FAITHFUL BREATH - Skol - [FULL ALBUM 1985]

DeathRider Doom, May 18th, 2009 🔘Faithful Breath is another one of those good, but not overly amazing obscure 80’s heavy hetal bands. Their ninth official release however, gives them a far greater catalogue than many bands that fall into this grouping. Skol is a fairly strong album with a variety of songs it including a sailor/pirate anthem as the title song, with smatterings of speed metal throughout ’Start it Up’ is an excellent opening track, with a riff to kick things off that reminds me of late 80’s Dokken (Read: Back for the Attack). The structure of the vocals and indeed the vocalist himself sound very much like Accept, as do the tempo and drum mixing, with a punchy kick that could be likened to any Accept number of the same period. Double Dealer’, another strong number, is a speed-metal track with tonnes of Accept over tones, and by this stage in the album (track two), you may realize that this band is incredibly influenced by Accept (and why not). But this is probably more than most purists who can’t stand obvious influences from a stalwart band can handle. It seems to fairly common with German speed/heavy metal bands of the early to mid 80s to have strong Priest/Accept/Maiden influences coming through, but for me that’s part of the enjoyment. ’Rock Rebels’ is perhaps the anthem of the album, and again is very much comparable to Accept. It’s also got a powerful U.S. kinda feel to it. “Join the rock rebels, boys in black leather“ is very much an Accept feeling lyric, but that’s not something I mind too much. Faithful Breath’s first release came out over ten years earlier, and much of this sound may be due to their own natural progression rather than simply ripping off Udo and the boys ’We Want You’ is a slower number with layering of guitars and a Scorpions live anthern feel. “We want you to wave your hands now“ etc. While holding nothing against slower numbers, this is probably the albums lowest point, with much of the lyrics being pretty generic ’hard rock sorta ground and nothing too inspiring on guitar either. ’Crazy in Metal’ is an excellently titled heavy metal anthem with everything in the song done well. Yet again this is incredibly Accept-like in terms of the overall feel, but especially the vocals. “Shout it out!!!!-Crazy in Metal!!!“-Brilliant. The chorus is incredibly catchy and is very much Fists in the Air’ Classic heavy metal. There’s some interesting interplay with the guitars, yet the solo is almost anti-climactic, nothing too inventive or standing out. If wanting to check out a song from the album, perhaps grab this one. The remainder of the material on the album is perhaps topped by ’Backstreet Heroes’ a gritty, back-alley song about screwing, drinking and partying, executed with speed metal pace and some Judas Priest influence. A melodic solo and some dirty lyrics again in the tradition of Accept make this one a winner. Very catchy, and simplistic, this one will get stuck in your head along with ’Crazy in Metal’. In summation, Skol is anthemic speed metal very much similar to Accept Nothing but simple, hard hitting anthems of the early/mid 80’s style. The title tracks pirate-like themes may well be a forerunner to Running Wild’s all-out Pirate Metal attack, as at this stage, their lyrics predominantly comprised satanic imagery. On the similarity to Accept, I would argue that this isn’t a bad thing, Faithful Breath has their origins very early, like Accept, and perhaps came about much of their sound in this album parallel to Accept, rather than directly deriving from it. Also, even if Faithful Breath derived some of its signature sound from Accept, who wouldn’t have? I’m sure Accept were a phenomenal source of inspiration for fellow Kraut-metallers, particularly at this time as they had just released several albums or remarkable importance, and were tearing the world up on tour. Also, while it not be the most noblest thing to derive a lot of your sound from a particular band or bands, and you may not be as well respected for it, this doesn’t mean you can’t release excellent music. Well worth checking out as the more obscure Accept, or for Running Wild fans (*ENCICLOPEDIA METALLUM) _TRACKLIST_ 1. Start It Up 2. Double Dealer 3. Lady M. 4. Rock Rebels 5. We Want You 6. Inside Out 7. Crazy in Metal 8. Backstreet Heros 9. Skol _LINEUP_ - Heinrich Mikus / guitar, lead vocals - Thilo Herrmann / guitar, backing vocals - Peter Dell / bass, backing vocals - Jürgen Düsterloh / drums, backing vocals Video made non-profit and solely for recreational purposes. Copyright belong to their respective owners. #80sheavymetal #oldschoolheavymetal #classicheavymetal