom is still in the producer chair.
Turbo Lover
The simplicity of Ian Hill on bass and Dave Holland on drums just playing a stock standard beat, sets a canvas for creativity. And that’s exactly what Glen Tipton, KK Downing and Rob Halford do. They decorate each section so it sounds unique, while Hill and Holland stay the same.
Tipton’s lead break is also worthy. It’s got enough moments to sing a long with it and he shreds enough to show his prowess, all without overplaying. Which is a very subjective term these days. My view on overplaying is different to others.
Then after the solo, the verse riff and vocal melody remind me of “The Sentinel”. But back then it didn’t.
Locked In
Covering “Johnny B Goode” rubbed off on the songwriting.
Make sure you check out the arpeggio solo towards the end of the whole lead break from Tipton.
Private Property
“Turbo Lover” part two. Or a track from ZZ Top’s “Eliminator”.
The bass and drums set the foundation and the others do the creativity with riffs, melodic fills, leads and vocal melodies.
Parental Guidance
Tipton always kept his finger on what was happening in the guitar scene. Check out some of his leads on the albums which came after incorporating “sweep picking”.
On this one, it’s very major key and EVH had a knack for making major chord progressions sound heavy in the way EVH palm mutes the arpeggios. Tipton does the same here.
Rock You All Around The World
The Intro riff is excellent.
Lyrically these kind of themes of “heavy metal music cranked louder and voices showing power” started to became cliched, but living through the era, i lived it.
Check out Tipton’s solo on this.
Out In The Cold
A hidden gem.
The synth Intro makes it sound ancient, like “Gates of Babylon” ancient.
Then the band crashes in and I swear I’m listening to “Dream Warriors” in the verses. But “Dream Warriors” came after. Regardless, I’m all in.
Check out that Aerosmith “Kings And Queens” feel just before the solo.
Wild Nights, Hot And Crazy Days
They tried to rewrite “Living After Midnight” musically.
But the star of the song is the AC/DC vocal melody from Halford.
Hot For Love
The first 30 seconds.
How good are the riffs?
And the Pre Chorus is more anthemic than the Chorus.
Check out Downing’s lead break and they then go into an excellent harmony section.
Reckless
One of my favorite cuts. The whole melodic rock movement is here.
The Intro harmony leads remind me of “Rock You Like A Hurricane”.
The verse melodies from Halford are excellent.
Look out I’m blastin’ through the lines Alive and kickin’ Watch out I’m young and lethal I’m goin’ from here until eternity
It resonated with me. Growing up in a steel city, all that was expected of me and others, was to grow up and work in the steelworks.
And songs like these allowed us to dream.
Make sure you check out the lead breaks, especially the outro leads from KK Downing.
And based on the momentum the band built over the last six years, the album quickly went to Platinum in the U.S. and Halford showed all the singers who the Boss is when it comes to performing live.
The saboteur known as George Lynch was out, clearly because he was smoking something very different musically, because if you hear his attempt at a Lynch Mob record in the same year, called “Smoke This” it was clear he was not thinking clearly.
And sadly, it is the only Dokken studio album to feature Reb Beach, Lynch’s replacement and the last one to feature long time bassist Jeff Pilson. In other words, Dictator Don was taking control of the empire that carries his surname. Pilson even took Don to court over it.
In the same way that “Shadowlife” had all songs written by the band members, “Erase The Slate” has the same listing. Production is also carried out by the band members.
For Dokken to release this album in the major markets, they needed to have three labels in place. CMC International did the North American market, SPV/Steamhammer did the European market and Mercury did the Japanese market.
Compare that to today,
Record it and release it to streaming services within a week. There are no gatekeepers.
“Erase the Slate”
It’s fast, on par with “Tooth And Nail” and “Kiss Of Death” for great album openers.
Make sure you check out the lead break from Reb Beach.
“Change the World”
Another head banging riff to start the song.
