Lynch Mob

In the albums-no-one-asked-for category, former Dokken guitarist George Lynch oversees one of the most puzzling releases of the year. Composed of neither new material nor greatest “hits,” REvolution is a record’s worth of remade Dokken and Lynch Mob tunes. Lynch makes an honest stab at injecting his back catalog with fresh vigor. New versions of “Breaking the Chains” and “Just Got Lucky” are given massive overhauls, eliminating a few thousand vocal overdubs and a few million layers of sheen. Too bad those elements are exactly what gave Dokken its cheesy charm. Furthermore, most of Dokken’s better-known songs are skipped in favor of retooled Lynch Mob atrocities. This is a mistake, not only because it means the Mob doesn’t get to try to make something — anything — out of Dokken knee-slappers such as “Heartless Heart” and “Unchain the Night,” but also because a band has no business rehashing its own stuff. Shredheads will enjoy the return of Lynch’s patent-leather guitar histrionics and rejoice that his predilection for nü-metal “experimentation” has gone the way of Don Dokken’s hairline. But REvolution proves to be anything but groundbreaking, preferring instead to endlessly retrace Lynch’s footsteps.