Dogma return with new carnal ballad ‘Be Free’
The heavy metal nuns release their second single of 2025, offering a glimpse into another side of the sexually liberated glam rockers.
Photo: Press
If you’re unfamiliar with Dogma, they’re basically the bastard antichrist love child of metal favourites Powerwolf and Ghost. They’re often compared to the latter, particularly, due to Dogma’s religious themes in their music, as well as their appearance; full white face paint and ‘seductive nun’ regalia.
There’s actually some confusion about who exactly Dogma are (another trait they share with Ghost who, for much of their history, were anonymous). According to one very well-researched Reddit post, Dogma have had numerous line-up changes over the years, with more than one vocalist taking on the mantle of the group’s frontwoman, ‘Lilith’. Personnel differs from promotional picture to picture, and some have accused the group of being more a record label’s calculated brainchild than a group of like-minded, lifelong friends.
Regardless, Dogma has gained a bigger and bigger following over the years. In 2023, they released their self-titled debut, and a year later put out a metal cover of Madonna’s Like A Prayer. Now their latest offering, Be Free, is here, and it promises something a little different from the group’s norm.
Where their first record was full of poppy, glam-inspired riffs, explosive choruses and power metal melodies, Be Free is a softer ballad, building into a climactic ending while the song’s narrator describes, essentially, a wet dream. In that regard, the content is more akin to Dogma’s signature sound, which often deals with carnal lust and sexual freedom. “Went down with my hands / And touched my sinful zone” — the chorus of Be Free indeed resembles the same group who, on their only full-length release thus far, introduced us to hair metal anthems Forbidden Zone, Carnal Liberation and My First Peak.
Be Free, while an improvement on the group’s previous single, Banned, doesn’t share quite the same immediate, delectable hook as their other work, but it does allow the ladies in white face paint the chance to flex their artistic wings, and deliver a track closer to a biblical sermon than a shimmering orgy for the senses. Perhaps this is a new era for Dogma and, if the oft-compared-to Ghost are anything to go by, that can’t be a bad thing.
Be Free is out now via MNRK Records.