Known as Mr. Scary, and most famous for being the shredding guitar player for Dokken during the band’s most successful phase of their career, George Lynch will return on June 21^st with the release of his latest solo effort titled Kill All Control. The album mixes classic, 80’s style riffing and soloing with more modern sonic appeals. At times, this works well but at times the songs sound as if Lynch is reaching, trying to ‘fit in’ with the current class of hard rock acts, instead of acting his age and being content to show them how they did it back in his day.

This is a true issue for artists of Lynches era. Is it wrong for them to stretch out, creatively, and attempt to be musically relevant in the modern day? Of course not, however, they must realize that their core fan base would rather hear killer solos like the one in “Flys on the Wall” than they would hear Mr. Scary try to fit in with the much less talented guitar players of today.

The album does feature plenty of high-powered guests, including Cinderella’s Fred Coury on drums on the follow up to the classic Dokken Track “Mr. Scary” titled “Son of Scary.” Guest vocalists include Mark Torien, Keith St. John and Will Marten.

At the end of the day, Lynch can still play his ass off. This one is more Lynch Mob than Dokken but it does lean toward a modern sound in places. The listener will decide if they like that or not. Let it be known, however, that no matter what the sonic sound of the album may be, Lynch adds killer solos to each tune.

Me thinks George would do good to make the next one instrumental and simply blow our minds with maximum riffage and sound barrier breaking speedy solos. Until that time comes, we still have Kill All Control and the mind-blowing guitar mastery of “Son of Scary.”