Band:	Dokken
Album:	Tooth And Nail
Style:	Heavy metal
Release date:	1984
Guest review by:	DayFly

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

Tooth And Nail was a huge step forward for Dokken, one a casual listener of the band's debut album would not have thought possible. Electra actually was near to dropping the band but opted to give them one more chance and a fair one at that. Tooth And Nail has a full, arena-ready sound with a slightly rougher guitar tone that really gives it an edge over slicker productions. The songs have also gotten a lot better, with Lynch's highly technical and yet disciplined and tasteful playing really showing why the man has become one of the most celebrated guitar heroes of the era. To the metal-minded ear, this is also the band's most easily likable with the heavy stomp on "When Heaven Comes Down" and a few stabs at speed metal here and there. However, most of the tracks keep to an accessible medium pace the band was best at anyway.

But the worst of all pop-music's faults, namely a bad singles and filler ratio on albums, does not apply to the continuously consistent Tooth And Nail. The emotional and lyrical intensity of the dark "Into The Fire" and the band's heaviest and best ballad "Alone Again" makes them deservedly classics but even lesser knowns like "Bullets To Spare" and "Heartless Heart" are diverting as opposed to boring. It's a not a life-changing album (unless you are an aspiring shredder) but with an even passing interest in the genre, the chance that it will still be on regular rotation after many years is a high one.