review: Faithful Breath (Germany) -- classic party Viking metal from the 1980s

Faithful Breath

Skol (Re-Release)

High Roller Records

22.01.2020

If we’re talking about classic rock from Germany, here in the U.S. fans think of Scorpions, and to a lesser extent, Accept. Of course, in the 1980s in Germany there were many classic-style bands (the super new trend called thrash also had attracted many younger bands and fans). Faithful Breath is one of those names that dedicated fans of 1980s legacy German party heavy metal should have in their collection if they don't already: tons of fun, big riffs, a cool rhythm section, an attractive, strong singing voice, and those super catchy songs that stayed in the memory long after the needle lifted from the vinyl. If you want party heavy metal, in the same vibe as mid 80s Scorpions, Accept, Judas Priest, Saxon, and Def Leppard (pre-1987), that radio-friendly heavy rock, Faithful Breath is exactly that. This album from 1985, and its predecessor Gold 'n' Glory from 1984, are some of the best material that the band ever did.

Like Scorpions, Priest or Accept, the Faithful Breath musicians labored through the 1970s, and their history actually began before the 1970s. They went through their prog period (see the enjoyable album Back on My Hill from 1980], but beginning in 1981 their music became fun party heavy metal with Viking imagery. That’s this album here. Unfortu-nately, some things must have been going wrong: Did the German rock press reject this band? Did the band feel uncomfortable with their stadium anthem metal style? Did the German fans mock this band (the metal youth were jumping on the thrash trend, after all)? Whatever the problems were, in the late 80s Faithful Breath changed their name to Risk, and they became a thrash band with typical thrash lyrics with newspa-per-like topics. Risk, of course, was good, faster, tighter, more serious, but the fun party metal was gone. Eventually, in the 1990s Risk would also end after some five albums. It’s a shame that Faithful Breath/Risk could not figure out how to keep things together. (As an aside, this listener likes Risk’s The Daily Horror News [1988] and Dirty Surfaces [1990], for a melodic type of thrash.)

(When Faithful Breath/Risk called it quits for good (around 1993, it seems), they already had at least 11 studio full-length albums to their name, and more than 20 years of history. If they had found a way to keep going, being proud of their whole history and playing all their music from the different periods, as a band that was there even before heavy metal was called heavy metal, can you imagine what their status would be now?!!)

Anyway, coming back to this 1985 album right here, if you want the 1980s good times, whether it's Saxon, Scorpions or Van Halen, this one and 1984's Gold 'n' Glory reflect the time when Faithful Breath was the party.

[see the High Roller Records for the info] https://www.hrrshop.de/FAITHFUL-BREATH-Skol-LP-BLACK_1

[this link is here for informational purposes so that you hear what this sounds like] Faithful Breath - 1985 - Skol (FULL ALBUM) [Heavy Metal/Hard Rock]