FAITHFUL BREATH

3.5 stars for sure

Faithful Breath is one of the bands from Germany from early '70s that for some reason never make it in musical realm. They begun as a pure progressive rock band on first two albums, and then from third one they shift to hard rock- heavy metal . For prog lovers, the first two releases Fading beauty from 1974 and specially the second offer Back on my hill from 1980 are to explore, I think Back on my hill is their best album. If first one had a symphony prog direction with some Eloy moves here and there, Back on my hill is far more intresting, well produce and performed then the debut. Elements of heavy prog are present for the first time and the result is a fine one from start to finish. The title track and the ending tune of the album the lenghty 16 min plus Judgement Day are winners for sure, here Faithful Breath had the best and most imaginative ideas. Very fine guitars and keyboards. On many web sites or magazines I saw that Faithful Breath is remembered as a heavy metal band, forgeting that their first two releases was progressive rock all the way. Anyway after Back on my hill they disbanded for a short period and reformed with a diffrent linup only one or two members remaining still and aswell a diffrent musical direction, the next 4 albums are in traditional teutonic heavy metal, untill they disbanded for good in 1988. Personaly this is my fav album from them and one to keep if you are a prog listner. 3.5 stars for sure, a nice one all the way. The rest of 4 releases are for heavy metal fans, that doesn't mean are bad offers only not from prog lovers.

Not sure why such a superb symphonic combo would shift their music style into simple hard rock, and let me say this album should be one of symphonic progressive rock gems all around the world, especially as for the titled track upon the first side. Cannot say their play or technique be excellent but the potential of this track be incredible definitely.

Their masterpiece "Fading Beauty" ... one of the dreamiest opening is such a quite matured, harmonized mellotron one in the titled track. All through the album Manfred's sharp, and mellow keyboard hurricane should be the driving force behind such a symphonic rock soundscape, no suspicion. This theatrical progression is as splendid as the original classic one, we might suggest. Every scene sounds beautiful and gorgeous like the song title, and it is a pity they would vaporize such an artistic texture.

Of course the other two tracks are awesome too. "Lingering Gold" ... exactly in the same vein of "Fading Beauty" ... shows kaleidoscopic appearance along with complexly rhythmic verses. Also a tragic female chorus is fantastic. And we cannot avoid crying guitar plays. The last longest track "Tharsis", that means a volcanic plain area upon the Mars, is very powerful like a fire, and very challenging like a mysterious space for us. Not so good the voices and the rhythm section are, but dramatic keyboard or mellotron showers can ease us in. The latter part is a tad clumsy for so-called art rock but we can hear their conflict in a dilemma between popularity and artistic motivation. As you may realize, this hard-edged sound explosions might be thought as an advance hint for their drastic style alteration later.

Cannot call this album as a symphonic prog recommendation but I'm sure you would spend a useful moment with the three gems, if you are a symphonic freak.

This Germany band was initially a progressive rock band and it later turned out to be a heavy metal one. There is not much that I can get on the history this band which was formed in 1967 as stated in metal library. Fading Beauty is their debut album with the music is mainly comprising long keyboard-drenched music which to me like a jam session. As it was came out in the era of vinyl LP I can understand that the music was produced to fit the LP duration i.e roughly 2 x 22 minutes. Therefore the band made it two tracks at the first side and another long epic at the second side. The first two tracks Autumn Fantasia: Fading Beauty (12:06) and Autumn Fantasia: Lingering Cold (10:26) are actually quite boring to my ears as they are very weak in composition: there are no segments that the band have expressed the music well as they turn out to be like jamming with no prescribed or predetermined tagline melody to follow. It's fine actually if they can demonstrate good musicianships along the way that they produce good composition. Only at the last track Tharsis (21:30) the band is quite successful in creating an interesting music even though not compelling enough to my ears. It seems to me that the band actually can make the music just with 10 minutes duration. In order to fit the full side 2 then they continue the other 10 minutes as the last portion of Tharsis. It is not well done actually, that's why the later part sounds awkward to me.

Overall, this is only good for those who want to have an archive of vintage music and not too much paying attention on how good the composition is. This one deserves two stars. Keep on proggin' ...!

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW

AFAIAC, this is FB's only album worth hearing, or even considering for this site's musical scope. Some consider this album one of Germany's better 70's symphonic prog album, and it's not entirely wrong to think so, but there are moments when they sound like they didn't even care if they borrowed openly and with total impunity. Indeed, if the intro of the opening track does not refer you directly to Genesis' Watcher Of The Skies, you're due for an ear and brain check-up urgently?. And you'll find a fair bit more of these moments throughout the album's three tracks. But that's not to say that everything on Fading Beauty sounds borrowed or derivative of some English prog bands. Despite a certain amount of "cloned" ADN, the band did manage some moments where their developed their own personalities at times. In many ways, FB's music is flattering enough to 70's prog lovers that the "inspired dimension" of their music can pass down the throat and be digested fairly easily.

