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DORO – Living Metal To The Fullest
Anthony Morgan
August 2018


Doro Pesch


Ian ‘Lemmy’ Kilmister, frontman of hard rock trio Motörhead, died on December 28th, 2015 at the age of 70 following a short battle with an extremely aggressive cancer. Lemmy’s passing acted as the catalyst for August 2018 double-album affair Forever Warriors, Forever United, the 13th full-length solo studio album from Düsseldorf, Germany-based metal vocalist Doro. The jaunt was originally not projected to consist of two discs.

“When Lemmy left us, I was so heartbroken,” Doro shares. “Lemmy was my best friend, and I went to the funeral. I was flying, and on the plane I got this idea to write a song for Lemmy to honour him, and to give thanks. It all came out at the same time, lyrics and melody, and it was the song ‘Living Life To The Fullest’. I thought ‘I want to record it right away,’ so I went to Hamburg and started working on that song with a great friend of mine. Andreas Bruhn was his name; he’s the ex-guitar player of The Sisters Of Mercy, and we have a long history of working together – at least 22 years. We did the last one, Raise Your Fist (July 2012), together. Many, many songs, and this duet with Lemmy – it was called ‘It Still Hurts’.

“I said ‘Andreas, I have this song for Lemmy. I want to record it right away,’ and so we started working. That was kind of like a wake up call. I thought ‘Man, you never know what will happen,’ like if you’re still alive in a year, or if the world will be still standing. I had this feeling that I wanted to do a new record now. I put all of my energy, heart and soul into it, and then suddenly we were songwriting. So many ideas came out; it was really an intense, creative phase, and then after a little while, I had like 45-50 songs. Then I called the record company and said ‘I would love to do a double album, because I have so many songs. Some of them have great potential.’ Then a couple of months ago, they called me back and said ‘Yeah, go for it. Do it.’ That’s the reason why it became a double album.

“I had so many songs that really had something to say, with great meanings, great melodies. It’s an album that’s full of anthems, and heavy songs, and fast songs. ‘Bastardos’ is one of the heaviest and fastest songs. We have a duet with Johan Hegg, which is called ‘If I Can’t Have You – No One Will’. It just came out as a video; I don’t know if you’ve seen it, but it came out really nice. Yeah, there’s some soulful songs, some ballads. We have many guests playing on it and singing, which always makes me so happy. I love it when people I love and who are heroes of mine participate – that always means a lot to me.

“We had Doug Aldrich playing great licks and solos on the song ‘Heartbroken’, and Johan Hegg from Amon Amarth was a duet partner on the song ‘If I Can’t Have You – No One Will’. Then the anthem was the first single, which was ‘All For Metal’.

“‘All For Metal’ reminds me a little bit of ‘All We Are’, and many people sing on it; Mille (Petrozza) of Kreator, Johan Hegg of Amon Amarth, Chuck Billy of Testament, Warrel Dane – who’s unfortunately not with us any more – Jeff Waters from Annihilator, the guys from Sabaton, Ross The Boss. My old guitar player from the Triumph And Agony album sings on it and plays licks and solos on it. All the songs were such a joy to make, but this one was probably the most fun because everybody sang on the top of their lungs. I had a big studio and recorded everybody, and there were video cameras. When we recorded more and more great guests, I thought ‘This feels so good. It should be the first single; it should be the first vibe of the new album.’”


Doro Pesch

The frontwoman isn’t drawn when requested to compare Forever Warriors, Forever United to previous solo efforts. “I like every single one for different reasons,” she muses. “I think every record had great songs on them, and so they’re still hard to compare. I love them all, and this time… God, there are 25 songs, which I couldn’t have put on a normal record, when you just have 12 songs and stuff. I put on two cover versions. One is ‘Lost In The Ozone’, a Motörhead song, which I love so much. ‘Don’t Break My Heart Again’, it’s a Whitesnake cover. Whitesnake were my first concert I ever saw live, which was in 1980. I was blown away by Whitesnake and David Coverdale; it was so awesome.

