Nearly 30 years since the Warlock debut, Dorothee Pesch is still one of the most respected, committed and talented women in her field, the undisputed Queen Of Metal.
Like Blackadder’s Queenie, she may have the body of a minute woman, but she has the heart and spirit of a bull, her style of punchy, emotional, anthemic German power metal has been finely honed over a prolific and ebullient career. She may not have released any solid-gold, classic albums, but every one contains at least a handful of classic tunes, she can always affect a moving ballad too.
This time it’s It Still Hurts, a wistful duet with Lemmy of all people, all husky slurred harmonies and lovelorn moans of longing. Storming motivational headbangers_ Raise Your Fist In The Air_, Rock Till Death, Grab The Bull and Take No Prisoner are crafty, spunky and rousing in the best Doro tradition, and her unique, impassioned voice is still phenomenal when she decides to set it to full pelt.
There are maybe three fillers unnecessarily padding the album out to 52 minutes, but Raise Your Fist is arguably Doro’s strongest record since the 80s.
