INTERVIEW: Doro is the ‘Conqueress’ of heavy metal
Photo: Doro’s new album is called Conqueress: Forever Strong and Proud. Image courtesy of Doro / Provided by Metalville with permission.
Doro, the legendary metal singer from Germany, is gearing up for a banner year in 2024. She’s still beaming over the success of her most recent album, Conqueress: Forever Strong and Proud, which is out now from Nuclear Blast Records, and she’s charting an extensive tour in the coming months, with more dates to be announced soon.
Doro Pesch has been in the music business for four decades, according to press notes, starting way back in 1983 with Warlock’s debut album, Burning the Witches. That recording introduced the world to Doro’s vocal ascendancy, and she has never looked back. There have been numerous recordings ever since, including a self-titled album produced by Kiss’ Gene Simmons, True at Heart, Angels Never Die and Love Me in Black.
The new album features such tunes as “Children of the Dawn,” “Time for Justice,” “Bond Unending” and “I Will Prevail.” There are also two duets with Judas Priest’s Rob Halford. One is a cover of Priest’s “Living After Midnight,” and the other is a cover of Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart.”
“The last year was killer, so no complaints,” Doro said in a recent phone interview. “I’m so happy. I think the fans they really love it, and for me the icing on the cake was, of course, the two duets with Rob Halford. Wow, over the moon happy and grateful.”
Doro said that she worked on the album for three years. Originally, the recording company was pitching her on nine or 10 songs for the entire project, but the singer wanted more. After all, it’s her 40th anniversary in the music business.
“I definitely wanted 15 songs,” she said. “It’s my 40th anniversary coming up, and the digibook now has 20 songs. I think in America the version is just out with the 15 songs, but the real album has 20 songs. I think they’re all killer. They came out great. We released five singles before the album release and five videos, and we have two more videos in the making for ‘Lean Mean Rock Machine’ and ‘True Metal Maniacs.’ That’s on the bonus disc. … I’m very happy. Three years, it was great.”
Doro admitted that the recording process was not always easy. The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted many of her plans, and much of the recording had to take place in different studios, with the musicians separated from the engineer for safety’s sake.
“But we could make it work no matter what,” the heavy metal singer said. “We got some new blood on the record. My bass player and me we wrote two songs together, [including] ‘Children of the Dawn,’ which is one of my favorites. … The growl vocal, that is actually our bass player. I think that’s a nice new flavor, and many songs I did with my old partner in crime, Andreas Bruhn. He’s the ex-guitar player of Sisters of Mercy, and we worked together in 1996. And we’re still a great team.”
The recording of Conqueress took place all over the world, in studios located in Germany, Florida, New Jersey, New York and England. Angus Neap, producer and guitarist for Judas Priest, helped Doro with the recording of Halford’s vocals. Neap even mixed “Total Eclipse of the Heart.”
One of the singer’s favorite tunes is “Children of the Dawn.” In fact, she wanted the song to be the first single, but she was convinced to take a different route.
“It has an epic feel to it,” she said of “Children of the Dawn.” “The melody, the chorus, the whole song, I love it so much. That was my choice for the first single, but then everybody said, ‘No, ‘Time for Justice’ because it has a powerful message, and that’s good for this day and age.’ So I said, ‘OK, yeah, OK.’ I love ‘Time for Justice,’ too, but ‘Children of the Dawn,’ I always wanted to have that as the single and the video. And then it became single #4, so I was very happy. I always loved that song, the whole vibe and melody. That’s really why it’s the opening track.”
When Doro tours in 2024, music fans should expect the classic Doro and Warlock tunes, plus some of the new Conqueress material. She tested the songs out at a couple concerts she performed in 2023, including memorable sets in Düsseldorf, Germany, her hometown, and at Wacken Open Air.
“We did two big shows in Germany in Wacken at the festival with many, many guests like Udo Dirkschneider and Joey Belladonna and Fit Campbell and Mikkey Dee of Motörhead, now Mikkey’s in Scorpions,” Doro said. “We did two awesome [shows] … one in Wacken and one in my former hometown, Düsseldorf, and we had other guests in Düsseldorf like Alissa White-Gluz of Arch Enemy. She flew all the way in from Canada. And Angela Gossow, the ex-singer of Arch Enemy, she was there … and Mille Petrozza of Kreator and many great, great guests. So we celebrated big, and we played ‘Children of the Dawn’ for the first time. Fans loved it, and we played ‘Time for Justice’ a couple times. The new songs seem to work really well in the set list.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Doro’s new album is Conqueress: Forever Strong and Proud. Click here for more information.