The verses sound like “Empire” from Queensryche, as the bass and drums groove, while a clean tone guitar plays arpeggios, before it cranks in with a distorted riff. Think “Jet City Woman”.
“Maddest Hatter”
Stupid lyrics from Don, but then again, he’s never been known as a great lyricist. Musically, the song is excellent, full of great riffs and leads.
“Drown”
The doom and gloom does remind me of Alice In Chains musically, but the vocal melodies are straight from the 80’s hard rock scene.
“Shattered”
A great song. The riffs, the vocal melodies and the powerhouse drumming all connect. At first it reminded me of Lynch Mob, then Winger, then EVH, then Metallica. There is a lot happening.
“One”
A bad idea to cover Harry Nilsson. Then again, they had no management and had total control of their independence, so no one was there to question things.
“Who Believes”
Oasis brought back The Beatles in a big way and suddenly bands in the 90’s incorporated the Oasis/Beatles feel.
Make sure you check the solo out.
“Voice of the Soul”
The riff is excellent. Credit to Mr Pilson for it. And the chorus is addictive. Overall, the song reminds me of “Streets” and “Gutter Ballet” Savatage.
“Crazy Mary Goes Round”
These kind of lyrics in 1999 did nothing for me. Regardless Mick Brown takes the lead vocals here. Musically, it sounds like a Van Halen cut in the intro, with a late 60’s blues/rockabilly feel in the verses. If John Kalodner was in charge of the track list, this song wouldn’t make it.
“Haunted Lullaby”
Reb Beach plagiarises his Winger days and “It’s Not Love” for the riffs and I like it.
And Wild Mick Brown brings the power on this one.
Make sure you check out the head banging riff before the solo and then the solo itself. Afterwards hail at the altar of Mr Beach.
“In Your Honor”
An acoustic track, a ballad which follows that Oasis/The Beatles vibe.
The Japanese version has two bonus tracks in “Upon Your Lips” and “Sign of the Times”.
“Upon Your Lips”
It has this “Lights Out” from UFO feel. Make sure you check out the lead break.
“Sign Of The Times”
It’s like a ballad and it should not have been left off the main album. “In Your Honor” and “Who Believes” are very similar and one should have made way for this.
Dokken’s tour in support of the album was recorded and released in 2000 as “Live From The Sun”. I don’t have this album, but will review it as Beach does play a few Lynch tunes on it.
The next studio album “Long Way Home”, released in 2002, featured former Europe guitarist John Norum.
And here are some final words from Jeff Pilson.
“If there’s one record for me with DOKKEN, it would be the ‘Tooth And Nail’ [1984] record, just because we were still very hungry.
We did a record in 1999 called ‘Erase The Slate’ that I was actually very, very proud of, with Reb Beach on guitar. A fabulous record.
Then there was a DIO record that I did called ‘Strange Highways’ [1993] that I still think was just a hugely underrated record, because when it came out, people were expecting a more traditional DIO record, and I think over time, people have come to appreciate it more.” Jeff Pilson
In 1992, three years prior to the release of “Dysfunctional”, George Lynch was still appearing in the Guitar mags I purchased like Guitar World, Guitar One and Guitar School.
But in 1995, he was nowhere to be seen. The album came out and there was nothing.
That’s how quickly the mags replaced Mr Scary with the dudes from Counting Crows, Smashing Pumpkins, Korn, Dave Matthews Band, Oasis, Rage Against The Machine and others.
I have a motto in life. To take care of what brings in my bread and butter. Anything else that I would want to do after, will be a spin-off from that.
And it looks like the guys in Dokken had a similar motto. Let’s focus on what brings in our bread and butter first.
But before we get to the album, you need to understand these guys.
The “Dysfunctional” album was pretty much written before George Lynch joined the project. Even George Lynch stated the same in an interview on the Guitar International website.
“Most of this record, “Dysfunctional”, was finished by the time I got there. In fact, everything but the guitar parts were pretty much done.
