TALISMAN — the now-defunct Swedish-American melodic hard rock band featuring singer Jeff Scott Soto (YNGWIE MALMSTEEN, JOURNEY) — reunited for an appearance at this year’s Sweden Rock Festival on June 5 in Sölvesborg, Sweden. Fan-filmed video of the concert can be seen below.
Marcel Jacob, who would have turned 60 this year, was TALISMAN‘s bassist and undisputed leader. In his honor, the band’s music was performed by his surviving bandmates — Soto, guitarist Fredrik Åkesson (currently in OPETH) and drummer Jamie Borger. Bassist Johan Niemann (EVERGREY) completed the lineup in a way that guarantees that classics like “I’ll Be Waiting”, “Mysterious” and “Colour My XTC” were played in a way worthy of one of Sweden’s greatest hard rock bands ever.
After the show, Soto took to his social media to share photos of the performance and he wrote in an accompanying message: “My emotions are still screaming, what an absolute kick in the ass it was to play with TALISMAN for Marcel here at Sweden Rock Festival!!! Hearing 25,000 people singing I’ll Be Waiting is something I will never forget!! Special thanks to our killer sound dude Peter Mansson and Christer Wedin for organizing and handling everything!!”
This past January, TALISMAN released a new song called “Save Our Love” as a way of raising awareness of the mental health crisis. In announcing the track, TALISMAN issued a statement in which the group said: “On January 30, 2024, Marcel Jacob would have turned 60.
“We want to shed light on the problem of mental health issues. Too many people are leaving their loved ones and friends far too early.
“Marcel Jacob founded the band TALISMAN in 1989 after playing with John Norum, Yngwie Malmsteen and early EUROPE. TALISMAN had a major hit with the song ‘I’ll Be Waiting’ and released several studio and live albums. Unfortunately, Marcel took his own life on July 21, 2009.
“The remaining members of TALISMAN, Jeff Scott Soto (vocals),and Pontus Norgren (guitars),have written the song ‘Save Our Love’ as a tribute and in memory of Marcel Jacob and the music they created together. TALISMAN‘s drummer, Jaime Borger, also plays on the song, and it features guest appearances by Mic Michaeli from EUROPE on keyboards, Johan Niemann (EVERGREY) on bass and BJ (SOTO) on backing vocals.
“If you can, make a donation to the the non-profit organization Suicide Zero.”
Jacob was a Swedish musician, best known as the bassist in the hard rock bands TALISMAN and LAST AUTUMN’S DREAM.
In 1978, he formed the band RISING FORCE together with guitarist Yngwie J. Malmsteen. Four years later, Jacob joined the band FORCE, which later changed its name to EUROPE, replacing John Levén, who took Jacob‘s place in RISING FORCE. During his time in FORCE, Jacob wrote the song “Black Journey For My Soul” together with vocalist Joey Tempest. The song was eventually included on EUROPE‘s second album, “Wings Of Tomorrow”, re-titled “Scream Of Anger”. After spending three months in FORCE, Jacob traded places with John Levén again, who apparently had issues with Malmsteen.
In 1987, Jacob played on the album “Total Control”, the first solo LP released by EUROPE guitarist John Norum. Jacob also co-wrote several of the songs included on that album.
Two years later he formed TALISMAN together with Soto. Throughout the years TALISMAN was Jacob‘s major project and the band released several studio and live albums until 2007.