It took me 20 months to get through Jeff Scott Soto’s catalog and have been through 89 reviews of items in my collection. That is an insane amount of albums, singles and collector’s pieces to have in a collection, let alone one artist. Jeff started way back in 1984 with Yngwie Malmsteen and has been on over 50 studio albums, numerous live albums, compilations and tribute albums, soundtracks and anything else you can think of and it was a personal goal of mine to visit every single one. I don’t think you will find any website with a more extensive collection of Jeff Scott Soto Reviews then right here at 2 Loud 2 Old Music.
Not every album he has done is good..not at all, but most of them for me are at least a 3 out of 5 or better. And the ones that aren’t, have at least a few songs to add to an already impressive playlist. Along this journey, I have had the pleasure of meeting Jeff twice after his shows and he has been so kind each time and signed numerous album covers for me. However, I was never able to get the interview I had hoped for, but I am not giving up hope as one day it will happen. Until then, let’s go through every studio album where Jeff is the main singer and rank them from the worst album to the best album and everything in between.
There are 53 studio albums that I have where Jeff is the featured singer and we touch them all. I hope you enjoy the walk though the albums and maybe find something you would like to hear. If you discovered at least one album as a result of this series, then my work is done. If not, “WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU???”…kidding. Sorry, lost my head there. Enough of this chitchat, let’s get to the list.
Updated May 2025
First, the ones that scored 2 or less out of 5 Stars
THE WORST: Bakteria- ‘Defecate! Suffocate! Mutilate! Masturbate!’ (1992/2009)
Musically, it is pretty freaking heavy. Uptempo, speed metal vibes at time and as the sticker says, a mixture of Metal/Sludge/Crust/Punk. All I know is it sucks. Jeff sings in almost a growl, that is deep and completely unrecognizable as it is borderline guttural vocals at times. I listened to this in the car on the drive home from work one day and I thought to myself, “If I have a wreck and die, the police and my family are going to wonder what the hell I was in to with that crap playing in my car.” I was actually a little embarrassed to be listening to it. I am a little embarrassed to actually own this and have it in the collection, but my Soto Collection isn’t complete without it sadly. My Overall Score is a 0.0 out of 5.0 Stars! And that is being nice. It is the WORST ALBUM I HAVE EVER HEARD IN MY LIFE!!!
During the Covid pandemic, there was no touring, records kept getting delayed and the music industry felt like it was basically shut down. During this time though, some artists stayed creative and Jeff Scott Soto was one of them. He took 10 of his songs and redid them. If you are thinking this is a Bon Jovi ‘This Left Feels Right’ disaster, you would be wrong. It is less a re-imagining of the songs and more of stripping them down to their bare essence. He did everything himself, except for the mixing which he had some friends handle that part such as David Clarkson, John Ellis, and Alessandro Del Vecchio. And I was curious as to what songs he would choose to re-visit and he chose songs that he was the solo writer on and that makes sense as he wouldn’t need approval from anyone else since they were his songs.
The project was originally going to be released as a Jeff Scott Soto solo album, however, there were some legal issues with that maybe because he had just released a solo album a month or two earlier or who knows why. So, Jeff took it his other band, SOTO, and released it under their name. And the release is only available as a digital only release. There is no physical product as of now. Hopefully that will change down the road. I get why he put it under the SOTO moniker so it could get released, but don’t think this is a Metal album at all. This is stripped down, mostly acoustic and slowed down versions of his songs. Nothing metal about them.
The opening track is “Eyes of Love” off his second solo album, ‘Prism’. The original version is a hard rock, melodic ass kicker and here the song his just Jeff and a piano and turned in to a beautiful ballad. Stripping the songs down gives the songs a new chance to shine while really showcasing the power of Jeff’s voice and this is a great way to kick it all off.
The next rack is “My Love, My Friend” which was an a cappella track from Soul Sirkus’ album ‘World Play’ which he did with Neal Schon. He added a drum beat and a piano to it including extra lyrics and more arrangements. It is now a fully flushed out song rather than a short all vocal track. Is it better? It is different and not a bad track. The electronic drum sound hurts it for me. A respectable version for sure, but not a full on knock-out.
For those following along on the series, you know by now that SOTO is Jeff Scott Soto’s band that he uses to differentiate his solo stuff from his more heavier sounding metal songs. And this is heavy. This is the band’s third album now in the last 4/5 years and the only difference in the band is at bass. Sadly, bassist David Z (of Z02 & Adrenaline Mob) passed away in a tragic accident. In his stead is none other than Tony Dickinson and he also helped produce the album. We still have Jeff on vocals, obviously, along with BJ on keys and guitars, Edu Cominato on drums along with Jorge Salan on guitars.