Everybody in management and in the band kept feeding me these horror stories of who they would get to replace me if I didn’t come back – you can guess the names.
Well, when I listened to the tracks, I could tell that Jeff [Pilson, bass] and Don [Dokken, vocals] had written a lot of the songs with me in mind. I mean, there were parts in certain songs that I had done on other Dokken records – and even Lynch Mob records- years ago.”
“Dysfunctional was a great album. I mean they (Lynch and Pilson) had nothing to do with that album. I wrote that album by myself. There wasn’t a George, Jeff, Mick effort. They joined Dokken at the last minute. And I basically wrote it, produced it.”
“I felt guilty for bringing George back into the band for “Dysfunctional” & the money & the big record deal & I was just miserable & he was miserable, he made all of us miserable, it was just a very un-happy band”
In a separate interview on the Legendary Rock Interview website, Don Dokken further added the following;
“I remember when we got back together in 95, we were in Japan and I thought we were older, wiser and could get on with our careers but the same old shit was happening, he was playing behind his amps and just screwing around and the band was just not playing good in general.
I asked George flat-out “What can I do to make you happy? What is the problem that you just can’t seem to get on board no matter how well things are going?” and I will never forget it, he just looked at me and pointed his hand up to our backdrop, this 30 foot backdrop that said “Dokken” and he said, “That’s the problem””.
This is the way George Lynch described the “Dysfunctional” reunion;
“There is a huge market for the band, mostly overseas, and since things collapsed over at Elektra, I needed to keep my options open if I still want to have my solo career. That was one of the things that brought me back into the band. It was kind of like, ‘You do this deal with Dokken for two records, and you can still go out and do solo records at the same time.’ In fact, I was told that I’d be in a better position to do solo stuff. John Kalodner [Columbia’s A&R chief] is passionate about Dokken, but he also told me that he wants us on Columbia. That aspect of the relationship makes me pretty happy.”
Dokken in 1995 was not an arena act.
Whether they wanted to be together or not, it didn’t matter to me as they delivered a great rock album worthy of being called a classic Dokken record.
Inside Looking Out
There was no escaping the influence of the Metallica self titled album, Soundgarden and “A Vulgar Display Of Power” from Pantera.
Those grooves became the norm. And when they got merged with the riff from Mr Scary, well that’s “Inside Looking Out” in a nutshell.
Hole In My Head
It sounds exotic, almost 70s like with a verse riff that Zakk would use for Ozzy.
Check out the lead breaks from Lynch.
The Maze
It’s like ELO merged with The Beatles.
Too High To Fly
It’s like a blues jam session and someone decided to press record.
Then when it starts to build from the 38 second mark, it’s desk breaking, head banging time.
And how good are the verses?
The bass and drums play, while Don sings and Lynch comes in when Don stops. Brilliant.
It reminds me of “Lost Behind A Wall” which then reminds me of “Turbo Lover”.
Nothing Left To Say
This is a great song. A hit. Better than acoustic songs like “More Than Words” or “To Be With You”.
The acoustic guitar solo is not long enough.
Shadows Of Life
What a riff and drum groove to start the song?
This is classic Dokken, but down tuned and heavy and how good are those backing vocals in the Chorus.
Long Way Home
It’s the Mr Scary riff again.
Check out the lead break from Lynch.
But my favorite section is that bridge section after the Chrous. It’s very Queensryche like.
And that head banging riff from 3.55. Tool would build a career on riffs like this.
Sweet Chains
It’s like the “Dream Warriors” intro merged with “Tangled In The Web”.
“Wiseblood” came out in 1996. The band for the album was Pepper Keenan on lead vocals/rhythm guitar, Woody Weatherman on lead guitar, Mike Dean on bass guitar and Reed Mullin on drums.
It kicks off with the excellent titled “King Of The Rotten”.
The riffs are down-tuned, groovy and bluesy. The vocals on this one are very James Hetfield influenced with a Layne Staley/Jerry Cantrell style Chorus.
