Slave to the Empire

T&N is three-fourths of the original Dokken line-up with an album that is three-fourths re-recorded Dokken songs. The problem with re-recording these songs, essentially a collection of Dokken's greatest hits, is that they created a side-by-side comparison of their new original material with some of the most beloved classics of the genre. It was a bad idea. NOBODY is talking about their new songs. The highpoint of the album is Pilson's rendition of Into the Fire. It's not saying a lot if the best song on your new album is 28 years old, but go with your strength - Pilson is an incredible singer. I personally think he would have done a better job on all of these remakes, but they apparently felt they needed something more, so they brought in a few famous vocalists to sweeten the pot. And while some of these guys could clearly sing circles around Don NOW, covering these songs doesn't compare them to today's Don, it compares them to Don at his peak, so really the best they could hope for is a tie. And in most cases, it's not even a tie. Pinnick's soulful delivery on Tooth and Nail is interesting, but it's not an improvement. Mason really nailed It's Not Love, but so did Don. Sebastian predictably over-sang Alone Again and "Ripper" just butchered my favorite Dokken song (kiss of Death, indeed). The other problem with this cd is that bringing together seventy-five percent of a group will inevitably end up being about the quarter that is not included. These guys have all tried solo albums or other projects ... George and Jeff in Lynch-Pilson, or Mick and George in Lynch Mob, but here we have George, Jeff and Mick all reuniting to try to re-capture the magic of what they used to have in a band that carried on without them. A band called Dokken ... But now without Dokken. So where does that leave them? The three of them together don't sound as good as the original Dokken and they can't write as well and the only thing different is that they are missing Dokken. So instead of proving that they can carry on without Dokken, they proved that they could be a pretty good Dokken cover band and that perhaps, Dokken was more than just the name of the band. He might have been what made it work. -- Scott