George Lynch is one of my favorite guitarists, and he’s been involved in quite a few projects over the years, as have his former bandmates. The Dokken family tree is wide and deep, and there’s been a fair amount of activity in it lately.
My intent here is to provide a place to talk about projects involving the classic lineup of Dokken, including Don Dokken, George Lynch, Jeff Pilson, and Mick Brown. A few of these bands would be:
This has been a ridiculously prodigious year for George Lynch, with four albums already released and as many as 3 more potentially still on the way:
The Banishment - Machine And Bone (Mar 10)
Sweet & Lynch - Heart & Sacrifice (May 19)
George Lynch & Jeff Pilson - Heavy Hitters II (Aug 11)
George Lynch - Guitars At The End Of The World (Sep 8)
Lynch Mob - Babylon (Oct 20)
New The End Machine album (with new singer Girish Pradhan, expected late 2023)
New Ultraphonix album (???)
Crazy.
I really enjoyed the industrial stylings of The Banishment after getting used to the vibe. The Sweet & Lynch album was a slight letdown for me, being stronger than Unified, but not as good as Only To Rise. Heavy Hitters II had a lot of good music on it, but the singer they chose to work with was a bad fit for about 2/3 of the material, which was disappointing. Guitars At The End Of The World was great, though – almost equaling the extremely high bar set by his previous instrumental album Seamless from 2021.
I’m not really into the more recent Lynch Mob albums, but I’m psyched for the new End Machine record, since Phase2 was great and Girish Pradhan is an amazing singer. I haven’t really sat down to listen to the first Ultraphonix album, so the second one isn’t on my personal radar yet.
Still, it’s been a very good year to be a George Lynch fan…
Interesting, sounds like Babylon is the end of the road for Lynch Mob, and George is going to focus on other projects.
I haven’t really gotten into a Lynch Mob album since the first two, and a quick pass on Babylon didn’t change that opinion – the guitar playing is great as usual, but the new singer has a whiny tone and an over-the-top vibrato effect on his voice all the time, and the vocal melodies aren’t very memorable.
With Foreigner also calling it quits, hopefully Lynch and Pilson will be able to focus more on The End Machine during their sunset years. I’d also love to see Lynch keep cranking out instrumental albums on the side.