“Long Whip / Big America” reminds of ZZ Top “La Grange” era. It’s got that spirit.
Saw the news today, some D.C. suit trying to break away, said he lost another million just another old man trying to pass the buck with a dirty hand good thing he knows his bible
Man, does anything change when it comes to politics, corruption and money. The same shit happening in 1996 happened before and after.
And when it all goes to hell, they turn to God. How many criminals have said “I’m sorry your honor for stealing millions, but I have found God and I’m a good Christian now.”
“Wiseblood” and “Goodbye Windows” bring the Southern Rock vibe. It also sounds like Zakk Wylde was listening because I feel that Black Label Society took this sound.
I’ve seen them devils pound our bible You saints and sinners are both my rival
Can a person live a life without the influence of religion and pressure from society to conform?
How good is that harmony solo section in “Goodbye Windows” from the 3.46 minute mark, with the vocals over it?
Past regrets and future fears Turns a boy to a man sooner than planned All the same, the boy remains Even though he’s free, he can’t fly with these heavy chains
There is a lot of self-assessment happening on this album.
What does it mean to be free in democracy?
Its basic meaning is “not under the control or in the power of another; able to act or be done as one wishes”.
Do you live a life that meets the criteria in the definition?
And the bluesy Sabbath like tunes continue, along with the excellent song titles, like “Born Again For The Last Time”, “Drowning In A Daydream” and “The Snake Has No Head”.
When the bones that you own have long been dusted You realize who you’re not supposed to be
The above lyric is from “Born Again For The Last Time”. Its only when we get older, we realise how much time we wasted being someone else.
But the body fills with greed and we spill when in need And all the slaves are on probation growing fat in a comfortable nation
The above lyric of from “The Snake Has No Head”. They are referencing the same snake that’s on the cover of the Metallica self-titled “Black” album.
“The Door” and “Man Or Ash” are cuts that would not be out of place on a Metallica “Load” or “Reload” album. And if the vocalist sounds familiar on “Man Or Ash”, it should, it’s none other than James Hetfield.
Then there is the excellent titled “Redemption City”.
Simple words remind me Cluttered room haunts me
It’s never easy being alone, with your thoughts and your vices.
“Fuel” is a thrash-a-thon and I had to keep telling my friends at the time that it’s not a cover of the other “Fuel” that appeared on “Reload” even though this one came out before.
And after “Wiseblood”, the band got dropped from Columbia Records because it didn’t meet the commercial expectations. And it was strange to read that, because the band was still at a creative high.
Lucky for them, Sanctuary Records picked em up otherwise they couldn’t participate in the recording business unless they went the “self-release” route, which no artist did in 1996.
By now, Dio’s glorious 80’s highs ceased to be. He was already struggling during the “Dream Evil” and “Lock Up The Wolves” eras. Even though fans like those albums, they didn’t translate commercially and the label was not happy.
His return to Black Sabbath was inevitable and with “Dehumanizer”, they released a critically acclaimed album, which the hard core Dio and Sabbath audience liked, but the same old issues of playing second fiddle to Ozzy reared its head again and Dio left, as he didn’t want to be an opening act to Ozzy.
“Strange Highways” came out in 1993 and it was well received by the hard core fans, but there wasn’t a mainstream market for 90’s Dio, let alone a 90’s Dio trying to sound relevant.
My mate, “Nick The Stick” (6ft 4 of just bones) worshipped at the altar of Dio and he burnt me a copy of this. I didn’t listen to it right away, because I had lost interest in Dio at this point in time.
Apart from Ronnie James Dio on vocals, the band is Tracy Grijalva (a.k.a. Tracy G) on guitars, Jeff Pilson on bass, Vinny Appice on drums and Scott Warren on keys.
Most reviews I have read cited this album as carrying grunge like influences, however, it is more groove metal (think Pantera) and progressive metal than a hard rock artist attempting to add Grunge influences to their sound.
And most artists who had successful careers in the 80’s didn’t really know what metal sounded like in the 90’s.
