Originally released in 2000, CALLING THE WILD was and is a much more metal album than we would come to expect from Doro than the difficult period of writing that continued during the 1990’s. Full credit to Doro, she continued releasing music with different line ups and finally found a home again in 2000 with the interest in metal on the rise in the latter part of the 1990’s. The album does feature quite a high percentage of ballads. ‘White Wedding’ is a worthy Billy Idol cover and Lemmy appears in the ballad he wrote ‘Love Me Forever’ (also featured on Motorhead’s ‘1916’ album that was released in 1991). That’s not the only who’s-who on this album; Slash, Al Pitrelli and Eric Singer also appear. More rocking tunes happen in the form of ‘Kiss Me like a Cobra’ and ‘Now or Never’. As I mentioned earlier, the wealth of ballads on this album should not detract the listener from this release, and the German language heartfelt rendition ‘Danke’ just goes to prove how wonderfully sweet Doro’s voice can be, in conjunction with a persona as a true metal queen!
‘Calling The Wild’ comes with a bonus second CD opening with ‘Alone Again’, another track recorded with Lemmy on vocals, but with the addition of Eric Singer on drums and Bob Kulick. Then you get the total hard rocker ‘I Want More’ that stirs your senses and makes everything good in the world again. Five alternative mixes (six if you count the acoustic mix and seven if you take the original recorded version from the first disc!) of ‘Burn it Up’ feature as well. ‘Calling the Wild’ is a very good value for money package full of classic tunes.
FIGHT was released in 2002; At the time and still now, I feel this one tries to tap into a heavier and nu-metal market, but fails to hit the spot. Whilst the title track pulls it off without a hitch others just fall short of the finish line. There us a duet with Pete Steele (Carnivore/Type O Negative), who was popular at the time, on ‘Descent’, and this is surprisingly some folk’s favourite track from this album, I don’t personally see that. I have to say that the songs on Fight are not very memorable or appealing. Unless you’re talking about ‘Rock before You Bleed’, there has to be some form of metal cliché on a Doro album, come on, it just would not be the same! ‘Hoffnung’ (Hope) is another one of those sweet ballads that Doro does so well, but I am afraid to say, the bonus tracks on offer don’t really hold much excitement either, but it is cool to hear an acoustic cover version of the ‘Priest classic ‘Breaking the Law’ and a soul searching song in ‘Song for Me’.
Retrospective and re-issues are always tough; you have different emotions and thoughts from the first time you hear an album to a current listening experience or not. If you had to choose just one of these CD’s, buy ‘Call of the Wild’. But both re-releases are done in such a spectacular fashion (packaging and price wise) by SPV (thankfully back in business), there might be the burning need to buy ‘Fight’ also. These albums were not actually that hard to find still in their original formats and they were also released by SPV as a 2CD package together, but it gives newer fans a chance to get involved with some of Doro’s lesser known albums, these albums posses a few classic tunes featured in her vast live headline sets. These are two worthy packages, but only one real recommended purchase when you talk about the music on offer.
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