DORO: Fight

Produced by Doro Pesch, Dan Malsch and Chris Lietz

Released: 2002

Most of Doro’s albums have been almost overloaded with session players and special guests, so it’s rather refreshing to find that Fight was recorded using her long-standing live band. That isn’t to say there aren’t a few notables who make an appearance here, including Pete Steele and Chris Caffery on ‘Descent’ and songwriting legend Russ Ballard, who contributes guitar to ‘Wild Heart’, a track he also co-wrote, but it’s interesting to see what the German metal queen can put together without a phone book’s worth of outsiders cramming the studio.

The truth of it is, Fight is okay, and that's all. There’s nothing jaw-droppingly outstanding on here and while it won’t win awards for musical depth or originality, it does contain a few choice tracks of Doro’s trademark German-style melodic heavy rock. ‘Always Live to Win’, ‘Salvaje’ and the very catchy ‘Chained’ – which should be the first track, not tucked away near the end – stand out as good solid fist-pumping arena rockers, the sort that would turn the fields of Wacken into a sea of bobbing heads from the first chord. ‘Sister Darkness’ is also a belter with a fuzzy, thrashy guitar sound. In typical Doro fashion, there’s also a bunch of big-voiced power ballads, like the Gene Simmons-penned ‘Legends Never Die’ and the aforementioned ‘Wild Heart’, both of which aren’t too bad.

Fight’s twelve tracks pass by easily enough, but apart from ‘Chained’ and ‘Salvaje’ it doesn’t really grab you by the throat and will probably wear itself out after a few listens.

1. Fight
2. Always Live to Win
3. Descent
4. Salvaje (Untouchable)
5. Undying
6. Legends Never Die
7. Rock Before You Bleed
8. Sister Darkness
9. Wild Heart
10. Fight by Your Side
11. Chained
12. Hoffnung

Rating: 58%