The album was released on May 19, 2019 and it doesn’t stray far from the first two albums. It is a heavy rock album, a little at times and a modern, electronic sound also. But…I can’t say they’ve been my favorite projects from Jeff. Yes, I do like the heavier sound and Jeff does a fine job of singing, but the songs haven’t been as melodic as I like, the hooks aren’t as catchy and the choruses are a little lackluster at times. That doesn’t mean the first two albums were bad album, I just haven’t enjoyed them as much. And is this one any different? Well, it might be my favorite of the bunch, but is it a favorite of the Soto collection? We first need to dig deeper and explore these tracks to see how they stack up.
The album kicks off with “Hypermania” and a full on electronica bit before kicking in hard & heavy. Musically the song is really awesome, but I can’t get past the horrible lyrics in the chorus. The rhyming of hypermania with the words insania and no brainia. Totally childish and lame. Take out the lyrics and this is a killer modern metal track. For me, I just skip the whole thing and start the album with the title track.
The title track, “Origami”, explodes with some ear-splitting drum pounding, a vicious riff and then it turns in to a speed metal attack. Jeff’s vocals are aggressive and he attacks the song with a killer’s rage and it is awesome. One of the heaviest tracks on the album and it really grabs hold and slams it home. The guitars are freaking nasty, the solo is cool and Jeff even gives off a scream which he does so well. A real ballbuster of a track and should be the opening track!!
“Belie” is up next and it slows things down a little. No, not a ballad, just a slower tempo. There is a darkness tone to it, it is still heavy. The verses give off a sadness and don’t really connect with the music. The payoff comes with the chorus with layers of harmonies and Jeff does sound great. The cool thing about it is you get a bass break, a drum break and a guitar break in it which is nice to see all areas shine. And the guitar solo is a screamer. One of the best on the album.
More great guitar work opens “World Gone Colder” and the guitar never lets up. It is full of piss and vigor throughout the song. A roller coaster of riffs. The chorus is enjoyable and Jeff really goes all out, but you can’t say enough about the guitars on this one as they are the star. The solo will seal the deal for you.
“Detonate” is the only song to feature the late, great David Z on bass. For that, it is a little special. It starts with a slow build, a whispering Jeff Scott Soto on vocals and then the band comes roaring in and the song gets going. If you listen close, you can hear David just smacking the bass. The song is hard & heavy, and with a title like detonate, you’d expect this song to explode and it doesn’t quite get as explosive as I’d expect and starts to lose me by the end.
Things slow down with “Torn”, a quasi-power ballad. The foot comes off the gas with this one and Jeff gives a very pleasant vocal delivery. Musically, everything is toned down, softer yet full of emotion. The chorus is catchy and Jeff really takes it up a notch. The drum sound on this one is solid, the guitars give a melancholic tone and when Jeff screams “GO”, the guitars lay down a solo that fits perfectly with the song. The guys show they aren’t one-dimensional.
The heavy comes back with “Dance with the Devil” and if you are going to have devil in the title, it better kick ass. There is a whole Sons of Apollo vibe here with even hints of Dio. The riffs are speedy, gritty and brutal, the drum work is powerful and destructive especially the double kick drum whose speed is insane. A rocking track, but also a little forgettable when its over as it doesn’t stick with you.
“Afterglow” is up next and the sound is more like a Soto solo album as it is more melodic, a little funky at times and has a big band swing groove. The chorus is full on harmonies and the song is although has a serious tone, is a lot of fun for me as the groove is really cool. One of my favorite tracks on the album.
“Vanity Lane” takes it back to the heavy and it has a darker tone and more serious feel to it. The chorus is better than the verses and the guitar solo is great, however, I like the song well enough, but it doesn’t stick with you. Not memorable enough.
The final song on the album is a Michael Jackson cover of his song “Give In To Me” which is one of Michael’s more rocking songs and SOTO does it justice. It starts off slow and Jeff goes in to a deeper register and when the chorus explodes, he goes back to that Jeff sound he is so famous for. I love this song already, so I do enjoy it here as it is hard to screw up a Michael Jackson song.
But there is a bonus track so it ain’t over yet. “KMAG” closes things out and what is a KMAG? It is Kiss My Ass Goodbye! It is heavy as hell and the drums are earth shatteringly hard. I like this one a lot and the big payoff is that chorus as anytime you can scream out Kiss My Ass Goodbye it just feels great. A great way to go out on the album.
