Fear No Evil, As Doro Speaks Out!!!

Doro is known as the 'Metal Queen', as Rob Halford maybe the 'Metal God', but there is no doubt that Doro is is defiantly the queen of Heavy Metal. Doro Pesch has been creating some awesome music since the early 80's with her previous metal act 'Warlock', who released several albums though Vertigo records and had lots of success. To me their finest album had to be 'Hellbound', their 2nd releases in 1985. The bands debut album 'Burning The Witches' in 84 saw the band about the unleash some positive hard hitting Heavy Metal music. The band went on to record a further 2 album 'True As Steel' 1986 and 'Triumph & Agony' in 1987, before calling it a day, which was a damn shame really. Doro however, decided to go alone and form her own band and their debut album 'Force Majeure' in 1989 which was soon followed by 'Doro' in 1990 and a further 7 studio albums followed, as well as some compilation albums and 3 DVDs. Now the queen of metal is back with her new album 'Fear No Evil', which is soon to be released in 2009. I managed to speak to the 'Metal Queen' herself about the new album and what the future hold for her. Here is what she had to so. I started asking Doro just how successful the last album 'Warrior Soul' was for you?

"Hi Jason, great speaking to you again, it's been a while hasn't it? Well the last album did really well actually. I think it was one of the most successful albums I have recorded in the last 15 years. There was also a movie which I played a part in too, and I don't think it came out in the UK, as it had sub titles. Because of the movie the album got a lot of attention and we did 2 long American tours for that album, and I started work on the 'Fear No Evil' album last September 2008, whilst we were still touring for the last album. I had songs like 'You Are My Family' and 'Warrior Soul' which were really good songs. The song 'You Are My Family' was especially good because my fans are like my family and it is so true!!"

The movie you played in wasn't shown here in the UK, so just how long was you in the film for?

"I got the main female part and it was a great film to do. I came into the film after about 20 -30 minutes of the film and I had a lot of fun making that film. It wasn't a big Hollywood film and it was a independent film but like I said I had a lot of fun making it. I hope to make another film with him as we are still in contact with one another. I do it for fun and music is my life, so I will never stop playing music."

You also released yet another live DVD titled '20 Years A Warrior Soul', which is fantastic, great value for money!! You always do great DVD's don't you? Tell me a little bit about the last DVD please.

"Yes it is great value and thanx for you're kind words. We are working on a new DVD right now. It is the 25th anniversary show and and it was done in my home town of Dussoldorf , and it was the longest show we have done. I think it will be out at the end of the year, and it has people from various bands on it joining us on stage such as The Scorpions, Warrel from Nevermore, Axle Rudi Pell, some ladies of metal on their too and my old band members from Warlock and many more... We did a Warlock set for about 30 minutes and the stage set was the home of the Warlock, which had old ruins of a castle and the warlock came on stage which is a big sculpture which took 9 months to make. We wrote a song called 'The Night Of The Warlock', which was one of the highlights. It was filmed on the 13th of December 2008 and many fans from all over the world attended with flags from various countries with about 8000 people turning up for the show, it was great!!"

Let's talk about the new album 'Fear No Evil', why the title and did you have any other titles in mind?

"Well when I sang the song 'Night Of The Warlock' I had a line in the song that hit me really deep and I thought it maybe a good album title for the next album. We did have many albums titles but this one just stood out for us. I spoke to the guy who did the album cover and I told him about the cover and he came up with the cover. He has been working with me for a number of years now. He called me and told me that he had a great idea for the album cover and so he went along and created the cover we have now. I thought the title has a positive message but it also still sounds metal!! We had so many titles and when you're writing an album your attitude can change so that also reflects within a title for the album. I wanted a more metal sounding title for this album."

I have noticed that you're album covers have some fantastic artwork, lots of detail. Do you enjoy having yourself painted on the front covers of the albums?

"Yea I love it!! Geoff my artist is from the UK and he lives in France, and I always go by my instinct and sometimes I do classic black and white pictures or photos. The artwork took about a couple of months to do and I love it!!"

So how does the album title reflect within the music of the album?

"I think with the last few years it seemed to be a hard fight and and I feel that the title has a positive message were you can fear nothing and just go for it. It's like moving on in life, to move forward and fear nothing. I think the title does reflect well within the music for this album."

So how long did it take to write this new album? Was most of the album wrote whilst on tour for the last album?

"When I am on tour I always like to come up with ideas, and so I write them down in a scratch book and I usually need about 2-3 wks on my own to think about more ideas, and I don't talk to people at all, I isolate myself. There were 3 songs on the album that are very important to me, they are 'Celebrate' because we will be celebrating the 25th anniversary and I wanted to write a song which was like 'True As Steel'. Also with the song 'Night Of The Warlock', which needed a long intro and with a sing along part and then the song 'Walking With The Angels', which is about positive power and angel power. They were the first 3 songs that I wrote for the new album and later on everything else just came into place. I worked with the ex guitarist from 'Sisters Of Mercy', and we have known each other since 96 and I called him and tell him I had a couple of ideas that I wanted to put to him. We did the song 'Caught In A Battle' together and 'Running From The Devil', and they went really well. Some songs were wrote with the band and some were wrote by myself. The album was recorded in Pennsylvania (U.S.) and in Hamburg (Germany) and Bochium (Germany)."