Let me tell you about a dream I've been having lately. A kneeling figure, the personification of 'Fading Beauty' perhaps, trembles below a sword that hangs above by a single horse- hair. I don't know the meaning of this dream but it nonetheless disturbs me.

I'm also trying to make sense of Faithful Breath's bandpage and I'm genuinely curious about what other members will have made of the recent spate of 1- and 2-star reviews for these German orphans. I'm only familiar with their two prog albums so I have absolutely no comment to make on the merits or de-merits of their non-prog output. Faithful Breath was actually one of the earliest German symphonic bands and this album comprises two sprawling epics that rely heavily on Mellotron and Hammond organ. Keyboards-player Manfred 'Carl' von Buttlar is generally credited with having steered the band in a symphonic direction so it's no surprise that their progressive leanings bit the dust when he left after their second album.

The album itself induces a certain feeling of melancholy and the despairing emotional currents of the hymnal music are matched by its sombre, morbid lyrics. Take for example the narrative of 'Tharsis' in which the planet Earth is the titular bird's egg that will one day hatch, an inevitable event that is heralded by frequent earthquakes. The main themes of this story - the virgin birth of a winged goddess whose spouse, in this case the wind, is an invisible unknown; creation and destruction of the world; the idea of death as a rebirth - have strong echoes of Greek creation myth and the cosmogonic cycle. Talk about being pretentious; I'm sure I've seen this album described somewhere as 'overblown nonsense' but isn't that part of the dictionary definition of symphonic prog? If not, it should be.

Anyway, it's a pity that this highly schismatic band's later output seems to have taken the shine off their first couple of prog albums. 'Fading Beauty' apparently has legendary status as a lost classic in some quarters but just because it's obscure doesn't make it a masterpiece. At best it's a fairly average symphonic album. The material on the sophomore 'Back On My Hill' is actually stronger and more dynamic despite it being a largely song-based album. I seem to be in a minority of one in liking that album though; it's lonely sometimes in the wondrous city of Cloud Cuckoo Land.

'A Million Hearts / Gold n' Glory' - Faithful Breath (Single)

Taken from Faithful Breath's 'Gold n' Glory' album, the 'A Million Hearts' single and title track are a selection of two of the best tracks from the record. Faithful Breath was a band who originally played a symphonic brand of progressive rock, but as the two tracks here show, by the time the 80's rolled around, they had resorted to changing their style to a generic brand of cock rock heavy metal. While these are the best two songs from that album however, the quality of these tracks still reveals Faithful Breath as a clone of the more successful band Accept. Faithful Breath were smart to change their sound to appeal to a larger audience, but the way they did the music was not original in the slightest. 'Gold n' Glory' is a fairly typical heavy metal track that does not make it hard to visualize some hairy men wailing around in a room with guitars and a hefty stockpile of liquor. The better, more memorable track here is 'A Million Hearts', and for all intents and purposes, it is a fairly good song, although once again, it is a rehash of the power ballad formula. 'Gold n' Glory' was not a great album, but it was a decent piece of clone-formula heavy metal. This single may hae the best tracks, but on the merit of this band's songs alone, it's difficult to recommend them track-by-track.

'Skol' - Faithful Breath (3/10)

Faithful Breath is a German band that put out a progressive rock record in the early 70's, and just as quickly, changed their sound into something else entirely. Fast forward a decade or so, and the band is barely recognizable from what they used to be. While its established that many surviving prog rock bands from the 70's changed their sound in order to keep up with the crowds in the 80's, most of those bands became pop outfits, whereas Faithful Breath went down the route of heavy metal. While this would tend to be a more personally promising prospect than hearing a prog band dumb down their sound to the four chord wonder, my first experience with the band's heavy metal material 'Gold n' Glory' indicated to me that there was not all too much to be excited about here. 'Skol' was released the year following 'Gold n' Glory', and right before they decided to change their name and start fresh as the speed metal act Risk. 'Skol' is a weak album from the proggers-turned- hard rockers, and virtually drowned in dated 80's hair appeal. While I still can't call Faithful Breath's material 'horrible', this is a clear step down from the comparatively fun 'Gold n' Glory'.

