Dokken / Return to the East Live [Live]. 2018. 2.5/5

The heyday of bands can stretch for any length of time, but once that heyday has been reached and passed there is no returning to it. Nostalgia can often carry a band to further heights at a later stage, and classic line up reunions can do the same. Dokken appears to have gone for most of those things combined with this live album release, and while there will be fans of the band out there who will lick this up, many others will rightly ask whether or not this release was necessary in any shape or form apart from being a money spinner.

The classic run for Dokken of Tooth and Nail, Under Lock and Key and Back for the Attack was completed by the release of the live album Beast From the East, which tied up the ends nicely before they disbanded for other projects apart from each other. Despite other albums coming and the band members changing once a reformation of sorts was accomplished seven years later, nothing has approached those four albums in the Dokken discography.
Once again though, the ‘classic’ line up reformed a couple of years ago, did a run of shows with their greatest hits through Japan again (where surely their main audience still resides), recorded a new tune and put this album together along with a live video of the shows and titled it Return to the East Live (2016). No doubt looking for the nostalgia buffs.
If you truly loved Dokken in the day, or discovered them later on, then there is no real need to invest in this package. To be honest, it is somewhat of an injustice to the memory of just how good this band was in the 1980’s where their greatest material was written and recorded. One of the first problems you run into on this recording is that there just doesn’t feel like there is any energy coming through. Dokken always thrived on stage, and on their studio albums you felt that energy pumping out of the speakers. Here however it is almost like they have produced an easy-listening version of their songs, and that they are playing in front of a crowd of grannies at an old folk’s home. It’s a soft comeback, and while I’m happy to attribute some of that to the advancing age of the participants on the stage, and perhaps even that this still wasn’t the happiest of reunions apart from being a grab for cash, it still doesn’t excuse the lounge act kind of atmosphere that most of this album seems to sound like.
One of the inescapable facts of the album is that Don’s voice just cannot do the things that it used to do in those more enlightened times. Every song has been tuned down and altered vocally so that Don can at least give a semblance of a performance of the lyrics, which is interesting because for the most part Jeff Pilson’s supporting vocals still sound the same as they ever did. So I guess for much of the time I spend listening to this album I keep hearing how the vocals SHOULD sound and in trying to marry that up with the way that Don HAS to sing them now, and it just doesn’t come together very well.

Is it a bad album? No it’s not, but it is different. This was all done better on the 1988 live album when the band was at its peak, and this is just a reunion show playing much the same material but 30 years later. The new single recorded for the release, “It’s Another Day”, does sound fine, mostly because it is recorded with the band’s current requirements being taken into account. There are also two acoustic track, “Heaven Sent” and “Will the Sun Rise”, which I can take or leave without too much trouble.
If you don’t know Dokken and want to see what they are all about, then the four albums listed above will give you the best chance to grow to love them. Unless you are a completely obsessive fan who is a die-hard lover of the band, you don’t need to hear this.

Rating:  Only for the mega-fan.  2.5/5