Zodiac are a

hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a heavier subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and Distortion (music), distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the Garage rock, garage, Psychedelic rock, psychedelic and blues ...

band from

Münster Münster (; ) is an independent city#Germany, independent city (''Kreisfreie Stadt'') in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also a ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. The band was formed in 2010 by singer-guitarist Nick Van Delft and

Long Distance Calling In telecommunications, a long-distance call (U.S.) or trunk call (also known as a toll call in the UK ) is a telephone call made to a location outside a defined local calling area. Long-distance calls are typically charged a higher billing rate t ...

drummer Janosch Rathmer. Stephan Gall and Robert Kahr joined shortly after to complete the line-up before Ruben Claro replaced Kahr in 2012. The band are heavily influenced by rock and

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, cha ...

music from the 1970s and it adds to the theme and style of their own music. As of 2016, they have made four studio albums.

History

Founding and ''A Bit Of Devil'' (2010 to 2012)

Guitarist Stephan Gall and drummer Janosch Rathmer had previously spent eight years with

melodic death metal Melodic death metal (also referred to as melodeath) is a subgenre of death metal that employs highly melodic guitar riffs, often borrowing from traditional heavy metal (including New Wave of British Heavy Metal). The genre features the heavines ...

band Misery Speaks. Following the break-up of the band in 2010, Gall and Rathmer still wanted to pursue their music careers. Rathmer met Nick Van Delft that same year and after several weeks of jamming, they started planning to create a new band. Van Delft wanted the band to be a trio before Rathmer persuaded him to be in a band with a second guitar. Gall was invited by Rathmer to join the band with Robert Kahr joining around the same time on

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Wood * Bass or basswood, the wood of the tilia americana tree Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in th ...

and keyboards. Rathmer choose the band name after the astrological term. In April 2011, the band played their first gigs before their debut record was released- a self-titled EP. Shortly afterwards, Gall and Rathmer founded their own

record label "Big Three" music labels A record label or record company is a brand or trademark of Sound recording and reproduction, music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a Music publisher, ...

named ''Honest Hound Records''. The band's debut studio album ''A Bit Of Devil'' was released on 25 May 2012 and the band toured in autumn 2012 with bands such as

The Sword The Sword is an American heavy metal band from Austin, Texas. Formed in 2003, the band is composed of vocalist and guitarist John D. Cronise, guitarist Kyle Shutt, bassist Bryan Richie and drummer Santiago "Jimmy" Vela III for most of its ten ...

and

Spiritual Beggars Spiritual Beggars is a Swedish stoner metal band from Halmstad, formed by Michael Amott, who is known for his work with Arch Enemy, Carcass (band), Carcass and Carnage (band), Carnage. The band is heavily influenced by 1970s hard rock and inco ...

''A Hiding Place'' and ''Sonic Child'' (2013 to 2014)

When Robert Kahr left the band in 2012, Ruben Claro replaced him playing the same instruments and adding backing vocals to the band. Zodiac received a deal from

Napalm Records Napalm Records is an Austrian independent record label focused on heavy metal, hard rock and folk/folk rock/folk metal. Originally, Napalm focused on black metal bands, such as Abigor and Summoning, and folk metal bands, such as Falkenbach a ...

in July 2013 before the release of the second studio album ''A Hiding Place'' in October the same year. As well as the debut album, ''A Hiding Place'' was also released under

Prosthetic Records Prosthetic Records is an American record label specializing in Heavy metal music, heavy metal recordings, founded in Los Angeles, California in 1998 by E.J. Johantgen and Dan Fitzgerald. Prosthetic Records released the first two albums by Lamb o ...

in the US. The album includes a cover of

Cortez The Killer "Cortez the Killer" is a song by Canadian-American singer-songwriter Neil Young from his 1975 album, ''Zuma (Neil Young & Crazy Horse album), Zuma''. It was recorded with the band Crazy Horse (band), Crazy Horse. It has since been ranked No. 39 on ...

Neil Young Neil Percival Young (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian and American singer-songwriter. After embarking on a music career in Winnipeg in the 1960s, Young moved to Los Angeles, forming the folk rock group Buffalo Springfield. Since the begi ...

. The first and second tracks of the album ''Downtown'' and ''Free'' were both released with music videos that can be found on

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

as well as a lyric video for the fifth track ''Moonshine''. ''Downtown'' was also released as the only single of the album. In late 2013, the band had to cancel a tour supporting stoner rock band

Monster Magnet Monster Magnet is an American rock music, rock band formed in Red Bank, New Jersey, in 1989 by Dave Wyndorf (vocals and guitar), John McBain (musician), John McBain (guitar), and Tim Cronin (vocals and drums). The band has since undergone severa ...

after their

visas Visa most commonly refers to: * Travel visa, a document that allows entry to a foreign country * Visa Inc., a US multinational financial and payment cards company ** Visa Debit card issued by the above company ** Visa Electron, a debit card ** Vi ...

were denied. Instead, Zodiac went on a small European tour with

Orchid Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant. Orchids are cosmopolitan plants that are found in almost every habitat on Eart ...

and

Blues Pills Blues Pills are a Swedish rock band, formed in Örebro in 2011. The band has released four studio albums, two Extended play, EPs, three live albums and five singles since its formation. Their latest studio album, Birthday, was released in Augus ...

and began preparations for their third studio album. In March 2014, the band supported acts

Audrey Horne Audrey Horne is a fictional character from the ABC television series ''Twin Peaks'', played by Sherilyn Fenn. The character was created by Mark Frost and David Lynch. She was introduced in the pilot. The daughter of Ben and Sylvia Horne, siste ...

and

Grand Magus Grand Magus are a three-piece Heavy metal music, heavy metal band from Stockholm, Sweden that draws influence from classic heavy metal bands and elements of doom metal. Career The band was formed in 1996 under the name ''Smack'' by former Ca ...

