Talisman - 7

*=Staff's pick	Falling* Nowhere Fast Rhyme Or Reason* End Of The Line* The 1 I'm Living 4 On My Way Forevermore Succumb To My Desire* Shed A Tear Goodbye Troubled Water* Back To The Feeling

Genre	Melodic Hard Rock	Jeff Scott Soto	Vocals
Tracks	11	Fredrik Åkesson	Guitar
Runningtime	46 Min.	Marcel Jacob	Guitar
Label	Frontiers Records	Marcel Jacob	Bass
Release	20 Oct. 2006	Jamie Borger	Drums
Country	Sweden/USA	Marcel Jacob	Keyboards
Similar artists	Humanimal, Human Clay

It was sixteen years ago since Talisman released their self-titled debut album and three years since their last studio album Cats & Dogs, and guess which album it is time for now, I'll give you a hint and advise you to look at this albums title. To introduce the guys in this band it would take up the entire review and then some, so I will take a shorter and more recent version. Marcel Jacob and Jeff Scott Soto has both been in Yngwie Malmsteen's band and lately Marcel Jacob have worked with the AOR band Last Autumn's Dream along with Jamie Borger that also has been involved in the Treat re-union. Fredrik Åkesson has joined Arch Enemy and Jeff Scott Soto has landed the spot as vocalist in Journey. Marcel Jacob and Jeff Scott Soto have besides Talisman released albums as Human Clay and Humanimal that could easily be mistaken for Talisman albums just by listening.

The Talisman sound is kept intact on the album 7 that had Bar as working title. The first song Falling starts with an up-tempo beat and when I hear the voice and the great bass-lines, I realise how much I have been missing this band, even though only three years have passed. I can't say that the band has progressed in any way but it is the classic Talisman sound all over again. The band has over the years developed as a band and with their sound but kept a red line all the way and this album feels like it could be put between many of their earlier releases. Melodies are a strong factor with Talisman and sometimes it can be overly melodic but still within the frames of what is Talisman.

Rhyme Or Reason and the rhythmic End Of The Line show a heavier side to the band and this typical mid-tempo song with an apparent fat bass-line and catchy refrain could have been picked from the Humanimal album. Unfortunately, there are too many slow songs and ballads on 7 for my taste, and even if these guys normally can produce ballads that are better than average, the standard ballad The 1 I'm Living 4 falls flat here. Succumb To My Desire is a funkier tune that really isn't anything to get aroused by but nevertheless you find yourself humming along to it, and there lies a strength with Talisman - they make the songs stick in your mind. It is like the songs sends out subliminal signals that you are to like it and hum along. Even if you at first find the song to just be a basic and simple one, you eventually find it to be irresistible.

What I like most with Talisman are the surely amazing vocals from Jeff Scott Soto and the intelligent and super skilled bass playing from Marcel Jacob along with the catchy and easy to remember melodies, and all of that you get on 7 as well, as you always do with this band. However, it too much of the calm hard rock here, and sometimes it is always a bit too close to pop for my taste. Nevertheless, as said, you find yourself humming along more than once while listening to this. Even if the songs are soft they are so damn well written and performed, this is top-notch musicianship as far as the eye can see, straight out to the top of the fingertips. I mean, the music might at first seem simple, but listen to Marcel Jacob playing the bass, that is a world-class performance on an album that is not one of the stronger ones in the Talisman discography.

See also review of: Cats And Dogs
See also: Song By Song Commentary

Production	Vocals	Compositions
8	10	5

Summary
6 chalices of 10 - Thomas