2006 has been an excellent year for melodic rocks in terms of quality. There’s been World Upside Down by House of Lords, Pride of Lions’ live platter and the forthcoming Joe Lynn Turner showcase Sunstorm. To these quality achievements Talisman’s 7 album can be added. This is a masterful piece of melodic rock populated by great hooks, big choruses and superb instrumentation. 

Talisman are led by the hardest working man in the business, Jeff Scott Soto who can currently be found in Journey and I’d argue that this is possibly the best work that he’s ever been involved in. Guitars are provided by Frederik Akesson who some of you may have seen last year when he joined Arch Enemy to provide one of the best guitar armies in the world. 

Falling gets 7 off to a fine start and it becomes immediately clear that Talisman aren’t content to sit back and rest on their laurels as this isn’t just rather fine AOR -  it’s funky as hell. This is true of most of the up tempo tracks as well. 7 really comes into it’s own from track five through to seven The 1 I’m Living 4 (hateful attempt at text speak) is when Jeff Scott Soto really begins to pull out the Steve Perry-isms and during this and the next three songs we got the odd “oh oh ohlwaaaaaaaaays” and other trademark Perry inflections which I for one have missed over the last decade. 

On My Way is, for me one of the songs of the year along with House of Lords’ SOS. It’s as catchy as the flu (cliché fans) and is (to quote another cliché) almost worth the price of admission all by itself. It is an utterly supreme example of why melodic rock, erm, rocks! The first time I listened to 7 was in the car and I remember remarking to my elder son that there hadn’t been a ballad on the album yet. Well, blow me if there isn’t one next and again we find the band in full on Journey mode. You can imagine the lighters being sparked up if this was ever to get an airing live and when Soto exhorts the rest of the band to “Sing” it’s a joyous moment on a joyous album. 

Sometimes albums tail off badly from their high points but not 7. Whilst the remaining songs aren’t quite as utterly glorious as the aforementioned ones they are still of a very high standard and in no way diminish what has gone before. In fact the only bad thing about them is the annoying grammar! 

It’s doubtful at this stage in their career whether Talisman will ever find great success outside of the somewhat diminishing melodic rock crowd but if you are part of that crowd, this is an exceptional release and one which I seriously contemplated giving the full 10/10 to before chickening out!

'7' is released on October 20th through Frontiers Records

Let Us Know Your Views On '7'

Track List

Falling
Nowhere Fast
Rhyme or Reason
End Of The line
The 1 I'm Living 4
On My Way
Forevermore
Succumb 2 My Desire
Shed A Tear Goodbye
Troubled Water
Back 2 The Feeling

Line Up

Jeff Scott Soto - Vocals
Marcel Jacob - Bass
Jamie Borger - Drums
Fredrik Akesson - Guitars