Dokken

Dokken may have hit their peak in the mid-'80s when hair metal ruled the roost, but the band that singer Don Dokken gave his surname stood apart from the era's glam-metal parade. Hits like "Just Got Lucky," full of beast-unleashed guitar chomp and stainless-steel harmonies, crossed over to the Pop chart, but a pure metal heart pounded out from their core. The raging riptide riffs of "Alone Again" proved it was possible to slow things down without dipping into power-ballad territory. And the hell-bent thrash of "Tooth and Nail" — with guitar hero George Lynch leaping into the fray for some head-spinning hammer-ons — showed, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Dokken could blast out a headbanger with the best of them.

Venture beyond the blockbusters with in-concert insanity and more, in Next Steps.

Between rock radio and MTV, Dokken got more exposure in the '80s than Max Headroom and Pee Wee Herman put together, but there was much more to these monsters of metal than just the hits. Listening to the lightning storm of high-voltage guitar licks George Lynch lays down on the live version of "Kiss of Death," there's no question about Dokken's domination of the concert stage. And after tensions between Lynch and Don Dokken erupted into a breakup, the singer reinvented his band in the '90s, with tunes like "Puppet On a String" and "Maddest Hatter" mixing that classic Dokken roar with touches of everything from ominous Alice In Chains-esque grunge to grand, King's X-ish harmonies.

Peek into the dimly lit corners of the Dokken universe — some sharp left turns await in Deep Cuts.

This is where we delve into the Dokken discoveries that even diehard fans may not have uncovered. Those who go back to the beginning with the band may be familiar with the frenetic fretboard fantasies of George Lynch on early live cuts, like "Paris Is Burning," but who could've expected that the guitar demon's solo career would produce Latin-tinged flamenco-meets-fusion excursions like the instrumental "Tierra del Fuego"? And when they first came crashing into existence, who could've guessed that some 25 years down the line, Dokken would be having a heavy-metal holiday with their decidedly sinister-sounding take on "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town"?

Dokken might have been a tad more photogenic and earned more MTV airtime than, say, Motörhead, but between Don Dokken's soaring voice and George Lynch's diabolical six-string savagery, the band stuck to old-school values in the era of hair metal. They stomped across the globe for the legendary Monsters of Rock tour in 1988 alongside the likes of Metallica and Van Halen, and racked up multi-platinum sales to legions of fans who understood that metal and melody are not mutually exclusive concepts. Even after the titanic-but-tempestuous pairing of Lynch and Dokken self-destructed, the band eventually came blazing back to life with a fresh, new approach. It's tough to wrap your ears around it all, but we've blazed a trail from the '80s glory days, through the stylistic surprises of the solo projects, all the way to Dokken 2.0. Rockin' with Dokken was never so easy.