“I always thought ‘Man, I would love to let people know what I got hooked on, and what was inspiring to me,’ so these two cover songs are on the record. Normally I wouldn’t have put too many covers on, but this time I thought ‘Yeah, with 25 choices, that’s cool.’ There’s another song, which is in Italian. It’s the song ‘Caruso’, which is a very unique song. There are some personal songs on it, like ‘1000 Years’ and the song for Lemmy – ‘Living Life To The Fullest’. It’s a song for Lemmy; to give him thanks, and to honour him. The whole CD is dedicated to Lemmy Kilmister; in the CD booklet, it says that it’s dedicated to Lemmy Kilmister.

“On the one hand, it’s a very rocking, very metal album, but with some really soulful, personal songs on it, and the whole spectrum from super-hard to super, super-sensitive and soulful.”

‘Lost In The Ozone’’s original rendition was included on November 1993 Motörhead album Bastards, the track arguably a lesser known composition of theirs. “I love the lyrics, and I love the melody,” Doro exclaims. “I think that Lemmy was such a phenomenal lyricist, and I think in this song, man, it really shines through. I think the lyrics are so deep, so sad. Every time I was singing it, I had tears in my eyes. Tears were actually rolling down my cheeks, especially with the end of the song when he wrote the lyrics ‘I turned my face to God, but his face was turned away / Lost in the ozone, nothing left to say’. Man, it hit me so deep. I love that song; I think it’s so different, so unique. It’s not the obvious Motörhead song. I love songs of course like ‘Motörhead’ (from the August 1977 album of the same name) or ‘Killed By Death’ (from September 1984 compilation No Remorse), but I thought that I wanted to sing something which is very melancholic.

“For me, writing songs for this album, it really started with the song for Lemmy – ‘Living Life To The Fullest’ – to honour him. I thought that it should end with a Motörhead song before the bonus tracks came up, and that was very important to me because he was my best friend in the music world. Him and Ronnie James Dio were two I loved so much. I am friends with many, many musicians and singers, but Lemmy, he was the first one that I ever met in England. Actually, it was in 1984 I think. I couldn’t even speak English back then. We met in a pub, and it was by accident, actually. I had to do a little showcase in London, and then I met Lemmy in a pub because I had a couple of hours in-between sound checks and the show. We hit it off right away; we were smoking cigarettes and drinking whisky and Cola, and that was the start of a long, deep friendship.

“We played many times together, we worked together many times in the studio, and we did many duets together. And yeah, it was awesome. Lemmy was so unbelievable, and Ronnie James Dio as well. I had many great moments, shows, and tours together. One of my first big tours was in ’87 with Ronnie James Dio, and we toured for many, many shows in the UK. Unforgettable. Man, the world is not the same any more, especially with Lemmy and Dio leaving, and so many other great people. I think it’s tough. I started my first band when I was 16, and you don’t have any worries. Now, it’s hard when you see people leaving, and I think the whole world is very tough out there now. It never felt so hard in the 80s. It’s just no comparison.”

‘Don’t Break My Heart Again’ was an early hit for Whitesnake, meanwhile, lifted off of April 1981 LP Come An’ Get It. “Whitesnake was my very first concert I ever saw, which was in 1980,” the singer divulges. “My first band was called Snakebite, and we were big Whitesnake fans. Then we saw Whitesnake live, somewhere in Germany. Man, I was blown away. David Coverdale was so unbelievable; he was so mind-blowing as a singer, as a performer. And yeah, I loved Whitesnake even more after seeing them live, and I always loved that song ‘Don’t Break My Heart Again’. When I knew that we could do a double album, then I thought ‘I wanna sing one of my favourite songs.’ Then we tried it out, and I thought ‘Man, yeah. It feels good.’ I thought ‘Yeah, let’s put it on the album.’ I thought to not put it on as a bonus track, but to really put it on the album. It feels so good, and I still love David Coverdale. I still love all of my heroes that I grew up with in the 80s. I still love them so much, like David Coverdale and Dio. There are so many great singers that I still adore.”

