When Doro first made her appearance on the scene, she was a rarity; a woman front and center in heavy metal. The culture has evolved over the years for the better, and it is no longer highly of note when a band has less y chromosomes than members. Everyone in metal now, whether they know the history or not, owes a debt of gratitude to Doro for helping to open the door and make it acceptable for women to show that they can rock. But, paying our respects doesn't mean giving someone a free pass, and for all the good Doro has done, she also has more than her share of underwhelming music.
That was made all too clear when "All For Metal" was released as the first single from these two records. It was a song written for the sake of the video potential, a brag track that touts how metal Doro has always been. There were two major problems with it. 1) Anytime you have to tell people you're metal, it sort of makes the case you really aren't, and 2) The song wasn't metal! There was barely a guitar to be heard in the track. It was a complete farce to release a non-rocking song to tell people how your life is dedicated to rocking. I felt sorry for her after listening to that song. But we soldier on.
With two albums to digest, Doro is trying our patience. While I'm not a fan of the two releases spaced out by a couple of months trick, I'm also not a fan of two albums being dumped on us at the same time. It's really too much music to take in at once. I can't say with any certainty it does, but I imagine my opinion of these releases may very well subtract a few points because of this.
The records are not helped by a sub-standard production job. "Forever United" opens with "Resistance", where the guitars are so far back in the mix they are hard to hear, then goes to "Lift Me Up", where the chorus is overwhelmed by guitars that sound like they were pushed so far up they are clipping. Surely, after three decades in music, Doro should have a better handle on the music than to allow a producer to hamper her in this way. It can be difficult to get a shiny, slick mix that highlights everything, but getting a rough balance isn't hard at all. This production isn't good enough, sorry.
All of that is a shame, because Doro has charm. On softer numbers like "Lift Me Up" and "It Cuts So Deep", she delivers sultry vocals that stand out from what you usually hear, and make the songs rather compelling. They are, sadly, the minority here. We get eighty minutes of music across nineteen songs, and if I was pressed to say, there might barely be one full album of quality material here. Between the tepid rockers, the non-melodic ballads, and the inclusion of some truly awful gargling vocals on "If I Can't Have You - No One Will", these records are filled with bad ideas.
Truly, I don't know why Doro felt the need to release two records right now. There is no way to say both of these albums are good enough to warrant not cutting a bunch of songs from the run-time. If the best songs made up one forty minute record, it would be a fine enough Doro record to give it a passing grade. But trying to get through both of these records is a chore, and someone along the line was supposed to realize that. I hate to say it, but Doro got let down here by everyone, including herself. These records, combined, are simply not good enough.
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