Paris Still Burns Thanks To This Greatest Hits Album

Jan 22, 2009

by kfontenot
posted in Music Matters

Rating:

I grew up during the 80's and early 90's. I cut my teeth on bands like Motley Crue, Poison, Def Leppard and Bon Jovi. I was never a huge fan of Dokken, but was always aware of them. When I saw this greatest hits album, I decided to give it a whirl. What I found was an excellent album containing some solid 80's hair/hard rock. I'll admit that I hadn't heard most of the songs in this collection while I was growing up. "Mr. Scary," "It's Not Love" and "Tooth and Nail" were the only songs that I was really familiar with. I knew about George Lynch's guitar pedigree and actually purchased his "Lynch Mob: Wicked Sensation" album when it was originally released.

What I've come to find with Dokken is that they are an excellent blend of Don Dokken's melodic vocals and lyrics of love both won and lost and the "edge of madness" sound of Lynch's guitar. In every song you can almost hear Lynch begging to be cut loose on his axe.

Highlights of this album include all of the aforementioned tunes as well as "The Hunter," "In My Dreams" and "Into The Fire." Seven albums are represented here, ranging from 1983 to 1995 (including Don Dokken's solo effort). The bulk of the material is culled from the group's first four albums, "Breaking The Chains," "Tooth And Nail," "Under Lock And Key" and "Back For The Attack."

If you're a fan of melodic rock, hair metal, glam or 80's hard rock, give Dokken a try. This album impressed me enough to seek out a couple of the group's original albums. There were a lot of hair bands in the 80's, and Dokken truly deserved more attention than they received.

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About the reviewer

Kendall Fontenot (kfontenot)
Ranked #9

Despite looking extremely cool, I have to admit that I'm a dork. I grew up on the outskirts of the small town of Oberlin, LA. I have since relocated to the Lake Charles, LA area.I love my home state … more