ZODIAC — A Hiding Place (review)

ZODIAC — A Hiding Place album cover Album · 2013 · Hard Rock Buy this album from MMA partners
3.5/5 ·
UMUR
"A Hiding Place" is the 2nd full-length studio album by German hard rock act Zodiac. The album was released through Napalm Records in October 2013. Zodiac are a relatively new band and "A Hiding Place" is released almost to the date one year after "A Bit of Devil (2012)".

Stylistically the two albums aren´t terribly far from each other either. The music is blues based hard rock played with a great organic touch and featuring a vintage take on the genre. These guys are hardly original sounding, but they sure can both play and deliver their message in a convincing manner. Lead vocalist/guitarist Nick Van Delft is definitely the main attraction here although the rest of the guys in the band are also very well playing. Van Delft possesses a deep and warm voice that embraces the listener all the way through the album´s playing time. Even at the most generic bluesy hard rock moments he shines and elevates the music to a higher level. The many soulful bluesy guitar solos and the omnipresent organ are some of the other assets on "A Hiding Place". Compared to "A Bit of Devil (2012)" I think "A Hiding Place" is slightly less energetic and less hard rocking and more laidback and bluesy, which is a bit of a shame as I sometimes miss some raw energy. There are a couple of hard rockers on the album though and that´s when a Thin Lizzy reference isn´t all wrong. The cover version of "Cortez The Killer" by Neil Young gives away another influence. A good cover version by the way.

While I might miss a couple of more hard rocking tracks, the material are generally very well written and performed and fans of more laidback bluesy hard rock with soaring guitar solos and and a warm organic sound should definitely give "A Hiding Place" a listen or two. A 3.5 - 4 star (75%) rating is deserved.
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