Another year, another Doro album and at this point it’s a bit like a pudding after a good meal – You know you will enjoy it but hardly essential

Conqueress: Strong and Proud follows the same template laid down with her debut album Force Majeure (34 years ago!) with a mix of old school heavy metal, ballads and the odd duet/cover all housed in artwork that is so distinctively Doro. 

At 15 songs it’s far too long. I never need to hear the awful Lean, Mean Rock Machine, a sort of hackneyed metal version of Greased Lightning with some terrible lyrics or the butchered Total Eclipse of the Heart duet with Rob Halford ever again.

There is still some great fun to be had – The rollicking All for You or the naggingly catchy Bond Unending for example.

There is also a much better duet with Rob Halford on Living After Midnight. You can clearly hear the enjoyment both are having with the song as they trade lines.

For someone celebrating 40 years in the business, Doro’s voice is still in fine form 

Never going to be album of the year but I still wouldn’t miss out on it.

 Now this is fun – The latest album from the musical chameleon that is Myrkur.

Spine, like her previous works, is almost another change in musical direction but still with that DNA that links all her releases.

9 track and only 38 minutes long it’s a short but thrilling ride.

The black metal of the first couple of albums has almost been fully done away with except for occasional traces (the short burst of blast beat drums in Like Humans or the metal shrieks as backing vocals in Mothlike) and the folk influences are a lot less noticeable

A lot of the songs put that gorgeous voice front and centre with the music built around it - See the stunning piano ballad of My Blood is Gone for example. 

Like Humans is a perfectly formed pop song and those synths in Mothlike are as catchy as hell but both songs still have those eccentricities you only get with Myrkur.

Valkyrienes Sang is the closest track musically to old school black metal but topped with those clean crystalline vocals rather than the screams of yore.

A word also about the artwork which is just so beautiful.

Another album of the year contender 

 An odd review as I’m still not sure about the album. The Fell is the latest from Snow Ghosts and described as a collection of “old folk songs that were never written” which is as good as a description as you could give.

So, it’s folk but with the electronic ‘strangeness’ that the band have bought to their previous releases. It’s very atmospheric and a really pleasurable listen (especially with headphones) especially the pulsing Curse and the swirling electronica of Magpie

But:

Give it an hour or so and I struggle to recall any individual tracks, just a memory that I enjoyed it.

Possibly because of trying to tie all the songs into a theme it loses out on individuality, but I’m just not sold on the album as I have been with previous offerings.

It’s strange and I can’t put my finger on the problem, but I will persevere with it.