Although a former Whitesnake member, Doug Aldrich appears elsewhere on Forever Warriors, Forever United. “‘Heartbroken’, we wrote a little while ago,” Doro informs. “I met Doug Aldrich at many festivals, actually, and one time he hopped onstage in Las Vegas. We played ‘Breaking The Law’ together, because I always love playing ‘Breaking The Law’ (originally on April 1980 Judas Priest album British Steel). That actually gives thanks to Judas Priest, who took us out on the road. It was my first big tour, in 1986. We were doing the song together, having a good time, and I thought ‘Man, Doug is playing so amazing.’ I said ‘Doug, when we do a new record, would you like to do a solo?’ He said ‘Yes. Just send me a sing you think would fit.’ A year and a half ago, we wrote the song ‘Heartbroken’.

“I wrote it with Andreas Bruhn. I said ‘Andreas, I think this could be a song which maybe Doug would be awesome on.’ So, I sent it to Doug, and then he said ‘Yeah, I love it. Let’s do it.’ He recorded the song maybe one year ago, whereas ‘Don’t Break My Heart Again’ was one of the last songs we did just a couple of months ago. I had to deliver the record, and the deadline was already set. I had three songs I wanted to do; they were ‘Lift Me Up’, ‘Don’t Break My Heart Again’, and ‘Caruso’ – the Italian song. We had like a couple of days left, so I couldn’t contact him to play another solo on ‘Don’t Break My Heart Again’. That would have been even more awesome, but then we said ‘Let’s do it.’ Andreas Bruhn, he played many solos on the album, and he did a great job as well.”

Tommy Bolan, former bandmate within Warlock and part of the line-up to feature on September 1987 magnum opus Triumph And Agony, completes the triumvirate of guitarists. “To quickly tell you a story, it was a year and a half ago,” the musician details. “I was told ‘Hey, the Triumph And Agony album is almost 30 years old,’ and so then I called Tommy and said ‘Tommy, we need to celebrate. Let’s do a couple of gigs.’ So, we did a couple of gigs together; one festival was Sweden Rock last year, and then Norway Rock. We were talking and talking. We jammed a little bit in our hotel rooms, at five o’clock in the morning. By seven o’clock, we had to leave to take a plane, but we were jamming, and then the song ‘If I Can’t Have You – No One Will’ came out. We wrote it, and then I said ‘Tommy, I think Johan Hegg would probably be awesome on it.’ He has a really rough, dark voice, which is really cool, and so I sent it to Johan. I said ‘Johan, hey, here. This is a demo. Would you like to maybe write the lyrics to the verses on it?’ He said ‘I’d love to,’ so we did the song all together – Tommy, Johan, and me – and it was written by us three.

“Tommy is playing on ‘Turn It Up’, and he’s singing at the end of it as well; at the end of ‘Turn It Up’, that’s Tommy singing. He plays all of the solos and the licks, and on ‘All For Metal’, Tommy is singing and playing licks and solos, as well as Andreas. Andreas Bruhn is playing on many, many songs – sometimes rhythm guitars, sometimes licks – but Tommy, he’s doing all of that wired stuff. High energy stuff, that’s Tommy, and he’s now a guest at many shows. We just played at Wacken together a couple of days ago, and we played in France at a festival. I’m very excited, and so yeah. We have three guitar players, so there’s a lot of solos and shredding.”

‘If I Can’t Have You – No One Will’ was augmented by a music video, helmed by David Havlena. “David Havlena is now a great friend of ours, from the Czech Republic,” Doro tells. “He did both videos, by the way; ‘If I Can’t Have You – No One Will’, ‘Lift Me Up’ which is a lyric video, and ‘All For Metal’. I told him about the story, and then Johan did his part. I did my part, and then this story of these two little kids who loved each other when they were little, that got filmed in the Czech Republic. We went to all kinds of old ruins in Germany, and then Johan filmed stuff in Sweden. I think it came out really beautiful, and I love it. It’s like this dark, possessive love story which probably many people can relate to. I sure can relate when I was a teenager; many times I was in love, and I couldn’t get over a break-up. All of these feelings, like ‘If I can’t have you, then no-one will,’ it’s deeply emotional stuff. Some love stories do not work out.”

