Doro Pesch is well known for one thing, being a hot, confident vocalist within the heavy metal genre. Starting out in the German group Warlock, Doro achieved some notoriety, most notably some video coverage on MTV (again, mainly because she was a talented hot vocalist with some decent musical companions), but her real claim to fame in the metal scene has been her long career as a solo artist. Her popularity has been fairly consistent in Europe, more specifically in her home country of Germany, and because she has sustained her career for so long, she has kind of gained a legendary status in the metal community. Personally, I think Doro Pesch is one of the most over-rated vocalists in all of heavy metal. She has a leathery vocal style which fits the style well, but she isn’t a very good singer, let’s be honest. She is a figurehead for women in metal (always appears as the token female metal singer in documentaries, right?), and basks in the reception she receives by carrying on with the sexy she-devil gimmick. Now, from what I have discovered about Doro, she seems to be a very down to Earth individual who is genuinely into music, but whether its her or her label that promotes this image of the sexy, bad ass metal chick is irrelevant, because the bottom line is the records she puts out largely suck. Consisting of boring rock anthems celebrating the glory of metal, Doro plays on subject matter in such a tired way that she sounds like she crawled out of the 80’s kicking and screaming. I consider myself to be a proponent of all types of metal, including so called “80’s metal,” but sometimes you need to innovate your sound in order to maintain relevancy. Doro and her band may have the talent to make barebones metal riffs that would have passed as good in 1982, but doing the same shit in 2009 is disastrous as far as I’m concerned.

Fear No Evil is simply awful, in fact, it might very well be the worst widely distributed metal album I have heard this year. It’s repetitive and painfully slow. “Caught in A Battle” literally has the same riff for the entire song with drums that sounds almost synthesized because of horrible production values! Doro repeats the same lyrics over and over and over again…..guh! I feel like someone just hit me in the face with a sack of shit! There is not one song worth the CD is was printed on. This is all crusty, dust laden rusted over crap with ZERO sense of innovation and progression. Even the token metal bands to pick on, Judas Priest and Iron Maiden have progressed with the times. They play the same style, but they add fresh takes on their style instead of recycling the same riffs over and over again. Doro and whomever helps write for her need to stop, because its clear they don’t have the creativity to write an album that is relevant in a world that literally has so many  great albums coming up from the underground that will never get their day in the sun because crap like Fear No Evil are filling up stage time on Wacken or being pushed to European fans who are probably as weary of this crap as I am.

Doro, you were once an asset to metal, but unless you can come up with something that speaks to the people, there’s no point in competing with younger, vibrant bands who can play your style of music FAR better.

BLASPHEMY!

Similar Artists: W.A.S.P., Accept, U.D.O., Pretty Maids

1.    The Night Of The Warlock
2.    Running From The Devil
3.    Celebrate
4.    Caught In A Battle
5.    Herzblut
6.    On The Run
7.    Walking With The Angels
8.    I Lay My Head Upon My Sword
9.    It Kills Me
10.    Long Lost For Love
11.    25 Years

Doro Pesch – vocals
Nick Douglas – bass
Joe Taylor – guitars
Johnny Dee – drums
Oliver Palotai – keyboards, guitar
Luca Princiotta – keyboards, guitar

AFM Records

http://www.doromusic.de/

http://www.myspace.com/doroband

Review by CODY