Line Up: Jeff Scott Soto - Vocals , Marcel Jacob - Bass , Howie Simon and Freddie Åkesson - Guitars, Jamie Borger - Drums

Releasing their untitled debut back in '90, this Swedish Hard Rock band was one of the few survivors of the Grunge onslaught, due to the fact that they were clever enough to focus on Japan.

With only 2 studio albums to their name, they were also one of few bands to have a live album as a 3 rd! In '96 & '97, the band's protagonists, vocalist Jeff Scott Soto and bassist Marcel Jacob, would continue as Human Clay (2 albums to their name), putting Talisman an the 2 nd plan for a while.

However, in '98 the band returned with "Truth"...and that was the last we heard from them in the record stores. Marcel and Jeff would go on doin lots of projects or performing on other bands' albums, and Talisman itself would continue to do the occasional performances.

Their show at 2.001's Sweden Rock Festival would become the soundtrack for the band's 2.002 return (live) album "Live At Sweden Rock", and the new studio album (the first for Frontiers Records) "Cats & Dogs" followed in 2.003.

Thís double life affair, thus, is the third live album in the band's 15-year career! On the first CD, you can find a recording of the band's performance at the Club Mondo in Stockholm in August of 2.003. The 17-song track list included some of the band's better songs, one ("Skin On Skin") from their then current "Cats & Dogs" album, but also a cover from Europe's "Screams Of Anger" (which, accidently, was co-written by Joey Tempest & Marcel Jacob) and (most surprisingly) Ozzy's "I Don't Know".

The sound quality of the recording is, frankly, amazinf for a live album! Also, as it was recorded in a club, you get to hear the great interaction between band and audience.

CD2 is a recording of a shorter set list (all songs also featured on disc 1) at Sweden Rock Festival 2.003 but with a minimum of audience sounds. Ah well, not everybody likes those 'noises', prefering to concentrate on the music and the memories they bring. Possibly thàt is why the album was brought in thís format, because the 2 nd CD really doesn't add anything to the set list of the first one!

Check out the review of the "World's Best Kept Secret" DVD which combines these recordings with some more goodies! Although live albums àre somewhat of a 'best of' thing (and I usually don't rate compilations), I'll rate this for the sound quality, okay? As live albums go, there aren't a lot of 'classics'...but this one deserves to be rated as such alright!