‘All For Metal’ video consists of a live performance interspersed with photographs. “We filmed all of our guests for ‘All For Metal’ last summer at Wacken and Summer Breeze, and the last person who was filmed was…,” the lyricist begins. “We actually had a festival in the wintertime, and that last person was Chuck Billy of Testament; he was the last one we asked to be a part of the video, and on the song. I just talked to all of my friends. Bands I toured with or was longtime friends with, like Mille of Kreator, who I’ve known him for a long time. We actually started at the same time. When Kreator started, Warlock started, and we are actually from the same label as well. We have a lot of things in common, too. We experienced the beginning of when metal became big and stuff, and that was so cool, him singing and being in the video. Johan Hegg, he’s singing in the video.


Doro band (l-r): Johnny Dee, Nick Douglas, Doro Pesch, Luca Princiotta and
Bas Maas

“That was before we even wrote the song ‘If I Can’t Have You – No One Will’, and it came about because I was a guest at shows by Amon Amarth at Wacken last year. At the Summer Breeze festival, they wanted to film a DVD, and so I was just a guest for this one song. Then I had time to walk around to talk to everybody, to talk to all of my friends. I saw Warrel Dane at Wacken, and we were always great friends. We toured together in 1988 in the States, and we always maintained a great friendship as well. I asked him what he was doing. He said ‘I’m working on new songs.’ I said ‘I’m working on new songs as well. I have a demo with me. Do you want to check it out?’ So, I played him ‘All For Metal’, and that’s how it came about. Then we recorded Warrel Dane on video, and I always had a little portable recording studio with me.

“That’s great, in this day and age, that there’s great technology and that you can have a little portable recording studio. Jeff Waters was there, from Annihilator. I asked him if he wanted to sing on it, so there’s Johan, Mille, the guys from Sabaton, and many other great guests. Ross The Boss is singing on it (Ross Friedman, ex-Manowar), Rock ’N’ Rolf from Running Wild (Rolf Kasparek), and many, many fans as well. That was all recorded at Wacken, as well. The people you see diving into the mud, that’s all from Wacken last year, from when it was raining. This year, we played a couple of days ago. It was hot, and God, it was unbelievable, but last year there was a lot of rain. That’s how we filmed the fans. That was done by David as well, from the Czech Republic. He’s a great photographer as well – he’ll probably do another video as well. He’s really cool and nice, and great to get along with. He has a really good eye. I love it.”

Doro’s 13th solo record is a tale of two halves, to return to the topic as a whole. “I think Forever Warriors is maybe a little bit harder, a little bit heavier,” Doro describes. “It has heavier songs on it like ‘Bastardos’, which is a very heavy, fast song, and more anthems. Forever United is maybe a little bit more soulful and more melodic, and there are some very personal songs on it as well. I would say that Forever Warriors is a little bit heavier and the other one is a little bit more melodic, but I love them both the same. I love every single song. It’s hard to compare them, but I think that they both have the same quality. It’s just that Warriors is maybe a little heavier, and United is maybe a little more personal and has more of a united feeling – like the songs for Lemmy, which are very personal and emotional.”

Forever Warriors, Forever United encompasses a wide variety of topics. “With all of these 25 songs, I think each song is different, and can stand on its own,” the vocalist affirms. “There’s different topics, from political stuff to personal stuff, to soulful stuff, to heartbreaking stuff, for example. There are feel good anthems like ‘All For Metal’ or ‘Turn It Up’, which could empower people and which would make them feel good. There’s some heavy lyrics like ‘If I Can’t Have You – No One Will’, which is the darker side of a love story and maybe a follow-up to our last song. ‘A Dream That Cannot Be’, on the Amon Amarth album Jomsviking (March 2016), that was kind of the same story, but every song is different.

