Doro Pesch is of course famous for her stint as singer with Warlock and now she has a successful solo career. Joining her on this album are Joe Taylor (guitar), Johnny Dee (drums), Nick Douglas (bass) and Oliver Palotai (guitar/keys). The title track starts the album with a crunching riffer and a screaming vocal from Doro. The metallic ‘Always Live to Win’ follows, not dissimilar to her old band Warlock. The ‘ballad’ with Type O Negative’s Pete Steele ‘Descent’ is next and Pete Steele has a deeper voice than Barry White! Very gothic in feel and very different from the rest of the album. Doro is accompanied by just a piano on the beginning of the haunting ‘Undying’, a real heartfelt vocal that proves Doro is more than a screamer style vocalist. The track ends with some neat guitar making this a standout track on the album.

‘Legends Never Die’ is a slow building power ballad that builds nicely into an epic ending. There are a couple of average songs - ‘Rock Before We Bleed’ and ‘Salvaje’, but they are still listenable and other people may like them. The driving rocker ‘Chained’ has a chanted chorus and sounds like a classic era Judas Priest tune – nice. Album closer is ‘Hoffnung’ is another quality power ballad, being a mix of English and her native German.

A solid album with plenty of variety to stand up to repeated plays. Doro manages to pull off mellower songs without losing the power and the metal tracks are very good. An album that deserves a place in any discerning rock fans collection.

****

Review by Jason Ritchie

£13.99

***** Out of this world | **** Pretty damn fine |
*** OK, approach with caution unless you are a fan |
** Instant bargain bin fodder | * Ugly. Just ugly