Dokken are "Back for the Attack" on October 27, 1987

If Dokken wasn't going to make the final leap to super-stardom, they should have stopped here. Stopped on October 27, 1987, the day they released the last of the truly great Dokken albums, Back for the Attack. Dokken fans, the true believers, already knew, and still know today, that Dokken was one of the best bands to emerge from the "hair metal" melange of 1980s Los Angeles. There was no shortage of hair, no shortage of hair spray, but unlike so many other Aqua Net aspirants, there was no shortage of sheer talent in Dokken. But somehow, headliner status continued to elude a band that was so often blowing headliners off the stage as a bridesmaid opening act during the Reagan years. Back for the Attack was designed to finally change that - but improbably, it didn't.

Beyond Eddie Van Halen and Yngwie Malmsteen, was there any guitar hero greater than George Lynch in the 1980s? No. Nyet. Nein. Lynch fused virtuosic speed and technique with lines of Van Gogh-esque fluidity, and one of the top four vibratos in guitar history. Most impressive of all, Lynch established his own style and vocabulary before the first Dokken record was even released. With Malmsteen and Van Halen, Lynch shares that rare attribute: an instantly recognizable sound. 

Back for the Attack was, above all else, a showcase, a tour-de-force for Lynch. Having chafed at the strictures on the length of his guitar solos on previous record Under Lock and Key, Lynch was unleashed for extended sojourns on tracks like "Kiss of Death," "Standing in the Shadows," "Heaven Sent," and his showpiece instrumental, "Mr. Scary." Lynch's solo on "Dream Warriors" is perennially touted as one of his best ever, alongside "Tooth and Nail," "The Hunter," and "In My Dreams."

Often self-deprecating in interviews, Lynch had made no secret that he was still measuring himself against younger, emerging speed demons like Paul Gilbert of Racer X. He used that inspiration to push himself on Back for the Attack. By the time the cassette tape had unspooled to the end on side two, Lynch's guitar legend status had been firmly established.

Don Dokken, the foundational rock of his eponymous band and a fine guitarist himself, had long ago ceded the six-string spotlight to Lynch. He recognized it was best for the band, for the music. Dokken had been at this before the 80s had even dawned. The band had its origin in a solo career that had taken Don Dokken across the world to Germany. His vocal and songwriting talents were such that Teutonic rock legends the Scorpions were ready to offer him their lead singing job in 1982, if Klaus Meine was unable to recover his voice after two operations on his vocal cords. But Don Dokken's humanity was such that he privately told Meine to take his time and focus on his recovery, assuring him that he would not take his job even if the Scorpions offered it to him.

Meine did recover, and heavy metal fans were the richer for it, as he and Don Dokken went on to produce stellar albums with their respective bands for the remainder of the decade. 

Don Dokken was in peak form on Back for the Attack. All those high notes? He could hit them easily. But he also brought a Steve Perry smoothness to the proceedings. Don Dokken could be as commercial as needed, but always had the respect of his peers and knowledgeable metal aficionados. 

If we measure the man by the standards of success applied to Taylor Swift, by all rights, Don Dokken should have attained Michael Jackson icon status in the 80s. Talented and handsome, Sad Sack Don had been treated so very badly by his exes, at least in the view of the characters he portrayed in his lyrics. These trickster women had done him wrong. Why, one of them had even given him AIDS, for God's sake, according to leadoff track, "Kiss of Death." Yet Swiftian stardom was not in the cards for this bleeding heart romantic. Such double standards! Such misandry!

Back for the Attack was also on the sonic cutting edge of recording technology. Bassist and vocalist Jeff Pilson employed a 5-string bass on the album. A new fad of adding fifth and six strings to basses was just dawning in 1987, and Pilson was on board before the sunrise, bringing a heavier and deeper bottom end to the record. 

And "Wild" Mick Brown? Well, he wasn't Neil Peart, but he could deliver anything needed in the context of Dokken. Back for the Attack was no exception, and his drumming on "Mr. Scary" is particularly stupendous.

The ingredients were all there. But maybe the wrong chefs were in the kitchen. The mix of "Dream Warriors" on this album wasn't quite as punchy as the original released on an EP with "Back for the Attack," which mysteriously doesn't appear on the album it provided the title for. Under Lock and Key had an ultra-slick production sheen. Back for Attack begins with a dry, in-your-face guitar riff. That was par for the post-glam course at the back end of the 80s, but was as jarring as the transition from the digital delay-swamped Master of Puppets to the bone-dry ...And Justice for All in the Metallica catalog.

Speaking of Metallica, Dokken joined them on the 1988 Monsters of Rock stadium tour in the summer of 1988 to promote Back for the Attack. But even with this high-profile platform, Dokken was unable to reach that top rung of the ladder. The band's internal struggles, now magnified by commercial failure, caused it to finally implode. A live album was substituted for the final studio record on their Elektra contract - an album some believe might have been the one to put them over the top, if they could have put differences aside for one more go at it.

This outcome might have been for the best. Don Dokken would turn in the best album - in any genre - released in 1990, Up from the Ashes, an instant classic with incredible guitar work by John Norum and Billy White. George Lynch would provide another high point of the 90s with his band Lynch Mob's eponymous second album with vocalist Robert Mason in 1992. Lynch had finally gotten the delusion of creating the next Guns N' Roses out of his system by that point. Pilson would become a valued contributor to some of the biggest names in rock, including Ronnie James Dio, Mickey Thomas, and Foreigner. And "Wild" Mick, well, he just kept staying wild.

When Dokken got back together in the 90s, they proved why they should have let Back for the Attack stand as the final chapter. The magic was gone. Their signature sound was gone. At one point, even George Lynch was gone. Beleagured Dokken fans were left to join Freddy Krueger in the "Dream Warriors" music video's epilogue in asking, "Who were those guys?" It turned out that October 27, 1987 was The Day the Music Died.