“‘Soldiers Of Metal’, that was actually the raw title for this album. It’s a personal story for the fans that I wanted to tell in that as long as they want to hear and see it, I will always soldier on. I will always be a soldier of metal, and dedicated to the fans, and dedicated to the music forever. That was a song which I sent to our graphic artist Geoffrey Gillespie. I told him the raw title of the album, like ‘Please design something great for the new album.’ I wanted to have it a little bit in a Mad Max style. I don’t know if you’ve seen the movie Fury Road (2015). It was so awesome. Yeah, a little bit in that vein, and then the album cover came back and I thought ‘This is so awesome.’ Now though, I have two records, which is the reason why I changed the title to Forever Warriors, Forever United. However, ‘Soldiers Of Metal’ is still one of my absolute favourite songs on this new album; I think it has most beautiful melodies, and is very sincere, very soulful.”

Recording sessions for Forever Warriors, Forever United were “a joy,” Doro exclaims. “It was an absolute joy to record, and we had so much fun in the studio. It felt really free, and there was no pressure. We were just banging out the songs, and enjoying it. We had a little co-producer. It was this little dog; his name was Spike, and he was a French bulldog. He gave us such good energy in the studio; even when we were dead tired from working day and night, the little dog was jumping up and down, eating all of the cables, eating my shoelaces, and eating my leg sometimes when I was singing.


Doro Pesch

“It hurt like hell, but I thought ‘I don’t want to stop’ because the take was a good take. Then after singing the take, I told our engineer I said ‘The dog is eating my leg.’ He said ‘Oh, he’s just playing.’ I said ‘He’s playing pretty hard, because I’m bleeding.’ He said ‘Oops.’ That wasn’t so cool, but it’s all for metal. Blood, sweat, and rock ’n’ roll. It did hurt a little bit, but I thought for a soldier of metal, that’s okay. So, it was really a joy. We had a great time.

“It took about two-and-a-half years. We had some songs before, but really the initiative was writing the song for Lemmy. ‘Living Life To The Fullest’, that’s where everything started. I said ‘Man, I wanna give it all I’ve got. I wanna do as good as I can.’ Suddenly, I had a reason for doing another record, because you never know what will happen. Suddenly, I felt that time isn’t forever. I thought ‘I wanna give it my all.’ Of course, I want to do many, many more records, but this time I felt it was kind of a wake-up call with Lemmy. I was sitting down, and I thought ‘Yeah, I wanna seriously work now on a new record.’

“I didn’t have that feeling before. I was writing some songs here and there, and yeah, some cool tunes came out. When it happened with Lemmy though, then it got serious. I thought ‘Yeah, man. I wanna sit down, and I wanna write more music,’ which will hopefully be meaningful to people, and what they will love. The song for Lemmy, to me that was the most important thing; to feel close to Lemmy, and to do something when I had the feeling that everything was lost, that everything wasn’t the same any more. I thought ‘Yeah, I wanna write a song to just feel connected to Lemmy.”

Although Lemmy’s passing acted as the catalyst for Forever Warriors, Forever United, it would be remiss not to touch a little more on former Sanctuary and Nevermore vocalist Warrel Dane, who makes a posthumous appearance. Warrel passed away in São Paulo, Brazil on December 13th, 2017, succumbing to a heart attack. “He was one of my great friends,” the frontwoman remembers. “We toured together in 1988, which was when our friendship started. It was a big, long tour in America; it was with Sanctuary and Megadeth and Warlock, and that’s when we first met. We got along so great; he always came to visit me, and I visited him.

“He came to my anniversary shows; he was one of the guests with the longest flight, when we celebrated our 25th anniversary. He came from Seattle; he had to change his plane three times – I think the whole trip took 35-50 hours. He came there to just sing one song with us, and to celebrate with us. I thought that that was so awesome. I met him many times at festivals, and he was one of the sweetest people I knew. Very, very talented.”

Forever Warriors, Forever United was released on August 17th, 2018 via Nuclear Blast Records.

Interview published in August 2018. All individual Doro promotional photographs by Jochen Rolfes. Doro band promotional photograph by Tim Tronckoe.

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