Track Listing:
Hypermania – Delete
Origami – Keeper
Belie – Keeper
World Gone Colder – Keeper
Detonate – Delete
Torn – Keeper
Dance with the Devil – Keeper(1/2 Point)
Afterglow – Keeper
Vanity Lane – Delete
Give In To Me – Keeper
KMAG (Bonus Track) – Keeper
The Track Score is 7.5 out of 11 Tracks or 68%. SOTO didn’t impress me much with the first two albums, and the third didn’t do much better. The songwriting is still subpar as the lyrics at times are cringe worthy and the songs aren’t as memorable as most of Jeff’s work, however, this one held my interest a little more and had more songs that I liked. If I had to pick a favorite of the three so far, this would be it, but not by much. My Overall Score is a 3.5 out of 5.0 Stars which is the same as the 2nd album, but since I like this one a little more maybe it should be 3.6, who knows. I’ll stick with Jeff’s other albums more than I will with SOTO…sorry Jeff.
UP NEXT: SONS OF APOLLO – ‘LIVE WITH THE PLOVDIV PSYCHOTIC SYMPHONY’ (2019)
Jeff Scott Soto has said this is a working band and not a side project and will be around for a long while. He is proving that fact by releasing a second album in just over a year after the debut. This one, called ‘Divak’, was released on April 1, 2016. The debut album, I didn’t feel was a band album as the band never really played on any of the songs. It was a solo album with a lot of guests if you ask me. This time around, Jeff makes it a band. And who is in that band? Aside from Jeff, it is the same guys from the debut artwork (as they weren’t really on the album). You get Jorge Salan on guitars, BJ on guitars and keys, David Z (Of ZO2) on bass and Edu Cominato on drums.
There are still a ton of guests, but this time they are really guests. They are additional guitarists, some solos, keyboards and backing vocals while the band handles most of the grunt work…as they should if this is a band. The album is just as heavy as the last, if not heavier. It rocks out as it is both melodic and a little proggy at times. Jeff usually does more melodic, rock and doesn’t get this heavy or hasn’t in a while, but he missed this stuff and that is why Soto exists. It fulfills his desire to really go full tilt and it certainly delivers that and more.
The album kicks off with, “Divak”, a symphonic, dramatic and totally intriguing instrumental piece. The intensity builds and totally makes you feel like you are in to an adventurous journey. The biggest problem is that it ends…it just stops. It doesn’t bleed into the next song which I think is a huge missed opportunity as this was a really fantastic piece and would’ve flowed better with that seamless transition.
Jeff Scott Soto has been around for over 30 years now and he started out singing for some heavy bands like Yngwie Malmsteen and Axel Rudi Pell. Then he was more melodic with bands like Talisman, Eyes and W.E.T. and he evened funked things up with his solo albums on occasion, but he has always liked the heavy stuff. For his next project, it wasn’t another solo album, but instead it was a new metal band called SOTO. Hmmm…where did he come up with that name? Jeff has said this is a working band and not a side project and will be around for a long while and there is definitely a band. In SOTO are of course, Jeff, but you also get Jorge Salan on guitars, BJ on guitars and keys, David Z (Of ZO2) on bass and Edu Cominato on drums.
However, there are so many guests and extra musicians on this album, that I’m not sure you can really count this as a band album as the “band” isn’t on every song. Now, that doesn’t take away from anything on the album, I’m just saying I don’t really see this particular SOTO album as a band more of as a project. The album came out on January 30, 2015, but I don’t see a physical release of the album in the States so they only had digital. My copy of the album is actually from Mexico and is a digipack. No bonus or nothing extra, but I will take what I can get. Let’s jump right and get in to the meat of it all as the music is why we are here.
The first track is “Final Say” and it is written by Jeff Scott Soto and Adrenaline Mob member Mike Orlando who does all the instruments on this song (see, no band members but JSS). And like I said above, that doesn’t take away from the music as this song kicks some major ass. The guitars are heavy, the drums are thunderous and Soto is aggressive and lethal with the vocals. An explosive opening that tells you right away this is a heavier, darker JSS and I’m all for it.
For My Sunday Song #284, we are going to discuss the song from Jeff Scott Soto’s metal band called Soto. The song is called “The Fall” and was written by Jeff along with fellow TSO member Tony Dickinson. The album is ‘Inside the Vertigo’ and the song were released in 2015 and was originally intended to be a solo album, but since the album had a band vibe and the sound was so much heavier than anything he had done recently, he went with SOTO as a band.
