Tag: Under Fire

Talisman – ‘Vaults’ (2015) – Album Review (The Jeff Scott Soto Series)

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Talisman is no more since Marcel Jacob passed away in 2009. The former members of Talisman wanted Marcel’s legacy to live on and as a tribute to him and all he did for Talisman, they released a 2 CD compilation called ‘Vaults’. The album features demos from every person Marcel used to record demos for songs that wound up in Talisman. It includes Jeff Scott Soto, of course, but also has demos from Matti Alfonzetti (Jagged Edge, Skin, Skintrade), Thomas Vikstrom (Candelmass, Brazen Abbot, Stormwind), Stefan Berggren (Company Of Snakes) and Goran Edman (Malmsteen, John Norum, Kharma).

As we discussed earlier, Talisman stems from when Marcel was working with John Norum and as Marcel was prepping songs for that album, he had Goran Edman record the demos. Goran was also in John Norum’s band. Norum rejected the songs, Goran was offered a gig with Yngwie Malmsteen and now Marcel was left with all these songs and no singer. That is when Jeff Scott Soto was brought into the picture. Jeff was with the band Eyes and came and did the songs with Talisman as a favor to Marcel. After the album cycle was done, he was back in Eyes.

Then shortly thereafter, Marcel ran in to an old grade school pal, Matti Alfonzetti, who would join as the singer. They wrote and put some demos together for the label. However, there was some management change at the label and they didn’t care about the success of the debut album as it wasn’t their baby so Marcel packed shop and left. They shopped the album around and after six months of nothing, Matti decided to leave and pursue other things. Marcel was not deterred and kept shopping the demo around without a singer. Finally Dino Records was interested in the band with one big catch. They wanted Jeff back on vocals. They knew about the success of their debut with Jeff and they loved that sound. That wasn’t a terrible thing for Marcel. Marcel decided to reach out to Jeff and catch up. And within 3 weeks of that call, the two were together again in the studio to record the next Talisman album.

As far as Thomas Vikstrom goes, Thomas was the keyboard player for Talisman from 1990-1992. I am assuming that during this time, Marcel was working on songs and Thomas do the vocals. These songs never appeared on any Talisman album with any other singer so not sure if they were ever used anywhere else prior to this release.

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Jeff Scott Soto – ‘B-Sides’ (2006) – Album Review (The Jeff Scott Soto Series)

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We are here with yet another Jeff Scott Soto release and this one is quite unique. It is called ‘B-Sides’ and consists of unreleased tracks, bonus tracks, duets as well as songs used for Tribute albums. It shows as it is an official release from Frontiers Records, but it is very cheap looking. The CDs themselves do say these are “Not For Sale, For Promo Use Only”, but they seem like bootlegs. However, discogs has them on their site and they do not list it as ‘Unofficial’ so everything actually leads me to believe this is a real Frontiers Records release. And yet, the mix of it is not that great as the volume between songs has not been equalized as some songs are louder than others. I don’t know what to think, but I have a copy and I am pretty stoked about it. I am curious as to why the reason behind this product though, so if anyone knows, please let me know in the comments below.

The main reason I’m stoked is that it saves me a ton of money from going and buying all the albums that these songs are on. Most are on an album from another artist that Jeff appears on or Tribute albums where this is probably the only song I would want any way. To have them all in one compilation I would say is big win. One thing that sort of stinks about this is the liner notes on the CD booklet. As you can see from a picture further down the post, there is a fantastic Track List of CD 2 and where the songs originated from, but the left side of the picture does not have the track list for CD 1 and where the songs originated. That is actually a misprint because I have seen pictures of the inner sleeve that have the CD 1 track list breakdown. If the list is there or not, this is still a pretty cool piece in the Soto collection.

The first song was a cassette only bonus track from Jeff’s first band, Panther. “Set Me Free” one of my favorite songs on that album. Soto attacks it with a deeper tone and yet still soars with some high notes. The drumming on it is immense with some great fills. The guitar solo is typical for the time to see how fast he can go, but its great. It definitely takes me back to the 80’s with this one. The next three tracks,”Act of Sympathy”, “Highway to Nowhere” and “Mental Ward” were demos from Jeff’s work with is buddy Gary Schutt on his album ‘Sentimetal’ that Jeff sang lead on. “Act” is pure metal, heavy, dark and Jeff sounds great but a lot of echo…again, this is a demo so not fully polished. Same with “Highway” except it is a little more speed metal, some kickass double bass drum, a real killer track. “Mental Ward” comes off feeling like a leftover track from Jeff’s worker with Biker Mice From Mars soundtrack. It has that same campy, cartoony feel to it.

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