I honestly didn’t have high expectations from Doro’s new album. To be precise, I had no expectations at all as I think that for many years now – in fact since she signed with Nuclear Blast – she has fallen into a trap of recording typical metal tracks to such a point that I personally think she has lost her musical identity. It was something that we gradually saw happening already since “Fear No Evil” (the last album with AFM) but we still had hope. That’s how I got to listen to “Conqueress”.
First of all, the quality of the songs is clearly improved, the production is better and I can easily say that this is Doro’s most remarkable work in all her years with Nuclear Blast. For all of us who like her more hard rock aesthetic, there is once again no element that reminds us of the early/mid 90s but the bright spot on “Conqueress” is that we find at least 4 songs that remind us a bit of the aesthetics of “Calling The Wild” and “Fight”. That’s something, dammit! And for that alone “Conqueress” earns points. Of course, there are some moments (e.g. “Lean Mean Rock Machine”, “Love Breaks Chains”) that would easily make…Lt. Col. Podovsky say (as he did with Rambo): “this is embarrassing”! However, “Drive Me Wild”, “Rise”, “Best In Me” and “Fire In The Sky” are reminiscent of good old Doro. In fact, the cover of “Total Eclipse of the Heart” (duet with Halford) is quite good, too.
All in all, “Conqueress” is a good album and from me it gets positive marks. But that doesn’t mean I don’t always expect more from the Metal Queen, right? Let’s not forget, after all, that her last really great album was released more than 20 years ago…
Highlight: The bonus disc of the limited edition is absolutely atrocious…with the exception of the cover of “The Four Horsemen”.
