Another month, but I must carry on and hear my way through my pile of CDs. This week saw the return of a rather good band many thought was no more.
Doro: Fear No Evil
Doro Pesch has been a cornerstone of German heavy metal for 25 years, first with Warlock and for most of that time with her self-titled band. A new album is a celebration of all that is fun, a bit naff, and enjoyable about German heavy metal. She could be considered the female equivalent of the Scorpions with all that entails. Along the years she has released some good music and some dire (her cover of “Whiter Shade of Pale” is painful to these ears), but she consistently helped young German metal-heads through puberty. She is the German Lisa Dominique, Runaways, or Girlschool in a Rhinemaiden slightly terrifying to young men sort of way.
This album reminds a veteran of her 80s output both with and without Warlock. In fact as if to reminds us, the opening track is a corker called “Night of the Warlock.” She is obviously proud of her history in metal with the final track a nod to her fans entitled “25 Years.”
Some people refer to this sort of metal as “gumby” metal and po-po it. I think they can be snobs at times. Its fun heavy metal that is great to see live and proves that rockers can remain just as good even as they age. If you like your metal you could do far worse that enjoying a bit of Doro.
4Bitten: No More Sins
Yes, you read that right they are really called 4Bitten and clearly can’t tell how lame their name sounds to anyone not willing to use “text” speech in normal writing. This is a Greek/American band that doesn’t really work on so many levels, but is actually quite good and pump out solid hard rock grooves with aplomb.
The trouble is the leader singer does not really have the pipes to work with the tunes; it's pretty weak. When you try to hear the vocals the mix pretty much buries most of them so they all sound very samey. Another problem with the band is while they might have the chops to play, they don’t really have any songs to speak of. All of it just blends into one big ball of hard rock mediocrity. I really wanted to like this band, honestly, but just can’t find anything to get into here.
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