Doro Pesch was every red blooded rock fan's pin up girl during her time spent fronting German hard rockers Warlock way back in the good ol' 1980's.  Unlike many of her former band mates she's still plying her wares as a solo performer gaining deserved critical acclaim and fan adulation, and I'm pleased to say she's not lost one ounce of her vocal power or her fantastic good looks along the way.  So this is why here in 2012 I'm harping on about her latest release, the double disc collection 'Under My Skin: A Fine Selection of Doro Classics'

The set opens in style with one of her greatest commercial moments 'All We Are' a track recorded originally in 1987 on Warlock's 'Triumph and Agony' opus, this particular version is one recorded in 2007, still maintaining all the anthemic feel that the original oozed.  It then continues as strongly as it begins by doing exactly what it says in the album title by covering all aspects of the singer's illustrious career from 2006's 'You're My Family' and going right back to the 'Triumph and Agony' record for a neatly arranged rendition of 'I Rule The Ruins' featuring The Classic Night Orchestra before then slipping in the double whammy of 'Celebrate' and 'The Night of The Warlock' from the latter titled 2008 EP and also as part of the 'Fear No Evil' album.

The arrangements and vocal hooks on tunes such as 'Strangers Yesterday' and 'Walking With The Angels' are all pretty decent and quite possibly don't merit the credit they deserve right now, the latter track in particular is a wonderful emotive duet performed with Tarja Turunen (former singer of Nightwish).  It's then back once again to that aforementioned 1987 Warlock album and the track 'Metal Tango', which once again has been reworked, and once again our heroine is accompanied by The Classic Night Orchestra, this incredible winning formula also contributing a touching rendition of 'Fur Immer' a little later on Disc 1 and this is another beautiful reflection of a tune from Doro's glorious past.

Having the ability to bounce back and forth between full on rockers like 'Thunderspell' and emotional Euro ballads like 'Herzblut' (sang in her native German tongue) simply acts to highlight the pure strength of Doro's musical back catalogue and part of that canon of work is covered here in depth. I'm talking about Doro's 2006 'Warrior Soul' a release which offers up a good percentage of the tunes on this release with tracks such as 'Warrior Soul' and 'My Majesty' plus a number of other well selected numbers shining out, and in particular the numbers once again featuring The Classic Night Orchestra including 'Love Me In Black' 'Always Live To Win' and 'Let Love Rain On Me'

Disc two opens up with some gems lifted from the 2008 'Celebrate' EP and up first we get full metal female version of 'Celebrate' before it's time for 'Rescue Me', a song co-penned with Jean Beauvoir.  The set then continues in reflective mood with 'Rare Diamond' which is another haunting melodic and beautifully crafted tune and that atmospheric mellowness rides through the musical airwaves once more on 'Angel in The Dark' and the deliciously acoustic'1999'.

Doro's native tongue is obviously very important to her, and this comes into play again with 'In Liebe Und Freundschaft' and the heart felt 'Tausend Mal Gelebt' the latter featuring yet another wonderous arrangement by Doro and The Classic Night Orchestra. Doro then gets her leathers back on again and is rocking it to the roof with 'Wildfire' before it's time for her acoustic/orchestrated cover of Judas Priest's 'Breaking The Law', this being a firm favourite to anybody who's had the good fortune to catch Doro live in concert recently.

There's certainly no boundaries to Doro's musical talents with tunes such as 'She's Like Thunder' written by Doro for her friend, German female boxing champion Regina Halmich having been used by Halmich as an official theme before her performances.  This stunning collection of tunes closes with a mixture of rockers and ballads (now where have I heard that phrase used before?) in the shape of 'The Queen', 'You Won My Love' and 'Lonely Wolf'

A Fine Selection Of Doro Classics.... I'll second that!!!

http://www.doropesch.com/