Doro (born Dorothee Pesch) is a heavy metal artist from Germany, first coming to prominence fronting the power metal band Warlock during the early to mid-eighties, the band releasing four albums – quintessential listening for any fan of the burgeoning German metal scene. The band split in 1987. Doro pursuing a solo career, releasing an incredible fourteen albums, including 2018’s monolithic double album ‘Forever Warriors Forever United – featuring twenty-five songs across one hundred minutes with a host of special guest musicians! Held in the highest regard as an inspiration, an icon and a legend, Doro is known as the “Queen of Heavy Metal”, now celebrating forty years as a recording artist, with a new album ‘Conqueress – Forever Strong And Proud’ a fifty-five-minute marathon featuring twenty songs, including three covers and two special guests!
During a career littered with great albums, ‘Conqueress – Forever Strong And Proud’ (released in 2023) is probably Doro‘s greatest album ever! There’s just so much variety on offer, from all-out headbangers to melodic metallers, to beautiful ballads, and the cover songs – much more on those later! ‘Cause right now, the Queen of Metal, my one true metal love Doro (insert heart emoji here), launches ‘Conqueress – Forever Strong And Proud’ with the swaggering anthem ‘Children Of The Dawn’. And the Queen’s unmistakable voice pierces the air, oozing the same sexy sass as it has for over forty years – maybe even a little bit more! Doro‘s voice has always made us go weak at the knees, just as well then that I’m sat down right now, my legs like jelly, my heart melting and my eyes glazing over! ‘Children Of The Dawn’ is an incredible opening salvo, setting a thrilling and tense atmosphere with a level of anticipation higher than my pulse rate! And believe me, my pulse rate is high!
Not as high as the pace and tempo of ‘Fire In The Sky’ though – a blistering out-and-out metaller to get heads vigorously rocking back and forth, shades of (Doro‘s eighties band) Warlock shining through. The energy level is off the fucking charts as ‘Fire In The Sky’ rockets by in a furious flash – paving the way for the first of the three covers on offer. And if you don’t recognise this first one within the first few seconds – are you really a metalhead? It’s a cover of one of the heavy metal pioneering band’s most famous songs, emerging on the band’s sixth album released in 1980 – the album ‘British Steel’ by Judas Priest. And what makes this cover version even more special, is that legendary ‘Priest frontman Rob Halford appears as a guest singer! In a duet with Doro nonetheless! So you have the Queen of Metal and the Metal God singing together – surely this is heaven! Both singers sound fantastic, and I just realised that I haven’t mentioned what the song is yet – surely you recognise it? But for those that didn’t, it’s ‘Living After Midnight’. The pace, power and oomph of the original is spot on, the duet offering an unexpected yet delightful twist.
Melodic metal, balladry and hard rock take centre stage for ‘All For You’ – for the first thirty seconds only! And then pace increases tenfold, power flowing like lava from an erupting volcano, ‘All For You’ speeding on to bang heads hard and raise clenched fists high in the air! Doro has always been masterful with everything she’s ever done, seamlessly switching from fast songs to slow ones to a mid tempo stroll and balladry with consummate ease. Not forgetting the mighty anthemic style of metal too – ‘Lean Mean Rock Machine’ a new anthem for every metalhead to salute! And I’m sure it’s not too cheesy to say Doro is a “lean mean rock machine” is it! Of course not – ‘Lean Mean Rock Machine’ is a mid tempo foot stomper with a chant-style chorus that every listener, fan, follower and concert goer are gonna enthusiastically sing along to. What a moment that’s going to be, concert crowds all chanting as one “lean mean rock machine, the baddest one you’ve ever seen” – simply sensational!
And now for one of the heaviest songs on offer, much heavier than I’ve got used to from Doro – ‘I Will Prevail’ a thundering cacophony of thrash-tinged heavy metal to batter every listener senseless! Stomping harder than a herd of stampeding rhinos, ‘I Will Prevail’ shows a mildly aggressive Doro belting the lyrics menacingly! And from crushing heaviness to radio friendly rock with the second duet to feature on the album, this time with Sammy Amara (lead singer for German punk hard rockers Broilers) – ‘Bond Unending’ an uplifting energy-driven hard rock romp with one of the highest infectious levels ever recorded! Definitely less metal and more rock, ‘Bond Unending’ may deviate from Doro‘s root sound, but it seamlessly fits into the album’s aesthetic like a glove! Another glorious example of Doro‘s mastery. ‘Time For Justice’ returns head bang-able heavy metal to the fore, coupled with a little power metal panache too – the anthemic sing a long-able chorus yet another in-concert moment I wanna be a part of! The infectious level has just soared to new heights with ‘Time For Justice’, a weighty barrage of barnstorming heavy metal to plant smiles a mile wide on the faces of everyone.
Now then, Doro is renowned throughout the world for her heartfelt and emotionally sung ballads, with most of them in her native tongue of German – probably the best and most well-known is ‘Fur Immer’, off Warlock’s 1987 fourth and final album ‘Triumph And Agony’. Well, ‘Conqueress – Forever Strong And Proud’ has its own German and English sung ballad, ‘Fels in der Brandung’ a lighter-in-the-air moment of immense mellowness, serenity and orchestration. ‘Fels in der Brandung’ is every bit as epic and atmospheric as the great ‘Fur Immer’ – whether both can feature in a live set only Doro knows! Heavy-hitting hard rock come heavy metal takes front and centre for the brooding mid-tempo stroll ‘Love Breaks Chains’ – bursting at the seams with enough reined-in energy to blow a great big fucking hole right through the centre of the Earth! Let us all pray it doesn’t burst free.
