Band:	Dokken
Album:	Tooth And Nail
Style:	Heavy metal
Release date:	1984

01. Without Warning
02. Tooth And Nail
03. Just Got Lucky
04. Heartless Heart
05. Don't Close Your Eyes
06. When Heaven Comes Down
07. Into The Fire
08. Bullets To Spare
09. Alone Again
10. Turn On The Action

Dokken on a metal site? Oh yes, my friend, underneath the makeup lies a record with teeth that can bite hard (leaving bloodstains and lipstick marks) and rock harder. Time to style your hair like it's the 80s all over again and pretend the Sunset Strip is still the centre of the world; however, don't get too close, you can smell the peroxide a mile off.

Here on Dokken's sophomore album, the band nail their sound to great effect, metal dressed in glam rags rather than vice versa, with the obligatory ballad thrown in as was all the rage back then. Still don't think it's metal? Give "Don't Close Your Eyes" or "Tooth And Nail" a spin and count the elements in there that make a metal song. Searing guitar solos, upbeat double bass drums and soaring vocals, yep, it's a metal album alright.

Now the one thing that will hit you out of the gates is that each member of the band is a master of their instrument. Lynch can solo with the best of them, giving each track a quality that was oft missing from other MTV mainstays, deriving a style that mixes Eddie Van Halen heroics with a harder edge that separate these songs from the rock world. Don Dokken's vocals are powerful and poppy, managing to bridge both worlds with ease. Pilson and Brown take a backseat on the bass and drums respectively, but they provide a tight rhythm section that allow the guitar and vocals to shine in the spotlight.

The lyrics are well?well they're glam metal alright; their bloodstreams had more substance in them than the words coming from Don Dokken's mouth. The only song that strikes as having real emotion in it is the title track, a song detailing Dokken's determination at making it as a band having come close to their record label dropping them after their debut. The song shows a level of intensity being damned to give it their all and fight tooth and (well-manicured) nail to make this album stick.

"Heartless Heart" may well have some facepalm-level lyrics, but the song itself manages to balance the pop and rock energy that warrants (not that one) repeated listening. "Bullets To Spare" is so cheesy that I find myself listening again and again as it contains what can only be described as a Two Ronnies level of "sounding dirty without being dirty" lyrics that embed themselves in your brain. Chaucer and Shakespeare would weep, for even they can't manage to be so blunt yet coy at the same time.

Don't judge the book by its cover; here is an album that is worthy of attention that will entertain you both with its high quality musicianship, but also with its oh-so-cheesy 80s elements.