Doro
Raise Your Fist

November 2012
Released: 2012, Nuclear Blast Records
Rating: 3.5/5
Reviewer: Waspman

Arguably the #1 woman in heavy metal, the venerable Doro has been keeping up a remarkably consistent release schedule for almost thirty years now (and that’s just her new releases - counting her compilations, EPs etc. is an exercise in futility!). I lost touch with her music over the last ten years or so…if I recall the last album I heard was the solid, if unspectacular CALLING THE WILD album. Still, few people, male OR female, fly the flag of metal as proudly as Doro, so she certainly deserves our continuing respect.



RAISE YOUR FIST is Doro’s eleventh solo album proper, and it follows her template exactly, so by now you know what you’re going to get: pure traditional heavy metal with passionate vocals and preponderance of ballads. Knowing that, this album will not disappoint. However, I’d argue that, initially at least, this album has some of Doro’s strongest song writing in some time. The first six songs are uniformly excellent. There are the mid-paced anthems like “Rock Till Death” and the title track, the near-speed metal of “Take No Prisoner” (nice English there…), and even a solid ballad (“It Still Hurts” – a duet with Lemmy). Sadly from there the quality drops off quite a bit as ballads and dull riffs overtake everything. Indeed, on the back half of the album, only the heartfelt tribute to Dio (“Hero”) and the vicious “Revenge” (the best song on the album!) make any impact.



As usual, the band is spot-on and Doro typically steals the show with her expected passionate vocals. It’s too bad that the riffs can’t keep up for the whole album. Still, there are eight damn good songs to be heard on RAISE YOUR FIST, making it worth checking out. Existing Doro fans can obviously buy with confidence.