DOKKEN is planning to begin writing a new studio album this fall for a tentative 2018 release. The disc will mark the band's first collection of all-new material since 2012's "Broken Bones" effort. Speaking with AllThatShreds.com, DOKKEN guitarist Jon Levin laid out the band's schedule for the remainder of 2017. He said: "We're on the road all of July; we come back to do some U.S. dates, then were back to Europe. As November and December come and things slow down, we're going to start writing for a new DOKKEN record." When asked if the upcoming album was going to have the classic DOKKEN sound or if it would see the group going in a new direction, Levin said: "It's definitely going to have the classic DOKKEN sound. We should have it released in May of 2018, I'm thinking." After "Broken Bones" failed to meet his expectations commercially, DOKKEN singer Don Dokken publicly questioned whether the band should or would make another record. He was also ruthlessly criticized by fans after radiation treatments from a bout with stomach cancer and eventual vocal-cord surgery hurt his performances. He told the Bradenton Herald that he took a year or so off after "Broken Bones" to regroup and reassess the band's place in the rock marketplace. "I was getting so bad I had to say, 'Guys, I'm just destroying our brand. I suck,'" Dokken said. "I put on forty pounds. I couldn't sing. I just didn't look good; I didn't feel good. I just had to get the radiation over with and rehab and come back." "Broken Bones" sold around 2,600 copies in the United States in its first week of release to land at position No. 173 on The Billboard 200 chart. Don Dokken, guitarist George Lynch, bassist Jeff Pilson and drummer "Wild" Mick Brown completed a short Japanese tour last October, marking the first time in twenty-one years the band's classic lineup had hit the road. A new DOKKEN concert DVD focusing on the band's reunion tour is tentatively due before the end of the year. The set will feature footage from two of the Japanese shows — including Tokyo — as well as the band's very first comeback gig, which was held on September 30, 2016 at Badlands Pawn Guns Gold And Rock 'N' Roll in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Don told "The Classic Metal Show" that the main reason he doesn't want to continue with the classic DOKKEN lineup is that "loves" the band he has now — which features Brown, alongside Levin and bassist Chris McCarvil.
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