by Steve HueyAfter leaving Dokken a second time, guitarist George Lynch reconvened his early-'90s outfit Lynch Mob and recorded 1999's Smoke This, releasing it just a few months after Dokken's lackluster Erase the Slate. Lynch was always the musical backbone of Dokken, so it's no surprise that Smoke This is better executed than its counterpart, with high points generally outstripping those of Erase the Slate. That's not to say that Smoke This is an unqualified success, though; for all of Lynch's technical wizardry and unpredictable soloing tangents, he's primarily an instrumentalist rather than a songwriter, and that shows in both the album's lesser material and the somewhat journeyman-like nature of even the higher-quality songs here. It's solid and professional at its best, which makes it worthwhile for longtime Lynch fans, even if there are no real surprises here.