In the 80’s everything with a distorted guitar was classed as metal. Then by the mid 80’s, different genres started to come out. By the 90’s, bands advertised as metal didn’t even sing in clean tone anymore. Suddenly Black Sabbath sounded like a pop band compared to the metal bands of the 90’s, but in the 70’s Sabbath was seen as an “extreme” metal act.
On “Angry Machines”, there isn’t a perfect song or a great song or a good song. There are good bits in the songs.
“Institutional Man”
Written by Appice, Dio and Tracy G. Dio sounds uninspired and tired. But the biggest problem is the lack of good riffs.
In saying that, the verse riff would sink “Sad But True” for heaviness and in between the verses, there is this chromatic riff which came from the fingers of Iommi and the song “Buried Alive”.
“Don’t Tell the Kids”
Written by Appice, Dio and Tracy G, it’s speed metal, done in a 90’s Pantera way.
“Black”
Written by Dio, Tracy G, Appice and Jeff Pilson. On my initial first listen, I was ready to press stop. I didn’t like it. It was to atonal.
Hearing it again today, I like it for what it is. A way to keep Dio relevant. It’s got this E7#9 sounding shape in the intro riff which makes it sound almost progressive in its song writing.
Tracy G. shines in the lead department here.
“Hunter of the Heart”
Written by Appice, Dio and Tracy G, this song has potential.
The bass grooves to start it off are worthy, very Sabbath sludge like. When the band crashes in, it’s head banging time. The verse riff’s remind me of songs from the “Dream Evil” album.
“Stay Out of My Mind”
It again showcases Pilson’s strength as a songwriter (he is solely credited), bringing in psychedelic rock and heavy metal influences into this.
And in the middle, it’s almost theatre “Andrew Lloyd Weber” like.
Check out the outro, it’s like “She’s So Heavy” from The Beatles getting a 90’s makeover.
It could have used some editing, but… it is what it is.
“Big Sister”
It starts off with a vocal line that says, “Who controls your mind?”
Written by Dio, Tracy G., Appice and Pilson, this is when Big Brother turns into Big Sister, and you are given a number and another name, while others watch what you do.
If you like Tool, then you will like the Tool like riffs between 3.20 and 3.40.
“Double Monday”
Written by Appice, Dio and Tracy G.
Check out the awesome acoustic guitar mid-section. It’s only 30 seconds long, but totally worth the listening experience.
“Golden Rules”
It starts off eerie like, as “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” is played on a music box. The song is written by Appice, Dio and Tracy G.
It then has a chugging riff and drum groove which kicks in and I like it.
“Dying in America”
Written by Dio, Tracy G., Appice and Pilson. They delivered a nice piece of groove metal.
“This Is Your Life”
Its written by Dio and Tracy G and it’s more Beatles like. The track remained ignored, only to be noticed after Dio’s death.
If you haven’t heard this album, there is no reason to go out and invest time into it. It’s not classic Dio. People claim he sold out, but he didn’t sell out chasing trends, he just didn’t know what metal was meant to sound like, so he went in and tried to create something different.
P.S.
For an album that did terrible commercially, it put Dio on the road from November 1996 to November 1997. There was a U.S leg, a European leg, another U.S leg, a Canadian leg, a Japanese leg and finally a South American leg.
The venue sizes ranged from 400 people to 3000 people and Dio had quite a few sellouts.
Album number three, released in 1985. “In My Dreams” had MTV circulation, and it pushed the album to a Platinum certification in the U.S.
Neil Kernon and Michael Wagener are on hand to produce, engineer and mix. Don Dokken had a certain fondness to work with Wagener on his vocals. He met Wagener when he did a club tour of Germany in 1979.
Don then got a deal with Carrere Records in 1981 with the songs that Lynch and Dokken wrote and he did the Don Dokken “Breaking The Chains” album.
