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.