Doro has been driving me wild for over forty years with her great music, greater voice and stunning looks – she really is my idea of the perfect woman! And in the shape of ‘Drive Me Wild’, Doro is at her most sassiest, delivering innuendo laden and suggestive lyrics to tease and tingle every single sense in my body, all the way down from my head to my toes and half the way back up! Lyrics such as “drive me wild, rock it all night, rock me harder, blow my mind” and “drive me wild, all night every night” – phew, is it getting hot in here? Or is just me? And as for the music – ‘Drive Me Wild’ is energy-driven, metal-tinged hard rock! Absolutely terrific stuff – ‘Rise’ increasing energy levels and oomph to even newer heights! The infectious level too, ‘Rise’ a melodic metal march of immense addiction and attraction – Doro consistently delivers the goods!
‘Best In Me’ returns balladry to the fore, a ballad aimed at Doro‘s legions of fans – “everybody will interpret it differently, but when I talk about deep friendship and love, I mean the fans. The melody and the lyrics will really connect with the diehard fans” comments Doro. And after listening, I feel exactly what she means – lyrically, ‘Best In Me’ is very deep and meaningful, musically, it’s a hymn-like anthem with a mighty elegant swagger and will be a perfect concert closer as a climactic thank you to everyone. Bombastic takes a sharp upward trajectory as ‘Heavenly Creatures’ cruises into sight with more punch than any other song on offer, yet doesn’t lose any of the sensational melodious streak running right through the heart of the album. Featuring a head nodding foot tapping attitude rather than a head-banging one, ‘Heavenly Creatures’ may be more rock than metal, but Doro doesn’t ever put a foot wrong. Everything she writes, records and does has the golden touch, and that’s why I love her so much!
The second cover on offer is actually another duet with the Metal God – this time a sparkling rendition of the Bonnie Tyler classic ‘Total Eclipse Of The Heart’, taken from the Welsh rock singer’s fifth album ‘Faster Than The Speed Of Night’ (released in 1983). And again the duo of Doro and Halford do an awesome job, keeping to the pace of the original, perfectly sharing the vocal duties. Simply a classic in the making – both singers sound fantastic! And that actually brings the “standard” album to a close – but I’ve got the Digibook edition, featuring an extra five bonus songs. Five! Yea that’s right, five more delicious morsels to enjoy, and as they all appear on a second CD, ‘Warlocks And Witches’ is labelled as an “intro”, and is an atmospheric effects-laden one-and-a-half minute spoken word passage…
…leading straight into the perky ‘Horns Up High’, featuring a strong pirate metal feel, similar to the likes of Alestorm, Blazon Stone, Pirates Of Metal, Red Rum, and legendary icons Running Wild. The bouncy nature of ‘Horns Up High’ is akin to a shanty, a drinkin’ anthem sung by gentlemen o’ fortune in ye old inns raisin’ glasses o’ rum, an’ tankards o’ beer ‘high in the air! A definite departure from her usual sound, Doro – even after all these years – is still willing to stretch her musical horizons further than ever before. And not content with just the one metal anthem on offer, ‘Conqueress – Forever Strong And Proud’ boasts another – ‘True Metal Maniacs’ a sedate stroll of hymn-like majesty claiming “we are all one tribe” and “true metal maniacs know how it feels, what’s for real, and what’s the deal”. For heavy metal is so much more than just music, it’s a feeling and a way of life! Long live heavy metal!
Hard-hitting with a more groove metal feel than any other song heard so far, ‘Heart In Pain’ is a thumper, punching through the air with immense force, breezing by with all the incredible melodious intent the album has shown from minute one song one. Now we all know that at heart Doro is a metaller and a rocker, turning her hand to thrash for the album Final Hurrah, the third cover song ‘The Four Horsemen’ by Metallica, taken from the band’s 1983 debut album ‘Kill ‘Em All’. Doro has been a huge Metallica fan since the mid-eighties when Warlock toured with them, recording ‘The Four Horsemen’ in honour of ‘Kill ‘Em All’s fortieth anniversary. Shelving the raw thrash attitude of the original, Doro has metallized ‘The Four Horsemen’, delivering a metal version that every non-thrasher, who never truly liked the Metallica original, will find very attractive.
Overall, a superb album of melodious heavy metal with plenty of surprise twists and turns, Doro has produced a stunning array of songs.
TRACKLIST
CD 1
1. Children Of The Dawn
2. Fire In The Sky
3. Living After Midnight (feat. Rob Halford)
4. All For You
5. Lean Mean Rock Machine
6. I Will Prevail
7. Bond Unending (feat. Sammy Amara)
8. Time For Justice
9. Fels in der Brandung
10. Love Breaks Chains
11. Drive Me Wild
12. Rise
13. Best In Me
14. Heavenly Creatures
15. Total Eclipse Of The Heart (feat. Rob Halford)
CD 2
16. Warlocks And Witches (Intro) (Bonus Track)
17. Horns Up High (Bonus Track)
18. True Metal Maniacs (Bonus Track)
19. Heart In Pain (Bonus Track)
20. The Four Horsemen (Bonus Track)
Doro: Facebook
Release Year: 2023
Label: Nuclear Blast Records
Category: Album
Country: Germany
Reviewed by Iron Mathew for Frenzy Fire and Metal-Roos.
