While in Talisman, one of the best Swedish Melodic Hard Rock of the nineties, the mighty Jeff Scott Soto and fellow bandmate Marcel Jacob - both prolific songwriters - started a side project to develop their co-penned material outside Talisman.
Called HUMAN CLAY, the duo Soto/Jacob released two albums via a small Swedish label; the selftitled 'Human Clay' and 'U4iA' (read Euphoria).
Despite being re-issued as double CD in '04, due its limited distribution these albums remains pretty unknown for Soto, Jacob, Talisman and general Melodic Hard Rock fans worldwide.
Now the Swedish label and production company A Sun Hill Production AB is re-releasing both albums with some bonus tracks, remastered and re-packaged with new artwork, entitled "Closing The Book...".
Human Clay was the vehicle for Soto and the late Marcel Jacob to develop their Euro Melodic Hard Rock very similar to Talisman in places, but there's also elements that not suited their main band and both wanted to play as well.
Aside from the catchy melodic hard rockers, we have some Scandi AOR numbers as "Vows In Stone", metalized songs as "Survive" or the awesome neo-classical hard rock of "Jealousy" where Yngwie Malmsteen lays a guitar solo (indeed it's a track in the vein of his Eclipse album).
There's also some bonuses not present in the original albums; "In The Line Of Fire", written by Soto/Jacob when they were in the Yngwie band during the '80s, "Boy On A Golden Hill" a well recorded demo by the duo at the begining of the nineties, and "Eternal Flame" co-written with John Norum where he plays guitar uncredited.
So, Human Clay offers is more varied material than Talisman from the always awesome Jeff Scott Soto and great multi-instrumentalist Marcel Jacob, which handles most of the instruments here.
Many well known Swedish musicians contribute as well, all uncredited due to contractual restrictions.
This remaster improves noticeably the quality over the original releases, and there's more to come, as A Sun Hill Production AB will be releasing the entire remastered Talisman catalog next year.
"Closing The Book..." is the definitive collection of Human Clay, the Melodic Hard Rock vehicle of the talented Jeff Scott Soto and Marcel Jacob as duo.
Easily Recommended.
01 - In The Line Of Fire
02 - Salvation
03 - The Thin Line
04 - Pain & Deception
05 - 2 Your Heart
06 - Vows In Stone
07 - Stand 4 The Fall
08 - U4iA
09 - Golden Years
10 - Boy On A Golden Hill
11 - Outside Lookin' In
12 - Pretender
13 - Survive
14 - Lessons Of Love
15 - Without U
16 - Jealousy
17 - Holdin' On
18 - King Of The Nation
19 - Speed Demon
20 - Heaven On Earth
21 - Now It's Time
22 - Don't Look Back
23 - I Wanna Go Home
24 - Eternal Flame
25 - I'd Rather Have The Blues (Than 2 Spend My Life With U)
Jeff Scott Soto - lead & backing vocals, guitar, keys
Marcel Jacob - bass, guitar, keys, drums
Brian Young: guest lead guitars
Yngwie Malmsteen: guest guitar solo
John Norum: : guest guitar solo
and many more uncredited musicians
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HUMAN CLAY (Jeff Scott Soto) – Closing The Book… (2012)
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