Unknown Soldier

The Lowdown
Dokken’s debut Breaking the Chains had been a wimpy sounding affair to say the least, but luckily by the time of their second album Tooth and Nail the band had beefed things up to a more respectable level. Glam metal is often also known both hair metal and sleaze metal, but it also has another name in lite metal. The last title here is probably perfect for a band like Dokken, who at this time were a fringe glam metal band anyway. Dokken were not only offering the lightest form of metal around at this time (even some AOR bands were putting out heavier sounding material than Dokken) but their image was also 'lite glam' in style, meaning that they were not too far away from the general rock look and this style between music and image was often a sure way of success circa 1984 to 1985 for a lot of these bands. There were indeed a number of bands that churned out this style around this time and some are even higher on this year’s list and Dokken are here not because this album is a classic, but for the fact that it has a collection of consistently strong melodic tracks that have been geared up to sell, making Tooth and Nail a surprisingly solid and enjoyable affair and one of the most consistent sounding metal albums of the year. The history of the band is much like that of Ratt (in fact Juan Croucier had been in both bands) The band had been around in one form or another since the mid-1970’s and back then they had operated under the name of the Don Dokken Band, and with the exception of band leader Don Dokken, the early members soon went onto play in other west coast metal bands like Quiet Riot, Ratt and Great White etc, with only Don Dokken remaining ever present. This seventies line-up actually put out an EP in 1979 Back in the Streets and was produced by Michael Wagener, but it never saw the light of day until 1989. The rise of Dokken had been a touch and go affair and their links with German producer/engineer Michael Wagener had sent them to Germany to work on their debut album Breaking the Chains and whilst there the band name had been changed to just Dokken. The band also worked with Accept and operated as studio musicians, also band leader Don Dokken had nearly replaced Klaus Meine in the Scorpions. The Scorpions at this time had been recording one of their biggest selling albums in Blackout when Klaus Meine’s vocal chords gave out and Don Dokken was pencilled into replace him. A strange choice really as Don Dokken’s low key voice was a world aways from the powerful nasal style of Klaus Meine, luckily though Kalus Meine recovered and Don Dokken just provided backing vocals on the album. The album Breaking the Chains was remixed for the American market but still remained a weak affair. By the time of Tooth and Nail, the band had finally nailed down their sound and the line-up which now consisted of Don Dokken-Vocals, George Lynch-Guitar, Jeff Pilson-Bass and Mick Brown-Drums and the crucial element was added in producers Tom Werman and Roy Thomas Baker, who were both guaranteed to get the album selling millions of copies. The creeping intro of the George Lynch penned “Without Warning” quickly leads into the album’s title track “Tooth and Nail” which is highlighted by the lightening playing of George Lynch who is probably the star turn on the whole album. Third track is the clichéd sounding single “Just Got Lucky” but who cares as it’s a great lucky sounding song. By the time of “Heartless Heart” the album has more or less laid out its structure and you know how the rest of the album is going to sound, which is basically rocking pop-tinged melodic metal at its lowest temperature but it’s still great ear candy and “Don’t Close Your Eyes” “Bullets to Spare” "Turn on the Action" and the power ballad "Alone Again" all fit neatly here. The best two tracks though come later on in the album and these are the Kiss sounding “When Heaven Comes Down” and is probably Dokken at their heaviest. The second is the classic single “Into the Fire” which is reminiscent in places of 90125 era Yes. Tooth and Nail went Platinum in the USA and despite being released in September 1984 it achieved most of its exposure and sales the following year in 1985. The band embraced MTV with the singles “Into the Fire” “Just Got Lucky” and “Alone Again” but it was really the final song here, which was a power ballad that really got the band selling. Throughout 1984 and 1985 the band would open for the likes of Judas Priest, AC/DC, Dio and a flagging but still popular Aerosmith. In any case the band were here to stay despite constant problems between Don Dokken and George Lynch and would go onto to release their biggest sellers throughout the rest of the 1980s.

Don Dokken-Vocals
George Lynch-Guitar
Jeff Pilson-Bass
Mick Brown-Drums

Production- Tom Werman/Roy Thomas Baker

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