Line Up: Jeff Scott Soto - Vocals; Marcel Jacob - Guitars, Bass; Fredrik Åkesson - Guitars; Jamie Borger - Drums, Percussion

Rarely do I get excited with an album these days. To be honest with you “Cats And Dogs” caught me by surprise without leaving my cd player for the last weeks.

Jeff Scott Soto, who became famous singing in Yngwie Malmsteen album “Rising Force” in his late teens, is the frontman of Talisman, the vehicle for himself and charesmatic bass and guitar player Marcel Jacob. Although both of them are workaholics spending their time in various projects they manage to release excelent cd’s like this one.

This album goes beyond melodic rock and AOR thanks to the awsome work done on bass, guitars and vocals of course. Then it is the ratio between rockers and ballads, with the melo stuff losing ground and ballsy songs taking the lead. Marcel Jacob is trully magnificent on bass which is not following but leading in most tracks like “Outta My Way” where the duel between bass-guitar steals the show.

The band really puts its soul in this cd. All of the songs are at a very high level and that’s one thing Jeff Scott Soto fans should be proud about and will make the average listener happy for buing the specific album. “Cats And Dogs” is surely one of the best records presented in this site.