Southpaw - Feat Fredrik Akesson and John Leven (Europe)

Juste receive that Cd from 1998!

Heavier and darker than the last Europe for example but it still melodic and very, very interesting!

Who know that CD?

I have it somewhere down here but I have to listen it again to say something

BTW Personne if you go to Talismanworld and choose the Discography menu, you can find an item called Side Projects where you can find all the recording that our guys have done - well all the ones that me and the girls (Stefy and Nath) know or found on the net.

This is what we have about SouthPaw, but is a short review that I found on the net a few time ago and we never made 1 by ourselves but if you want feel free to write down 1.

Alright alright, it came out last year, but this is pretty important stuff just now slowly seeping into America, Southpaw being a deceiving name for a Swedish supergroup featuring Yngwie's Mats Leven, Europe's John Leven, Talisman guitarist Fredrik Åkesson and it's Alive drummer Richard Evensand.

The sound is a creative post-metal alternative AOR thing, if such things exist, reminding me of the under-rated Freak Of Nature, sorta glossy hair metal meets Alice in Chains. I guess by long division that also arrives at last blast Skid Row, again, an under-rated phenom.

Low-ground riffs, prog metal bombast, it all adds up to wunnerful confusion, and a record sincere and skilful. Highlight: Oh Yeah, vocals afire, riffs and drums performing metal calculus like a juice-bar drunk Soundgarden.

satrianivzla wrote:

I have it somewhere down here but I have to listen it again to say something

I was thinking about you when I receive the CD!

Very nice my friend

Well as you know the Talisman website have a great history behind and it took to us a long time to have it online as you can see now.

I made a extensive research about the guys and I always tried to add records but less about J because he have his own website.

Personne wrote:

satrianivzla wrote:

I have it somewhere down here but I have to listen it again to say something

I was thinking about you when I receive the CD!

Personne wrote:

Juste receive that Cd from 1998!

Heavier and darker than the last Europe for example but it still melodic and very, very interesting!

Who know that CD?

I do!
To be honest it's been quite a long time since I listened to it.... maybe I should put it in my CD player again soon... thanks for the reminder Thierry!

Love,
Stefy

satrianivzla wrote:

I made a extensive research about the guys and I always tried to add records but less about J because he have his own website.

Yes.... Simon has always had a great dedication to the TALISMAN site project!
Even if we had some hard times during the setting up (remember man? ), I was glad to have him and Nath all the way long...

Love,
Stefy

Review from Melodic : http://www.melodicrock.com/reviews/reviewsuk.html

They didn't like it!

Actually as far as I remember that was not my cup of tea either despite the great artists performing on it... as I already said, I should give it some more recent listenings

Love,
Stefy

Now I can write down something about this record - I am listening right this moment.

This release was made for Fredrik Åkesson once he quit Talisman in 1998.
If you check the Talisman bio you can find that Åkesson wants a "more metal oriented direction" and as the band don't want to go ahead, he went into Eyeball.

Åkesson plus John Levén (Bass - Europe), Mats Levén (Singer - Treat, Yngwie and 10,000 artists more) and Richard Evensand (drums - it's Alive) formed Eyeball and then they change their band name into Soutpaw.

The band' sound is too dark for my taste I know that they (Åkesson and Levén) have better releases with other projects that this 1 (for example Krux).
I don't know why they tried to sound too american (you can think that are a litle bit grunge Alice in Chains, Soundgarden style) but in songs like Permanent, All that I want and specially Caught in the Midle Åkesson made his best work.

Talisman recorded then in 1998 their Truth album with Pontus Norgren in the guitar duties.

A good point about them is that during the promoting tour of their self titled debut album, the band supported Ronnie James Dio on his November Swedish dates that year.

You know what Simon? The Southpaw Cd's turning and turning again on my cd player.
I don't find it too dark, I like the prog breaks during the songs...I will come later with a song by song feelings!

Track 1 - Christmas : A very hard one. A distorted voice and loud guitar to open the cd but if you dig a little and appreciate heavy prog breaks instead of the traditional guitar solo I think you'll like the song.

Track 2 - Thy Will Be Done : Another heavy track. It's a mid tempo song like western ballad with very loud guitars but what a work of art! Listen to the drums of Richard Evensand at the end! Great song IMO.

Track 3 - The Great Unknown :
Meaby the darkest song of the CD, again listen to the drums and the prog break!

Track 4 - Permanent :
If you don't like that song I don't understand nothing, it's very melodic with divine guitar, Mats voice's is soulful on that track. Fantastic break again.

Track 5 - Vertigo :
Distant apache's drums coming from the ages, a distorted voice again and then a maelstrom of energic music with a lot of emotions in the voice of Mats, then slow break and re-maelstrom. There is always two speeds in Southpaw! Great song again.

Track 6 - All That I Want :
More soul again on that track, with a slow intro to explode on a fantastic tune, remember what I said with the 'two speeds', great guitar and bass of Fredrik and John.

Track 7 - Oh Yeah :
Very heavy and loud song but again very well done.

Track 8 - Surprise :
Slow track and again the band put the second gear with style. Reminds me of a mix of Dan Reed meet Alice Cooper. Great touch of strings!!

Track 9 - Caught in the Middles :
Return to heavy stuff, but the song starts in second gear to pass the slow motion and accelerate again.

Track 10 - Holy Water :
10/10 on that one, what an holy song. A lot of emotions comes from the voice of Mats and from the band. Some touch of cello on that one. What a tune!!!

Track 11 - Spiral :(Japan Bonus track)
Heavy one with distorted voice from the grave. Speed break etc... Maybe you can end the cd with track 10!

I should hire you to help me out with the reviews.
The only bad thing is that there is no money for that.