“The Fall” is an angry song. Someone has hurt him badly and stabbed him in the back and he isn’t having it. He is fighting back and letting them know he has it out for them and he can’t wait for them to fall from the graces and fall flat on their face. It sounds like it was someone famous as the line “Fame and Fortune/Big Star Everywhere/One more big talk millionaire” leads me to believe that. I don’t know who it is and can’t find where he has said but I wonder if it is Neal Schon who dropped him from Journey and I don’t know if they talk anymore. But I am purely speculating and have no real clue. Purely a guess. It could be anyone.
Musically, the song is just as angry. It is some of the heaviest work Jeff has done. There is a very modern metal vibe with hints of Marilyn Manson in the guitar which is handled by Chris Feener and Tony Dickinson. Jeff’s vocals are as aggressive as the music. You can hear the anger and his screams are intense and powerful. If you need an album to wake you up, this one would do it. It is balls-to-the-wall aggression and when you are done you are ready to punch someone in the face!!
Starting January 3rd, 2022, we will kick off the EPIC series covering one of my favorite singers, Jeff Scott Soto!! We will go through his entire career from where it all began in 1984 with Panther all the way to his latest solo album that came out this past October called ‘Duets’. Wait, I know it started with a band called Threshold in 1983 (not to be confused with the prog metal band years later), but I can’t find anything on that band or album so it is starting with Panther for this series as I have that album.
No stone will be left unturned! Okay, that isn’t true as we are not going in to any compilations or tribute albums where he wasn’t the featured singer as this will only be albums that Jeff is the Lead Singer and not just appearing on one song as we would be here forever if that was the case. We will also have some great little bonus pieces with Singles and E.P.’s I happen to have in my collection and interesting one-off projects he has done. Heck, I even have a digital bootleg of when Jeff Scott Soto toured as the lead singer with Journey. And as you can see below, it is quite a collection…if I do say so myself…
There will be over 65 Posts in the Series, you read that right, 65!! And that is at least 65 because I am sure he will release 1 to 2 to maybe even 4 albums by the time I’m done. I expect this to take over a year to complete because this isn’t all I’m going to do. No, not at all. We will still finish up the series of Cheap Trick and Aerosmith that we are currently doing in 2022 and when those end I am sure new series will be added in as well. Quite possibly Bon Jovi, Scorpions, Van Halen, Ace Frehley, Poison or even Def Leppard. It won’t be all, just a couple of them, but I can’t decide which ones yet. But heck, I do already have an idea of which epic artist I want to tackle after Jeff, but that will be 2023 and it could be huge. We will announce it next year.
Another month gone by and a lot more purchases. I don’t know if you’ve noticed but my CD purchases have skyrocketed over the last few months. I have been to a bunch of shops that have CDs and have them cheap so I can’t help myself. However, this first batch of CDs is not from a shop. They are mostly from Amazon as my kids gave me an Amazon gift card for Father’s Day as they weren’t sure what I didn’t have (which is a valid point). So with these cards I continued my Jeff Scott Soto Collection and picked up 6 more discs (okay, one was from ebay).
I picked up Jeff Scott Soto – “Essential Ballads”; Soul Sirkus – “World Play”, W.E.T. – “W.E.T.” and “Earthrage”, SOTO – “Orgami” which is the last of the SOTO collection, and Talisman – “Talisman”. This brings me up to over 20+ now in the JSS collection and still about 20+ more to go.
Next up, my wife wanted to run back to 2nd & Charles as she needed some books and I of course wanted to tag along as they have a great used CD collection and I always find something interesting and this time was no different. I picked up a Bootleg Robbie Williams 2 CD compilation from Japan. It is called Sexed Up and it has been outlawed for sale by Discogs, but I saw one an eBay for about $30+. I payed about $3. It is an HDCD, whatever that means.
But that wasn’t the only thing I bought from there as they had a sale where you buy 2, get one free. I picked up 8 more discs including 2 more Robbie Williams CDs, 3 Oasis CDs, Ozzy’s Just Say Ozzy E.P., Candlebox’s “Lucy” and Jude Cole’s “I Don’t Know Why I Act This Way”. Not a bad haul.
And on the way home, my wife saw Noble Records and asked if I wanted to stop in, and of course I said yes. She is so awesome!! I did a little damage there as well. I picked up 2 more CDs – Cheap Trick’s “At Budokon: The Complete Concert” CD set and Thriving Ivory’s “Through Yourself & Back Again”.
