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Doro: Raise Your Fist

Melodic Hard Rock/Metal

5.0/5.0

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Nuclear Blast Records
by Craig Hartranft,  10.10.2012

Perhaps still the reigning queen of melodic metal, Doro Pesch releases her seventeenth studio album Raise Your Fist, now on the Nuclear Blast label.

Doro: lovely in leather.

Here's the great things about Doro. (No, metal dude, I'm not going to start with the obvious, that she's attractive.) She's a great vocalist, easily covering the range between hard rock and metal without surrendering to modern trends of harsh vocals. She also knows metal, and knows that metal should be heavy and edgy, but also melodic and rock. These are the fundamental characteristics of every song on Raise Your Fist.

Doro admits she likes to favor, what she calls, 'power hymns.' These include Raise Your Fist in the Air, Rock Til Death, and Victory, by example. But there's also soaring power anthems like Engel, quite symphonic and majestic, Freiheit (Human Rights), quite passionate, and the soaring Free My Heart, an example of why we all love Doro's vocal power. And also a metal ballad, It Still Hurts, featuring Lemmy Kilmister, sounding more melancholy than you're used to. You get a nice mixture of rock groove with speedy metal in Revenge. Yet the signature Doro song here, which encapsulates those aforementioned characteristics, is Hero, her tribute to Ronnie James Dio. It's a magnificent song, both lyrically and musically, that defines her metal integrity and vocal style, and honors the man who influenced so many for those very same reasons. Kudos, a very nice finish to an exceptional album.

There's not much more to say than this: Raise Your Fist is premium Doro, and one of her finest albums. Don't miss it. Strongly recommended.

Note: All Amazon advertising in this review first benefits the artist, then Craig Hartranft also receives a residual. Click, and thanks for your support.

With Raise Your Fist, Doro reminds us why she is the still the reigning queen of melodic heavy metal, the standard by which other female metal vocalist should be judged. This is solid and entertaining Doro melodic metal.

Alphabetical Index

eviewing my archives, I was pleased to find that I have had the privilege to review every Lionville since their self-titled debut in 2011. Formed by Stefano Lionetti, a songwriter, singer and guitarist based in ... [ Read More ]