REvolution in Bloomington, MN

Heavy metal
guitar stalwart
George Lynch
returns with
REvolution
, a 13-track set featuring re-recorded versions of
Dokken
and
Lynch Mob
classics. Vocalist
Rob Mason
and bassist
Anthony Esposito
have returned to the
fold for this project; they are joined behind the drum kit by newcomer
Michael "Fro" Frowein
. Together, the combo does a mostly bang-up job with the material.
Lynch
's guitar lines are leaner and meaner throughout, emulating the newly buff physique of
Mr. Scary
himself. And while
Mason
's singing style is that of a journeyman
metal
vocalist, he wisely relies on power here, dispensing with the kind of upper-register histrionics favored by
Don Dokken
Oni Logan
that defined -- and subsequently maligned -- 1980s
.
lifts off with the
classic
"Tooth and Nail"
; it's essentially the same song, only rippling with a new sense of purpose that's palpable throughout the record. It's immediately clear that while
and his mates are having fun with this return to their roots, they're also reveling in the spit-shine they've given the material.
While an aging copy of
Tooth and Nail
or
Too Fast for Love
can still be a thrilling ride, hindsight makes the sins of these and other '80s
hair
classics more evident. The horn section that pops up on
"Tangled in the Web"
(from 1992's
) probably seemed like a good idea at the time, but it hasn't aged well.
2003 amps up
's riffs and rumbles along on the strength of
Fro
's muscular drum fills.
"She's Evil But She's Mine"
is all
grunged
up, complete with
Alice in Chains
-style chorus vocals.
again cuts his original performance to the quick, letting the chords linger. It's almost a maturation of his famous weedly-weedly solos and fills -- where before there were busy trips up and down the fretboard, there are now only well-timed pulloffs that quickly return to low-end mudslinging. For
"Kiss of Death,"
the verses have been slowed to a sludgy half-time groove. Dynamic all-stops aid the chorus' explosion, which has been inserted largely intact from 1987's
Back for the Attack
. The nod to
grunge
shouldn't be construed as a sellout; indeed,
still sounds too much like a cross between
David Coverdale
Jack Russell
to ever be mistaken for a Seattle sound moaner. By tightening up the arrangements and stripping away the bombast,
the Lynch Mob
has essentially done to its own past what
did to 1980s
in general. Retrofitted reminiscence is an easy way to make a buck. But when the wet work is done as well as
have done with
, one has to overlook the cashing in, and simply rock out. ~ Johnny Loftus