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Nov 22, 20224 min read

Dokken - Under Lock and Key (1985)

FROM THE CRYPTS - CELEBRATING PAST ALBUM RELEASES in the HISTORY of HARD ROCK & HEAVY METAL…



On November 22, 1985, Dokken released

their third full-length studio album Under Lock and Key via Elektra Records.



Below are excerpts from an interview with Dave Reynolds from Metal Forces, Issue 17 (1986):


“…we try to write the whole album like that (with hooks and melody). To be on our album a song has to have a reason to be there, it has to be something that people would remember. Once we’ve established that, we can branch out and write songs that don’t necessarily have to have a hook.” - George Lynch when asked about the songs on Under Lock and Key.
“…we write for our own tastes. It’s like the other day I was listening to the first Montrose album, a band that I’m a real big fan of. I could see whilst I was listening to it why that album was never the huge mega success I always thought (at the time it was made) that it would be, because it doesn’t contain those hooks even though the material is great. So we want to have the hooks and that kind of energy Montrose had to make the songs more song-worthy, so we can be mega-successful (tongue-in-cheek). Ha! Ha!” — Jeff Pilson when asked about the songs on Under Lock and Key.
“There used to be a scene in LA but from what I can see that doesn’t exist anymore. In LA now it just seems to be full of bands that mimic bands that have broken out of LA; there’s no bands creating anything new.” — George Lynch when asked about the LA music scene.
“If I was a kid into Slayer and Anthrax, I would be put off by Dokken – seriously! But the only thing I could equate it to when I was younger and listening to the most extreme stuff I could get my hands on would be Journey or something. I don’t think we’re a poser or a sell-out band. We can fill that gap, not that we want to, but because we have some melody. We also play Hard Rock that we’ve been playing all our lives and we’ll continue to play it.
If it’s fast then people might call it Thrash Metal, or if it’s slow then they call it Dirge Metal or Gothic Death Rock. Y’know what I mean? Or if it’s got melody to it, then it’s a ballad and you are selling out. We’re not trying to appeal to everybody; we just play a lot of different kinds of Hard Rock music.” - George Lynch on accusations of Dokken being a “poser, sell-out band” by “anti-Glam” critics.
But there are a great many people we do appeal to, so whatever we’re doing must be right.” — Jeff Pilson

Overview:

During the supporting tour for Under Lock and Key, Dokken opened for such bands as Judas Priest, Accept (replacing RATT), and Twisted Sister. The 1986 documentary short Heavy Metal Parking Lot features fans of Dokken and Judas Priest tailgating before a concert in Maryland.


(Judas Priest Concert Flyer featuring Dokken, August 5, 1986) 


(Accept with Dokken, Friday, March 22, 1986, Grugahalle, Essen Germany)


(Button from Twisted Sister and Dokken at The Spectrum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, January 18, 1986)


(Heavy Metal Parking Lot)


(Under Lock and Key Promo Poster)


Critical Reception:

The album reached No. 32 on the U.S. Billboard 200 and remained on that chart for 67 weeks. Two singles also charted: The Hunter and In My Dreams, both reaching No. 25 and 24 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock respectively, with In My Dreams at No. 77 on the Billboard Hot 100. Under Lock and Key was certified Gold on March 4, 1986, and Platinum by the RIAA on April 14, 1987.


(In My Dreams Single)


The album received mostly positive reviews. Eduardo Rivadavia in his review for AllMusic calls Under Lock and Key "quite possibly Dokken's most 'complete' album, with a little something for every type of fan", like "fist-pumping headbangers", extraordinary "bittersweet mid-paced rockers" (Unchain the Night and The Hunter) and "saccharine ballads". Rivadavia recommends the album as the best introduction to new listeners of Dokken, but notes that Heavy Metal purists would likely prefer the band's 1984 album Tooth and Nail.



Canadian journalist Martin Popoff considers the album "too weighted towards Def Leppard's fat-and-open formula rock", resulting "a bit subdued and predictable" in comparison with its predecessor. The band's glamorous look, the media exposure and George Lynch's "attempt to define the L.A. sound in his own image" do not save Under Lock and Key from sounding "like the work of a band just fed".



Side Note:

The music videos produced for the singles from the first three Dokken albums were featured on a longform videocassette release, Unchain the Night, by Elektra/Asylum Records through Elektra Entertainment. That video debuted on Billboard's Top Music Video—Longform chart at No. 11 in January 1987, peaking at No. 5 that May. The video collection was certified Gold in April 1987, and Platinum the following April. In 2007 the collection was re-released in DVD by Rhino Home Video through Warner Music Vision, debuting on the Billboard Comprehensive Music Videos chart at No. 27.



Note: The reviews shared here are for historical reference. The views and opinions expressed within are not always supported (in full or in part) by Into the Wells. — E.N. Wells



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