While I still was not a big fan of Faithful Breath on 'Gold n' Glory', I could enjoy it at least as fun, concise heavy metal; an obscure album that was all too lost in its era. 'Skol' changes their sound up a bit, but for the worse; the songs here sound like they have been taken down a notch in terms of speed and relative heaviness. Instead of a purely heavy metal album, this has now dipped beneath the threshold, into hard rock. The songs are more mid-tempo, there is less excess with the solos, and most things seem to have been toned down, if only a little bit. In any case, this is enough to make 'Skol' a weaker incarnation of Faithful Breath than its predecessor. The lyrics here are laughable, and the songwriting is extremely formulaic, relying mostly on the repetition of the usually gang-chanted choruses, wherein the band usually calls out the title of the song. Sound pretty familiar?

The band's performance here is not memorable, although its not bad at all, for what it is. However, the lacking sense of identity on 'Skol' does nothing for me, and Faithful Breath would remain a lacking Accept clone to the very end. Luckily, their music under the new name of Risk would be better.

A rather obscure 2 for 1 compilation album which includes their final two albums Gold 'n' Glory and Skol before they changed their name to Risk.

Both albums includes some very dire heavy metal in the vein of Accept. So much that both albums are Accept clones. The difference is the quality. Both Gold 'n' Glory and Skol must surely be two of the worst ever heavy metal albums. Incompetent musicians, horrible music, lyrics who could had been written by primary school children and pretty shoddy sound too. This is exactly what you expect from a band from behind the Iron Curtain before the end of the cold war........ or from a band from Mongolia. But not from Germany. Make that West Germany. Everything about this album is so cheap. Everything but the obscene high prices it trades for on Ebay.

In short; if you have a perverse sense of humour or is a manic collector; stay away from this album. Spend the money on buying a three bedrooms flat on Manhatten, New York instead.

1 star

'Gold n' Glory' - Faithful Breath (4/10)

As the 70's faded away into the prog-phobic 80's, many progressive rock acts realized that the only way they would be able to keep swimming would be to swim with the rest of the fish, and by that; meaning to change their sound to appeal to the new market. As was the case for Genesis and Yes, many bands went the route of going from prog to pop, a move which in some cases turned to be quite disastrous on an artistic level. Faithful Breath was a German prog rock band from the early '70s that did indeed change their sound, but not in the way that so many other proggers did. Instead of pop, Faithful Breath went for the new growing sound of heavy metal, and shown on their album 'Gold n' Glory', it is clear that they were not at all afraid to jump headfirst into this new style. Although Faithful Breath's decision to evolve into a heavy metal act was much better than the pop alternative they could have been however, the band's execution of the style is hopelessly derivative and cheesy, although I will say that there is some enjoyment to reap from this album from the once- proggers.

Anytime Faithful Breath's heavy metal material is mentioned, the German titans Accept are bound to be mentioned, and this is for no small reason either; Faithful Breath seems to have thrown down their old style in the favour of another band's. While it is taken for granted that every musician is influenced by something or someone, Faithful Breath's closeness in sound to Accept goes far beyond mere similarity. to the point where they easily fall within the territory of the copycat; a clone. Complete with rock n' roll lyrics with more cheese to them than a French cuisine platter, these tracks are fast, highly reliant on big choruses, and always have a little guitar solo or riff to keep in line with formula. Truth be told; the songs are not poorly written for what they are, but there really is not much to the music here to be worth more than a couple of listens at best. The necessary inclusion of the token power ballad 'A Million Hearts' is probably the highlight here simply for the fact that it is a breath of fresh air from the rest, but nothing here is bound to lit my heart anytime soon.

Faithful Breath's 'Gold n' Glory' is not a terrible album, but it sounds immensely dated, to a nearly humourous extent; the songwriting and performance here is never impressive, but always functional. Really, 'Gold n' Glory' is a fairly enjoyable piece of generic 80's heavy metal, but nothing more than that, really.

The live album from this German heavy metal album.

This album was released after they had changed their name to Risk and gone speed metal. This live album is a thank you to the Faitful Breath fans (both of them) and the closing of the Faithful Breath chapter in this band's life.

This album is a straight forward live album with shoddy sound. It is also possibly a kind of best off too. But that is hard to tell because their creative output is so abysmal bad. Most, if not all of the songs are from their third last albums. The music is over the top heavy metal from a band who were either so mentally deranged that they took themselves seriously or a band whose this were just a Spinal Tap/Bad News like parody on heavy metal. I really cannot decide if they were a parody or dead serious. If they were serious, they were very probably the worst ever recording heavy metal band this planet has ever witnessed.

Style wise, Faithful Breath can be compared to Accept, but with any traces of quality removed. And that is everything I can say about this live album. Shoddy sound masking horrible music.

Five.... no, make that one star.