Lynch Mob – The Final Ride (Live)
Lynch Mob – The Final Ride (Live)
Frontiers
Release date: 29/05/26
Review by: Jon Deaux
7/10
2025 saw the release of Lynch Mob’s last studio recording. 2026 sees their last live recording. This is rather tragic; it feels almost as if I were watching someone write their own obituary two times because they did not like the way the first one portrayed them. However, the amazing playing of George Lynch is such that even Death buys tickets for the show just to be left disappointed yet again.
Lynch Mob are done. Cooked. Finished. Heading off into the sunset for the last time, which wouldn’t feel quite as emotional if the sunset weren’t already planned out to the finest detail, ticketed in three tiers, available in four formats, and recorded to DVD in high definition to a Blu-ray nobody under fifty has a machine capable of playing. ‘The Final Ride’ is the live album that puts a definitive conclusion on their career – a career that ended officially at least twice if you include George Lynch’s last announcement. His fans briefly took him at his word before streaming ‘Wicked Sensation’ again and waiting for him to announce that he’s leaving again.
The man has been saying goodbye to rock’n’roll for long enough that his farewell tours themselves have farewell tours of their own, which have compilation albums, and somewhere buried in the archives of Frontiers Music, there’s an Excel spreadsheet detailing when he can safely make his next declaration without people suspecting a thing. The guy has had more goodbyes than a rollercoaster in Blackpool, condemned to closure and subsequently opened quietly in a different guise to get around it. It’s impressive, in a way. Takes balls to go out like that.
None of that is what the record is about, though. It is, against the accumulated experience of years of being let down, an excellent live album. Mixed and mastered by Chuck Alkazian at Pearl Sound Studios, it actually sounds like a performance captured in the moment rather than a post facto reconstruction. There’s a quality of air to the recording. The bass line by Jaron Gulino feels heavier than an old vinyl LP. Drumming by Jimmy D’Anda is executed with the knowledge that this really is the last tour he’ll play. The rhythm section as a pair, have the kind of tightness that comes from knowing each other well enough that they don’t need auditions anymore. They’re just doing the job.
Colon leads from the front with a combination of aggressiveness and professionalism that he earns by refusing to attempt what is perhaps the only thing that could have derailed this project. He refuses to try to replicate Dokken’s distinctive vocals in his style. Wise move. Nobody ever won that battle.
Dokken invented his style for a very specific purpose – that of sounding like a tortured, wounded animal. Colon understands that, wisely refuses to emulate it, and comes through with a vocal performance that actually improves on what is in the original. The man can sing. That should be noted in his Wikipedia biography in boldface, in a larger font than it is currently in.
The album kicks off with ‘Lightning Strikes Again.’ Why? Because the introduction is designed to blow you away and succeeds every single time. ‘River Of Love’ follows with a melodic strut that makes you momentarily re-examine Lynch Mob’s placement in the genre hierarchy. Turns out they were better than they were allowed to be in their day. They were. Nobody ever gave them the credit they deserved, but this record doesn’t waste a single second being angry about that fact. And that, in and of itself, elevates it above the crowd.
‘Hell Child’ is exactly what you expect from that title. ‘No Good’ features a riff that refuses to leave your mind for days after you stop listening. ‘Let The Music Be Your Master’ is exactly what the track description promises. It sounds better live than in a studio because it needs the space, the noise, and the feeling of being received by five hundred people. ‘Street Fighting Man’ packs a heavy enough punch that you feel just slightly guilty for listening to it from your sofa. ‘Wicked Sensation’ finishes the album with a flourish that’s reminiscent of a perfectly written final chapter in a story you didn’t want to come to an end.
The three tracks by Dokken warrant special mention, as they represent one of two things: a genuine attempt to find peace with the tangled web of history behind those songs, or a prolonged, quiet assertion of territorial rights by the original guitarist. Maybe even both of those. ‘Lightning Strikes Again, ‘ ‘ It’s Not Love,’ and ‘Paris Is Burning’ are songs for which George Lynch wrote the guitars, and Don Dokken got a poster printed of himself for. Lynch plays them here as they’ve always belonged entirely to him because the guitar riffs belong to him. Everything else is window dressing. He’s made this point for three decades now without explicitly stating it. He makes it here in spades.
Lynch is the gravitational centre of everything else going on here and the reason why the record exists. He’s one of the few guitarists from the eighties who sound more interesting today than they did at the time, which is an astounding accomplishment considering what they were doing then.
The tone is warm and vaguely menacing in the sense that calm people who know precisely how to play their instrument are always faintly menacing. His phrasing is distinct and unmistakable – you can pick a George Lynch solo out of a line-up because you can tell by how the notes fall. Everything he plays sounds like it’s the greatest guitar work he’s done in his life, and after Dokken and solo albums and all manner of other bands and feuds and farewells, the man clearly cares about making sure the guitar parts are as great as they can possibly be. In the current landscape, legacy rockers are expected to turn up just once. He doesn’t – he plays for real. That is impressive and shouldn’t be understated.
Will this record be the end of Lynch Mob’s career? The answer lies in whether you’ve been keeping track. Rock’n’roll doesn’t have permanent ends any more than it has permanent haircuts. It has periods of hiatus, presented in dark colors. It has “finals” with quotation marks around it, and farewell tours that quietly become anniversary tours that quietly become new album cycles.
George Lynch will undoubtedly be back with another iteration of whatever band he chooses to put together and playing ‘Wicked Sensation’ in halls full of fans who came back to see him play just because he said he was retiring. That’s not criticism. It’s the point. Always has been. Get the record. Frame any gig, and I’ll see you at a reunion show.
Tracklist:
01. Lightning Strikes Again
02. River Of Love
03. No Good
04. Caught Up
05. Hell Child
06. Let The Music Be Your Master
07. Time After Time
08. Paris Is Burning
09. Rain
10. Street Fighting Man
11. It’s Not Love
12. Wicked Sensation
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Disclaimer: This review is solely the property of Jon Deaux and Ever Metal. It is strictly forbidden to copy any part of this review, unless you have the strict permission of both parties. Failure to adhere to this will be treated as plagiarism and will be reported to the relevant authorities.
