Customer Reviews

Humanimal

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Talisman are an awesome melodic rock band led by the powerful vocals of Jeff Scott Soto. I have to say that every CD by Talisman is really very good. Their unique style of melodic rock has a certain groove that just lets each song flow perfectly. They always mix it up with a great balance of heaviness and ballads but the common thread between different songs and albums are the powerhouse vocals. This is a re-release of their album Humanimal in which you get a second CD filled with bonus material and demos. Great value for such outstanding music. Definitely worth buying if you're a fan of Jeff Scott Soto or Talisman and also recommended to fans of the melodic rock genre.

Originally released in 1994, Humanimal was the third studio album from Swedish melodic rockers Talisman, which featured powerhouse vocalist Jeff Scott Soto (Takara, Yngwie Malmsteen, Eyes, and so many others) and bassist Marcel Jacob (RIP). Humanimal was originally supposed to be a double-album, but ended up being cut down to a standard LP, with a separate Humanimal Part 2 collection following a few months later. This reissue from Rock Treasures collects both albums.

It's hard to top the fantastic Genesis album, but Talisman came close with this one. Humanimal seems to have all of the elements that make Talisman's sound so effective: the huge guitar hooks, killer melodies, grooving bass lines, and of course Soto's powerful, soulful vocals. The overall sound is based on the Journey and Queen arena rock sound, but there's a good dose of funk influence and some heavy, almost metal moments. It's just an instantly enjoyable slab of modern melodic rock. Highlights include "Colour My XTC," "Since You've Gone" and "All + All," but the whole thing rocks, even the groovy, bluesy closer "Doin' Time Wit' My Baby."

Just about any release by Talisman qualifies as a "must have" release for serious melodic rock fans, but Humanimal belongs near the top of their discography. If you're a Jeff Scott Soto fan, you definitely need to have this album in your collection, but fans of high quality melodic rock in general will want to hear Humanimal, especially now that it has been reissued.

Edition Notes: Rock Treasures reissued Humanimal in 2005, and did a fantastic job of it. In addition to expanded liner notes and a nice slipcase, the reissue features digitally remastered sound and the entire Humanimal Part 2 album (which includes the video clip for "Colour My XTC") as a bonus disc. Talk about a deluxe edition! I'd have bought it just for the remastering, but the bonus disc was the icing on the cake.

"Humanimal" is the third studio album by the Swedish American melodic hard rock band "Talisman" originally released in 1994, probably not the best of years for melodic hard rock; still "Talisman"s invnetive technical/melodic sound had established a considerable following in Europe and Japan that perfectly justified the making of a third album. The line up features lead singer Jeff Scott Soto, bassist Marcel Jacob, guitarist Fredrick Akersson and new entry drummer Jamie Borger (who had joined the band in the tour that followed the release of their second album "Genesis").

Now, "Humanimal" or "Humanimal Pt1&2" ,as often refered to, is the result of various different tracklists of the same album for each geographical market; there had been over four differnt tracklists of the album, each adresed to a different market. All those songs were eventually collected in two CDs titled "Humanimal pt1" and "Humanimal pt2" and the 2003 version reviewed here is a two disc release including both parts (note the circular note on the top left of the cover).

Over the years hard rock enthusiast/journalists/fans have argued as to whether "Humanimal" or its predecessor, "Genesis" was the best studio effort in "Talisman"s career. Despite the rhetorical queston, one has to objectively point out that "humanimal" is the most complete "Talisman" album ever, featuring 22 songs of technical, groovy, distorted, melodic and catchy hard rock that esily stood the test of time. Favorite tracks include "D.o.a.p.s.", "Seasons", "Lonely world", "Humanimal" and "Animal ritual".

"Humanimal" captures "Talisman" at their artistic and productive peak and along with the preceding album "Genesis" have layed the foreground for all things technical melodic hard rock.

I was familiar with Jeff Scott Soto from his work with Yngwie malmsteen, Eyes and Soul Sirkus. Which are all great albums and band so i figured i would check this one out. WOW!!! This album is incredible. Even the filler tracks aren't bad which are mostly on the bonus disc on the import.

Aah yes Talisman, purveyors of well played heavy AOR for several years during the mid 90's when it was just about the most unpopular musical form. Though even during the hair daze of 1988 or thereabouts this would not of rated either because it's too polite, not sleazy in the least and played with due respect to craft. But call me (hum)animal but I've got a slight soft spot for bands like this, bands who are honest and not trying to convince me their the hardest/wildest. Nor trying to play the deep and meaningful ticket but who are instead just playing middle of the road hard rock in a way that allows the songs and album as a whole to breathe and for the clean production to work it's charms and for the players to each have their time in the sun.

The twin aces in Talismans hand were of course the guitar axioms of Fredrik Akesson who shows a broad spectrum of taste and the versatile popes of Jeff Scott Soto. The talents of these guys intertwine through these tunes that were mostly written by Soto and bassist Marcel Jacob - and these two guys also handled production duties. And being the musical child of a bassist there is plenty of bouncy rhythms all over this CD - no need to be picky - the rolling feel is injected into most of the tunes and a particular example would be TV Reality. There is also a large dollop of funk which allows for a bit of variety and musical mobility and this trait would perhaps be best sampled by wrapping your ears around track #5, Seasons.

A reliable album and there ain't no doubt though the lack of killer instinct is pretty obvious. And to be brutally honest the ballads are rubbish just like they are on Sotos solo album Prism. Soto actually comes across all Terence Trent D'Arby on All + All and not in a good way with the spoken word sections of the song making you squirm due to their twee nature. And some of the different moods don't really work.

But to reiterate this is a decent quality album perfect for throwing on in any company or as pleasant background music for yourself.

Marcel Jacob and Jeff Scott Soto, what a team. Great vocals and great bass. If you like Yngwie Malmsteen, Axel Rudi Pell, Mr. Big, Van Halen, Cinderella, Etc. Check these guys out. I'm a big Billy Sheehan fan. Now I'm a Marcel Jacob fan. If you like Hard rock, but don't care for all the new commercialized Progressive stuff. Check out Talisman. It's a shame everything good these days in Rock is Import without any radio stations giving them any airplay because they gave up on 80's style Hard rock/Heavy Metal. I would say if you are new to Talisman, start your collection with "Cats & Dogs" or "Genesis" then to this cd. The plus to this cd(and it is my favorite) is that none of the songs sound the same. The singing, Bass, Guitar and drums all sound great and the music is very different. You get hard and heavy, a little bluesy, melodic and even one that sounds like something out of the 50's or 60's. At first you'll say what the... is this, then you'll laugh a little. If your shopping for Talisman be Careful, there is another band called Talisman that is totaly different(Italian I think). Hope this helps.