Founded in 1989 by the songwriting bassist Marcel Jacob and fronted by the American singer Jeff Scott Soto, the band released seven studio albums from 1990 to 2006, before going on a farewell tour in 2007.

[1] After Marcel Jacob died in 2009, Talisman has reunited three times for one-off festival shows held in 2014, 2016, and 2017 with Johan Niemann filling in on bass.

In 2019, to mark a ten-year anniversary of Marcel Jacob's passing, Talisman reunited once again to record and release a commemorative song "Never Die".

[2] Talisman was formed by bass player Marcel Jacob, who had previously played with: Yngwie Malmsteen's Rising Force, John Norum Group and Power.

Once the songs were completed and mixed Marcel changed the working title for his solo project from Guitars On Fire to Talisman.

Jacob programmed some drums and played all rhythm guitars with the help of the producer Mats Lindfors on "Women, Whiskey and Songs".

Live the band featured: Jason Bieler on guitar (Saigon Kick), Jakob "Jake Samuel" Samuelsson on drums and Thomas Vikström on keyboards and backing vocals.

Soto joined the recording along with his then-girlfriend Julie Greaux (Billy Idol, Axel Rudi Pell) who ended up playing the grand piano on "All I Want".

In conjunction with the release of "Genesis" early 1993 Dino Music re-released the first album "Talisman" adding six live tracks recorded in Sweden in 1990.

The band did a club tour in Sweden in March with Julie Greaux on keyboards and Jake Samuel back again on drums.

After the end of the European tour in early October Jamie and Marcel spent the following two months in a rehearsal studio in Upplands Väsby, just outside Stockholm writing, playing bits of music, improvising arrangements, learning the new stuff and collecting tons of material.

Jeff joined the guys In January 1994 and the band recorded and mixed the new album "Humanimal" at Sound Trade Studios in Stockholm.

Additional musicians on "Humanimal" included Julie Greaux as backing vocalist and the sound engineer Ronny Lahti playing the funky wah guitar on "Seasons".

Talisman also had the chance to play a couple of gigs and to open up for Yngwie Malmsteen in Stockholm with Pontus Norgren on guitar.

The album included a range of covers: "Darling Nikki" of Prince, "Let me entertain you" of Queen and "Frozen" of Madonna (which apparently became very popular in clubs in Germany).

Jeff, Marcel and Pontus later joined forces with drummer Tomas Broman (Great King Rat, Electric Boys, Amaze Me) and finally released the self-titled debut album of Humanimal in 2002.

The entire back catalogue of Talisman was re-mastered and re-issued through GMR Music Group Sweden, complete with bonus tracks, demos, live gigs, promotional videos, and liner notes.

"7" was recorded at XTC Studios in Älvsjö and at Mahatma Gandhi Location in Stockholm, with all the vocals done at the Hampton in Northridge, California.

The album includes 11 tracks and was mixed by Pontus Norgren, who also guested on "Final curtain" (the bonus-track on the Japanese release.)

The band was supposed to do a tour in September/October 2006 hitting Germany, Greece, Belgium, Italy and Spain but everything was delayed due to Soto's commitment in Journey.

Jacob committed suicide on 21 July 2009 (aged 45) after suffering from personal and health problems, effectively ending any chance of the band reforming.

The first four Talisman albums are re-released in Digipack editions including new liner notes with personal comments from Jeff along with previously unreleased pics and audio material in November 2012.