Speaking with Ultimate Guitar, George Lynch (Dokken, Lynch Mob) revealed that his new project The End Machine - featuring former Dokken bandmates Jeff Pilson and Mick Brown, and singer Robert Mason - was originally intended to be a Dokken album. 

UG: How did this new band The End Machine come together? I know you worked with Jeff Pilson, Mick Brown, and Robert Mason in the past, but how did this idea to start this band come to you?

Lynch: "Jeff lives very close to me and we're very close friends, and we've tried to work together as much as possible. So we come up with these projects that we don't really need to do but we do them as an excuse to work together and write songs like we used to in Dokken. And we have a lot of fun doing it. We've done a number of projects like that. We did LP, which is Lynch/Pilson, we did T&N, and now we're doing The End Machine. They're all sort of the same thing, maybe a couple of different people playing in it, but just me and Jeff in our studios working together and still chasing that same kind of songwriting vision that we had when we were working together back in the '80s.

This time around, it is very close to being really almost as the Dokken lineup, with Mick being in there. At one point, we actually asked Don (Dokken) to be involved and make it a Dokken record. He declined, obviously, and it was very disappointing because I thought this could have been a great, great Dokken record. Because if we ever do a record, it's gonna have to be great."

UG: Were these the same songs you planned for Dokken?

Lynch: "Jeff and I were just writing to write. We were just writing songs with no... we didn't have any project in mind, just writing. And then as this started to come together, we started to wonder how to build this and what we would call it and what it would be. And one of the ideas was to have Don come in and make this a Dokken record. So we talked about that, but we actually talked to our label and we had some deals being discussed and so forth. And I was hoping this would have been that record, but... not that I'm disappointed in what it is - it's wonderful. It would have been a different record with Don. But Robert Mason is an absolute monster, I mean... (laughs). He just continues to blow my mind, he's so good.

I'm very happy with the end results of it. It's kind of like the butterfly effect, it could have gone in a completely different direction had Don agreed to come on board. This record is kind of the record that Jeff and I had always wanted to write in Dokken. It's a little bit more aggressive singer to match the music. And that's what we got. It only took us 25-30 years, but we finally figured it out."

Read the complete interview here.

Order The End Machine's self-titled album on CD/LP/Digital here. A limited amount of signed CDs & LPs, merch bundles, VIP Packages & more are available here.

Watch a new video for the track "Leap Of Faith" below.

Surely, some fans may be wondering to themselves, isn't this just Dokken without Don Dokken? "Musically, of course there's bound to be moments that will be reminiscent of Dokken. That's only logical," says bassist Jeff Pilson. "But, my guess is there will be less of that than people would expect. Some people who've heard it say they think it's closer to Lynch Mob than Dokken, but really it is pretty much its own thing. We allowed ourselves to get a little deeper than either of those projects really have, while still staying extremely melodic and not being afraid of good old-fashioned guitar rock. Maybe Lynch Mob, a bit of Dokken, but then some 70's guitar rock added in. George [Lynch] is playing fantastic on this... very inspired. Everyone is really, but George covers some new territory here and it's very cool. Plus, the songs as compositions took on their own life, especially adding Robert [Mason] to the writing. That's what I'm most proud of, is the way this stands on its own. It doesn't step on our legacy together one bit, but it has it's own personality and I think that's important."

"This is decidedly not me 'stapled' onto a Dokken record," adds Mason. "I wouldn't have been involved if that was the intent. Fans will hear bits of our styles in this collection of songs, and while reminiscent signatures are undeniable, The End machine was purposely built to stand apart and on its own merit."

Tracklisting:

"Leap Of Faith"
"Hold Me Down"
"No Game"
"Bulletproof"
"Ride It"
"Burn The Truth"
"Hard Road"
"Alive Today"
"Line Of Division"
"Sleeping Voices"
"Life Is Love Is Music"

"Leap Of Faith" video:

"Burn The Truth" lyric video:

"Alive Today" video:

Catch The End Machine on tour on the US West Coast this April. Dates listed below.

April
4 - Los Angeles, CA - Whisky A Go Go
5 - Las Vegas, NV - Vamp'd
6 - Tucson, AZ - Club XS

Limited amount of VIP Packages available here.

Lineup:

Robert Mason - Vocals
Mick Brown - Drums
Jeff Pilson - Bass
George Lynch - Guitars