I did get vinyl while I was there as well. I picked up Deep Purple’s ‘Machine Head’ and ZZ Top’s “La Futura” because I saw the documentary on Netflix and needed this album as I didn’t have it as I’m now on a ZZ Top kick.
The next thing that was purchased was neither vinyl nor CD. I have started my new obsession, Kiss Tour Books and first up is this one…not going to talk about it as I already have a post coming in August going in full detail…
Welcome to the May Purchases review. I was worried that there wouldn’t be much to discuss as all the Record stores were closed, Amazon mentioned they wouldn’t be delivering records, but all that started to end and the world started opening back up. Now, I didn’t make as many purchases as usual and that is okay. One purchase this month was rather large and has kept me busy.
First up for this month is another Kiss album. Believe it or not, I haven’t bought them all yet. I am down to about 6 or 7 vinyls that I do not have and this month I picked up one of them. The album is ‘Sonic Boom’ and I have been searching for this one for a while. If you find one of the original pressing, it is well over $100 as there were so few of them. Thankfully, I finally discovered that there was a special release done by KissOnline a few years back and the price of those is so much better at around $30 (with shipping). So, I grabbed a nice one unopened, green vinyl. It is sweet!!
Then a week or so later, I was snooping around on eBay and I found a seller that was selling a bunch of CDs by Jeff Scott Soto and I am a huge fan of his. I used to have a bunch of his CDs, but gave them away years ago when we moved from one state to another….Dumb move…the CD part, not the actual move. I bought as much of his collection as my budget would allow. It had 13 CDs, but there were actually 15 separate albums as some had 2 albums in one. Do you want me to list them all?? Of course you do…
Talisman – Life
Talisman – 5 Out of 5
Talisman – Live at the Sweden Rock Festival
Talisman – Humanimal (2CD set)
Talisman – Cats & Dogs
Talisman – Truth
Jeff Scott Soto – Live at Firefest 2008
Jeff Scott Soto – Believe in Me E.P.
Jeff Scott Soto – Prism
Jeff Scott Soto – Love Parade
Human Clay – Human Clay
Human Clay U4ia
Soto – Inside the Vertigo
Soto – Divak
And there is another I picked up on Amazon, not pictured…Jeff Scott Soto – Retribution. That is a lot of Jeff and sadly, only a small sampling of what he has done. I am still missing 15-20 more that I want of his since he has more solo stuff, more Talisman stuff, more Soto, there is W.E.T., Eyes, Takara, Axel Rudi Pell and Sons of Apollo still waiting to be bought.
And that is it. Not much vinyl this month, but that is okay. I will make up for it in June I am sure when I go out and finally do some crate digging for some old vinyl. Plus, I have some Def Leppard coming and a new Whitesnake that will be in my June collection as they are already pre-ordered. Until next month! Happy collecting!
Below is one of the first post I ever did for this site and I haven’t updated since. That was 4 years ago. Jeff Scott Soto has released a ton of albums since then so I figured I needed to do an update on this post from 4/17/2016. If I was to complete do this from scratch today, it wouldn’t look this pedestrian, but I will leave it is an just update some albums and song information. I have been on a big JSS kick lately so I want to spread the love….I hope you enjoy.
UPDATED POST:
The artist spotlight is on one of my favorite rock vocalists, Jeff Scott Soto. I came across his music thanks to a great website by Andrew McNiece – Melodicrock.com (go check it out). If you haven’t heard of Jeff, let me tell you a little about him.
Jeff has only been in a few bands – Yngwie Malemsteen’s Rising Force, Talisman, W.E.T., Sons of Apollo, SOTO, Soul Sirkus, Redlist, Eyes, Journey (yes, that Journey), Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Takara, Eyes, Axel Rudi Pell and I believe there are several others so yeah…only a few.
He also has made appearances on so many other albums (too numerous to list). Most recently he was on Joel Hoekstra’s 13 album “Dying to Live” which I thought was a great album. He was even in the fictional band Steel Dragon from the movie “Rock Star” with Mark Wahlberg. And lastly, he has had a great solo career.
I mentioned he was in Journey above. In 2006, Journey let their lead singer go, Steve Augeri, and picked up Jeff to finish the tour. Jeff had worked withNeal Schon in the group Soul Sirkus which I will talk more about later. I was so excited with that announcement as after hearing his version of “Send Her My Love”, I knew he had the chops for it. Sadly, it didn’t last. After the tour they let him go and went with a different singer.
2 Loud 2 Old Music 