Fun fact, it was Gaby Hauke Hoffmann aka Deaffy who did the lyrics for those Accept records who got Don the record deal. There was another bass player who didn’t work out and Peter Baltes from Accept took over.
George Lynch and Mick Brown came over to Germany and did their bits and the album was re-released. It did good business in Germany and Cliff Burnstein from Q Prime picked the album up on import and liked it.
Burnstein then signed Don to a management deal. After a small tour in Germany with Juan Croucier on bass, they came back to the U.S. Lynch left the band and Croucier joined Ratt. It was just Don and Mick.
Don signed a deal with Elektra and Warren DeMartini was in the band for a short period before Lynch decided to come back in.
“Tooth And Nail” came out and the guys went back to their day jobs. But the album blew up. It started selling, “Alone Again” was in the charts and the label decided to put the band into the studio again.
According to Don, he wrote 80% of the songs for “Under Lock And Key” but got dipped on the credits as the band wanted the credits to state “all songs written by Dokken”. Lynch and Pilson also wrote a lot of music and A&R exec, Tom Zutaut had the most dangerous job in the world. To pick the songs to go on the record.
It was a time of excess. The album cost $150K to make and they then spent $250K on video clips.
Unchain The Night
The guitar intro immediately had my attention.
And Don was lost in the middle, running around in circles and unable to touch someone who had a knife in their heart.
Confused. Me too. Even the title confused me as I couldn’t understand how someone could chain something that isn’t an object.
But I didn’t care.
The music was excellent and the Lynch lead.
Wow. Its fast and shredalicious, but it’s got feel and emotion and melody.
And the outro, when the intro riff comes in, the power chords crash down around you and Lynch gets a chance to wail again. He’s playing for the song, its restrained and beautiful. Then the singing is back in and I don’t want to song to end. And they didn’t fade it out. They ended it like how they would end it live.
So I picked the needle up and replayed the song.
The Hunter
Lynch brought in the music and he wanted it to be his instrumental on the album. Don thought otherwise and he took the jam session home with him and wrote the lyrics. The instrumental then became “The Hunter”.
Don wrote a memorable hook for the Chorus and how good is the guitar lead from Lynch?
In My Dreams
According to Don, he wrote most of the riffs and lyrics for this song. With the opening vocal hook, this song was going to crossover into the mainstream. MTV loved it, played it and it pushed the album.
And for all its commercialism, you cannot take away the power of the metal lead break.
Slippin’ Away
After the first three songs, this was a letdown. The shining light here is Lynch’s “Journey – Neal Schon” like solo break.
Lightning Strikes Again
But they made up for the small slip previously.
This is my favourite song on the album and along with “Kiss Of Death” some of the most heaviest riffs committed to tape.
From the interviews I have read, this song is a collaboration.
The intro riff is part of the “One Riff To Rule Em All”. Just think “Power And The Glory” from Saxon and “2 Minutes To Midnight” from Iron Maiden.
And if you think the riff sounds similar to another Dokken song, it does. Check out “Unchain The Night”.
And also check out Lynch’s call and response lead break.
It’s Not Love
Don refers to this song as “their” song.
It’s got the Lynch like power chord to devils tritone kind of riff. The intro riff always gets me thinking of the “Warriors” movie.
And those street gang like vocals in the Chorus.
Jaded Heart
How good are the verses?
The acoustic riff, the vocal melody, everything.
Don’t Lie To Me
As soon as I heard this song, I thought of “Rock You Like A Hurricane”.
Will The Sun Rise
It’s like “The Hunter”. More mellow and subdued, about liberty, fighting to be free and how one mistake, could make it all go to hell.
Til The Livin End
It retains the metal edge of “Tooth And Nail” and “Turn On The Action”. If anything it’s a speed metal track. And I like how it finishes, like a live track. There’s no fade out.
P.S. Pilson likes this album, but in a recent interview he said that “Tooth And Nail” is his favourite.
P.S.S I also like this album a lot that I have it purchased it on three occasions.
destroyerofharmony 