Man, George stays active with what seems like multiple projects happening at once. It would be interesting to see what these deals are comprised of because the budgets have to be very limited for studio time, mixing, mastering, distribution, marketing, promotion and videos. They must frequently break even, otherwise, there is no way George and his contemporaries (that are not with major labels or that are not multi-millionaires) could continue to get these projects off the ground, because it is unlikely George is financing these ventures.
Anybody have the End:Machine CD and have any comments? Weird mastering credits on this at discogs. It says it was mastered by Alessandro Del Vecchio and remastered by Maor Appelbaum. As this is a brand new release, what is the difference between mastering and REmastering? The End Machine - The End Machine
Good questions. I got it a few days ago but no time to listen yet. Unfortunately my car is in the (body) shop now (hit a deer) and the car is where I have the most time to listen to new music anymore so....no idea when I will finally have the time to spin the CD....the damn rent-a-car does not have a CD player! Neither do virtually any cars made after like 2016 from what I am hearing (??). A friend of mine just got a new car and he told me he could not find a single model with a built-in CD player, everything is all USB/bluetooth/phone hookups etc. Sigh. If I outlive my current car I will have to buy a portable CD player with builtin bluetooth just to listen to my music in a car, which I find to be just insane....
I sent an email to Maor via the website for his mastering studio to ask and he replied: Hello. Thank you for getting in touch with me. You are right that its very rare to see in modern music releases that albums are remastered as mostly they are just mastered. There are albums that I am involved as a mastering engineer and in others I do a Re-mastering process that I take the existing mastered songs and apply small adjustments to enhance it. What came in already sounded great so this was just adding a bit more "fairy dust" or whatever you want to call it. all very minimal things. Hope that explained it Keep me posted Cheers- Maor Appelbaum
I took it that the band wasn't happy with what Del Vecchio came back with so they paid Applebaum to redo it. Pretty much the same thing happened with the first Sweet/Lynch album. I got it...with the pedigree of the people involved I expected...more. That said it's a solid follow up to the Mason Lynch Mob era.
Interestingly, speaking of DelVecchio I try to avoid anything he is involved in. He makes things sound too much like pop/Journey/kbds and takes the balls out of guitar bands. Just my opinion on a couple bands I decided to check out but didn't like what I heard, then saw he was the common thread.
I really like the stuff he's done with Hardline...his writing can be a bit generic but overall I don't have an issue with him.
Whatever the case, it was nice of Maor to respond and provide an answer. I've written to him before on other releases he's been involved with and he's always responded.
I listened to it tonight & like it a lot. Very Dokken-ish for lack of a better word, that is melodic hard rock.
I've only listened through a few times in the car, but I'm happy with the album. Not earth shattering, but this better than George, Jeff and Mick could do with Don on vocals at this point. My two favorites so far are: Burn The Truth Alive Today It's also given me reason to go revisit the first few Lynch Mob albums, and I just ordered one of the War & Peace CD's.
Great cover of Unchain The Night...you can find this on the (very worthwhile) Eden's Curse Testament: The Best of Eden's Curse The guitarist nails George's lead and tone.
I had Dokken Back For The Attack in my hands' last nite (used bins) but ended up having to put it back in favor of a used copy of Reverend. Strangely I don't own the Dokken album on CD. Hopefully, it will still be there next week.
Killer album (I gave it a 9 out of 10 rating earlier in this thread when I reviewed their catalog). If yer a fan you need it!
There was supposed to be a semi reunion with George and don and mick a few weeks ago at a festival. They were closing the 3 day festival and it ended up being just don. What a ripoff
For a segment called "Hair Cuts" last week, WCSX played "Dream Warriors". That's a pretty deep cut, even by the lowest playlist standards. That's usually reserved for a "House of Hair" type show. I was amazed! Especially from a station who, when I was there in 2012, it was unheard of to even THINK about playing GNR yet.
Oh, *I* know that. But a lot of 80s rock has been bastardized over the years, and rarely, if ever, played on mainstream classic rock FM. If they were to play Dokken, it might be Breaking the Chains. The only reason they played that cut was because it wasna special "hair metal" segment.
Really been enjoying The End Machine of late. Alive Today, Leap of Faith, Sleeping Voices, and Life is Love is Music are all keepers.
naw lynch was sick and mick brown has semi retired. lynch and don just gave an interview saying they'd do more shows together as time permits
Interesting. At first glance one would think it was Don asserting his dominance and reluctance to commit to working with other former stars of the band. That said, if it would be anything like the Japan reunion where Don’s vocals sound like a chainsaw, it probably would not meet expectations.
