With her latest release “Raise Your Fist”, the legendary metal female icon Doro returns to the scene full of energy and good intentions. The thirteen songs included on this album showcase a great passion for metal and a wide range of classic rock/metal guitar riffs. The opening track “Raise Your Fist In The Air” is a straight to your face metal anthem. Doro’s vocals are harsh in true rocker style, the chorus is a little redundant while the lead guitar offers a great musical support with a super dirty sound and loads of shredding. “Take No Prisoner” and “Little Headbanger” follow the same exact style and could end up being repetitive.
“Coldhearted Lover” is less dynamic with slower rhythm breakdowns. The chorus and the main old school guitar riffs are certainly catchy but not very original.
“It Still Hurts” is a well composed ballad that will grab the listeners’ attention immediately due to the excellent vocal duet featuring Lemmy from Motorhead. Doro and Lemmy succeed in the creation of a passionate performance that fits the melancholic atmosphere while the songwriting is quite simple and accessible to a wide audience. “Engel” has a romantically symphonic appeal. The main catchy melodic piano theme is emphasized by classic keyboards layers which also create a dramatic atmosphere. Doro’s vocals add a huge dose of tragic passion well accompanied by a highly melodic pleasant guitar solo.
Doro delivers a similar performance on the other romantic semi ballad “Hero” which features exquisite guitar melodies but the songwriting here is more predictable than “Engel”.
“Free My Heart” is another powerful and touching ballad with a lovely keyboards arrangement. Here Doro switches between raspy rock and clean vocals and delivers a highly emotional performance.
“Grab The Bull (Last Man Standing)” features Gus G from Firewind on guitar. This is a mid paced track rendered more aggressive by Doro’s strong screams. Gus G enriches the standard songwriting style by delivering a killer guitar solo filled with high quality shredding and creativity.
“Raise Your Fist” certainly doesn’t bring exceptional novelties in terms of songwriting but it’s a well organized album that will please Doro’s fans and classic metal lovers in general.