Scandinavia Scandinavia is a subregion#Europe, subregion of northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. It can sometimes also ...

before recording for their next album two months later. The album ''Sonic Child'' was released on 19 September 2014 with ten tracks, two bonus tracks and four live performances. ''Sonic Child'' debuted at number 47 on the German album charts.

''Road Tapes Vol. 1'' (2014–present)

In autumn 2014, Zodiac headlined for the first time on tour in Germany. The band used 17 concerts during the tour to record for the band's first live album ''Road Tapes Vol. 1''. The album was released on 17 April 2015 and included songs performed live from their previous three studio albums. In June 2015, the band posted a link to their music video for ''A Bit Of Devil'' while commenting that songwriting had begun for their fourth studio album.

Style

Zodiac's style is a mix of

blues rock Blues rock is a fusion music genre, genre and form of rock music, rock and blues music that relies on the chords/scales and instrumental improvisation of blues. It is mostly an electric ensemble-style music with instrumentation similar to electri ...

and

classic rock Classic rock is a radio format that developed from the album-oriented rock (AOR) format in the early 1980s. In the United States, it comprises rock music ranging generally from the mid-1960s through the early-1990s, primarily focusing on comm ...

from the 1970s. Drummer Janosch Rathmer labelled

Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin were an English rock music, rock band formed in London in 1968. The band comprised vocalist Robert Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page, bassist-keyboardist John Paul Jones (musician), John Paul Jones and drummer John Bonham. With a he ...

Pink Floyd Pink Floyd are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1965. Gaining an early following as one of the first British psychedelic music, psychedelic groups, they were distinguished by their extended compositions, sonic experiments ...

Thin Lizzy Thin Lizzy are an Irish rock band formed in Dublin in 1969. The band initially consisted of bass guitarist, lead vocalist and principal songwriter Phil Lynott, drummer Brian Downey, guitarist Eric Bell and organist Eric Wrixon although Wr ...

Stevie Ray Vaughan Stephen Ray Vaughan (also known as SRV; October 3, 1954 – August 27, 1990) was an American musician, best known as the guitarist and frontman of the blues rock trio Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble (band), Double Trouble. Although his ma ...

ZZ Top ZZ Top is an American rock band formed in Houston, Texas, in 1969. For almost 56 years, it consisted of vocalist-guitarist Billy Gibbons, drummer Frank Beard (musician), Frank Beard, and bassist-vocalist Dusty Hill prior to his death in 2021. ZZ ...

and

Joe Bonamassa Joseph Leonard Bonamassa ( ; born May 8, 1977) is an American blues rock guitarist, singer and songwriter. He started his career at age twelve, when he opened for B.B. King. Since 2000, Bonamassa has released fifteen solo albums through his inde ...

as influences.

Band members

;Current members *Nick Van Delft – lead vocals,

lead guitar Lead guitar (also known as solo guitar) is a musical part for a guitar in which the guitarist plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs and chords within a song structure. The lead is the featur ...

(2010–present) *Stephan Gall -

rhythm guitar In music performances, rhythm guitar is a guitar technique and role that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse (music), pulse in conjunction with other instruments from the rhythm section (e.g., d ...

(2010–present) *Ruben Claro –

, keyboards, backing vocals (2012–present) *Janosch Rathmer –

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

(2010–present) ;Former members *Robert Kahr –

, keyboards (2010–2012)

Discography

Studio albums

*''A Bit Of Devil'' (2012) 1. A Bit Of Devil 2. Carnival 3. Blue Jean Blues 4. Horrorvision 5. Assembly Line 6. Thunder 7. Diamond Shoes 8. Coming Home *''A Hiding Place'' (2013) 1. Downtown 2. Free 3. Underneath My Bed 4. Leave Me Blind 5. Moonshine 6. Believer 7. I Wanna Know Part 1 8. I Wanna Know Part 2 9. Cortez the Killer 10. Sleep of the Hollow - Bonus Track 11. Leave Me Blind - Bonus Track *''Sonic Child'' (2014) 1. Intro: Who I Am 2. Swinging On The Run 3. Sonic Child 4. Holding On 5. Sad song 6. Out Of The City 7. A Penny And A Dead Horse 8. Good Times 9. Rock Bottom Blues 10. Just Music 11. Not Fragile (Bonus Track) 12. Shine On (Bonus Track) Bonus CD: 1. Free (Live At Rock Hard Festival 2014) 2. Cortez The Killer (Live At Rock Hard Festival 2014) 3. Upon The Stone (From The Demo 2011) 4. Failure (From The Demo 2011) *''Grain of Soul'' (2016) 1. Rebirth By Fire 2. Animal 3. Follow You 4. Down 5. Faithless 6. Crow 7. Ain't Coming Back 8. Get Out 9. Like The Sun 10. Sinner 11. Grain Of Soul

EPs

*''Zodiac'' (2011)

Live albums

*''Road Tapes Vol. 1'' (2015) 1. Swinging On The Run 2. Free 3. Holding On 4. Cortez The Killer 5. A Bit Of Devil 6. Rock Bottom Blues 7. Diamond Shoes 8. A Penny And A Dead Horse 9. Moonshine 10. Coming Home

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zodiac 2010 establishments in Germany Musical groups established in 2010 German hard rock musical groups