Dokken Breaking The Chains CD

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 One of the first great hardrock bands
"Breaking the Chains" is a great CD, period!
Submitted by JTarr_16 (Eastlake, OH, USA) 
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 So so debut.
I bought this album on cassette some 20+ years ago after hearing the title track. Unfortunately, the only other songs that are any good are "Live To Rock" and "Paris is Burning". It's amazing that they followed up such a mediocre album with what is still, 22 years later, their best album by far, "Tooth and Nail".
Submitted by beermandbt (San Diego)
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 The Start!
This CD is good. It's a must buy. Production? In 1983 is it? Come on, this is great music. Dokken is great.
Submitted by jamesm333 (Yelm, Wa)
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 WARNING! Every music professional should read
As the first American to hear these tracks, it's disappointing to tell you that this album easily could have rated 4+ stars. I hate to pan albums unless I feel a very familiar artist has really let me down; I'd never heard of Don Dokken before I met him....and I'm going to do it anyway. After laying down the basic tracks (and hanging out with Klaus Meine & other Scorpions), Don flew from Germany to L.A. with the original "bobby" - a sort of open-faced tape reel used in Europe. Riffling the yellow pages to find a late-night studio, he drove from the airport to Pax Productions - a rehearsal/recording biz owned by my band Ocean. I spent 6 hours mixing down more than 24 tracks to 4, then mastered the product to stereo so that Don could listen to it in his car & elsewhere. That mix is how I remember the songs sounding....great! Typically lush Dokken vocals with driving rhythms and crisp, slightly edgy guitar tracks. My copy even found its way into my rotation of favorite albums for a time. When "Breaking the Chains" was finally released I was, frankly, shocked. Gone was Juan along with his change-of-pace lead vocals & lyrics on "We're Illegal". The hasty-seeming rewrite yielded the vapid and sparkless "Live to Rock". Gone was even a hint of hard-rock sincerity to any of Don's lead vocals. Gone, too, was the brightness demanded by George Lynch's masterful subtleties - he might as well have cut off his "B" & "E" strings! The best song, "Paris is Burning", has lost its counterpoint instrumental hook.....George plays a descending arpeggio leading into the chorus. On the smothered top two strings. In the final analysis, there is one area where this album could shine: As an object lesson to all in the recording industry; a warning against overproducing and obsessively overpolishing the raw material presented by the musicians - who've shed bucketsful of blood, sweat & tears already.
Submitted by mattbooth (Los Angeles)
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 Quiet Riot Dokken?
They may have looked like Quiet Riot on this, their first effort but they sure didn't sound like them. This is a very good first release from a band that always had an orginal sound that still continues today. Some really solid songs here including the title track and Paris is burning.
Submitted by Nightwing32j (Flowood, MS)
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