Tag: talisman

Another day and another album with Jeff Scott Soto on vocals. This is Talisman’s fourth album released back in ’95 and this, my friends, is a banger. There is so much groove on this album your groove muscle will be doing overtime just to take it all in.

The opening track is a doozy. Marcel Jacob’s bass playing is insane and the interplay with Fredrick Akesson is just a joy to hear. Add Jeff’s golden voice over the top and it’s one beast of a song. The cover of Seal’s Crazy is wonderful. The band giving it a harder edge and extra groove is genius. Body is such a busy tune, the bass and guitar are laying it down hard with some great added funk to that heavy groove. Love the vocal and harmonies. What a great heavy wah wah opening to Temptation, that bass sound is huge, and we have another massive hook and chorus.

Loveblind is Talisman writing a chart tune. It’s a very commercial sounding song, with some excellent playing from Fredrick. Soul To Soul has an old school R’n’B vibe but with added funk, and that bass is epic it just drives the song along. Killer guitar opening and groove to All That Really Matters. This whole record has such a dirty funky under groove it’s just so cool and works so well on this tune. The hook and chorus are just so freakin’ awesome here, and that solo!

A Life starts as though we are in ballad territory with Jeff delivering a killer vocal, then that heavy funky beast of a groove kicks in for that epic ballad vocal to return for a big power ballad. If only Carlsberg did ballads. Temptation is up next and the busiest of riffs just blows you away with bass and guitar just groovin’ hard. Loveblind closes out the album and that bass…man what a player Marcel was. Favourite track… well, take you pick. I’m going for the opener Tears In The Sky. That song is just Talisman in a nutshell!

Killer band and killer album.

10/10 from The Grooveman.

This is album number one from the mighty Talisman, released back in ’90. The band were put together by the super talented bassist, Marcel Jacob who is sadly no longer with us. The only ever present member (I think) is Jeff Scott Soto. It’s cool to hear how Jeff’s voice has changed throughout his career. He is singing in a much lower register now than he was when this came out. There again, he was just a puppy when this beauty was released.

I’m not sure if this was considered just to be a project originally, as there is just a photo of Marcel and Jeff in the insert. There have also been some great guitar players that have blessed the grooves of Talisman releases namely Frederick Akesson who is now with Opeth, Pontus Norgren who has played with Hammerfall, and Christopher Stahl who played on this one.

This band has been responsible for some of the finest melodic rock, released mostly when this type of music was about as welcome as a fart in a space suit. Honestly, there is a not a bad moment throughout this whole record and frankly it’s a blueprint for how to write killer rock songs with groove, killer playing, and huge hooks with infectious stick in your brain choruses. It’s tough to pick a favourite as I love all the songs on this album, but today I will pick Dangerous. It has everything I mentioned above and the solo is killer.

It’s great to see Jeff still releasing high quality material and long  may he do so.

9.5/10 from The Grooveman.