Was the album difficult to record as you seemed to of used 3 separate studios? Did the band also contribute to writing the music?

"Actually I much prefer working in different studios for one album. I don't feel like I am stuck in one place all the time and or even 1 country. I also think that each song should get the treatment that they deserve. I wrote a song called 'Herzblut' which means in German, (Herz - means Hard) and (Blut  - means Blood), so it is a song that means you give it all with your soul and don't stop until it is done. Yes the band did, only a couple of songs."

Do you play any instruments when you are writing and preparing the next album?

"Yes I play the piano and my ideas come from that and I usually have a tape recorded to get some of the ideas on tape so I can write the lyrics. I will either then go to the band or to Andreas to check out my ideas. In the 80's we did it the other way around."

Is the band line-up still the same since the last album?

"Yes it is, nobody has left the band."

As you have enlightened me with some of the song titles and meanings, what are the rest of the songs on the album called and what are they about?

"Well like I said 'Night Of The Warlock' is a good old fashion 80's old school song with intro and sing along chorus and next is 'Running From The Devil', which is a little bit more modern and it's about nobody having a clue that other people are destroying our planet and the devil is within you and so you don't have to run away because you're running from yourself. Next is 'Celebrate', which is a single in 3 different versions, one had Biff from Saxon on it, the other had fans on it and the 3rd one with all the ladies in metal. The 3rd one has people like Tanja ex Nightwish, Holy Moses singer, After Forever, Arch Enemy, Bendictum, Girlschool and many more.. I wanted to have Lita Ford on this recorded, but I could not get a hold of her, her old number doesn't work anymore which would of been great to have her on this single. I went to see Girlschool in London and I gave the demo to them for them to check it out and they liked what they heard and so they wanted to play on this record. On the album version all 3 are on it. You will be able to see this when the next live DVD comes out later this year. The other song titles on the record are: On The Run, I Lay My Head Upon My Sword, It Kills Me, Long Lost For Love, and 25 Years."

So how do you see this album as a progression from the last one?

"Well I feel that this album is a little bit harder, and I think 'Caught In A Battle' is a anti war song and one of the heaviest songs we have done in the last 25yrs. So I think this album is a little more metal, whereas I think 'Warrior Soul' was a little bit more mellow. this album also has some double bass drumming which makes it a lot more heavier, and I think it is a little bit more aggressive. On the new album there are 2 bonus songs, 1 of which is a heavy song called ' Wild Fire' and the other is called 'You Want My Love'."

Would you ever consider going back to the really heavy stuff that you did with Warlock, like the 'Hellbound' album?

"I think that the new album is pretty much in that vein and with Warlock we even had ballads. I try to play what is best for me and the fans and I think on the new album this has a good spectrum between heavy songs and some ballads too. (ED: I love the 'Hellbound album') Wow I can't believe you like that one over the 'Triumph & Agony' album or 'Burning The Witches'. I am so happy that you like that album by Warlock, not many people like that one, so thank you Jason."

How well have your reviews been for the new album from the international press?

"Yes the reviews have been overwhelming and a lot of people were happy because the single 'Celebrate' went into the Spanish charts were we never had a single in the charts at number 20 and then number 5 and then number 3. This was great for me and the band and this was not even in the metal charts, just the commercial charts. The album has been getting great reviews so far too, so far so good!! I am a happy baby!!"

So when do we expect to see Doro playing the UK once again? You also played the 'Hard Rock Hell' festival last year, how was that for you?

"Yeah we did play the 'Hard Rock Hell', shame you were not there Jason!! That was a great festival and we got some great reviews from that show. I think we are coming back in April 2009 to the UK with another band but it's not confirmed yet.  If it doesn't work out with the other band (who I cant tell you who it is yet) then we will come over to the UK alone."

So what are the future plans for Doro then?

"Well we will be touring when the album is released, going to new countries that we have not play in before. A couple of weeks ago we played in China and it was awesome. The fans have never seen us before so they went wild and the police didn't like it much but towards the end of the show they were getting into it and head banging too haha!! We filmed it so we want to ad this to the next DVD as bonus material. We did 2 shows and at one of the shows there were about 12-15000 people there which was awesome!!!"

Well Doro, thank you for calling me, it's always a pleasure speaking and meeting you. I hope to see you soon in 2009. Do you have anythign to say before we finish? Say hi to the band from me.

"Well thank you Jason for taking your time out and for doing this interview, I am sure we will meet again soon. To my fans, I love you all and thank you for your support over the last 25 years. I hope you like the new album, take care xx"

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