Grain of Soul
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| Studio album by Zodiac | ||||
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Publication |
29th July 2016 |
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| Label (s) | Napalm Records | |||
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Title (number) |
11 |
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running time |
41 min 45 s |
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Arne Neurand |
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Studio (s) |
Horus Sound Studios, Hanover |
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Grain of Soul is the fourth studio album by the German blues rock - band Zodiac . It was released on July 29, 2016 via Napalm Records .
Emergence
After the band had previously released their albums every year , the musicians wanted to take a little more distance from the next album after the previous album Sonic Child from 2014. While the band released their first live album Road Tapes Vol. 1 in April 2015 , the musicians were already working on new ideas. During the songwriting, the band quickly realized that they wanted to write more compact and heavier songs for the new album. According to drummer Janosch Rathmer , everyone involved was of the opinion that in retrospect Sonic Child "sounded too shallow". In addition, while writing the song, the musician listened to a lot of music from the 1990s and was influenced by bands like Alice in Chains or Queens of the Stone Age , who, according to Rathmer, have the same influences as Zodiac. In addition, the band wants to make a statement with Grain of Soul that the band does not want to be pushed into the retro rock corner.
In contrast to the previous albums, the band did an extensive preproduction and recorded three demos over time. The album was recorded and mixed with producer Arne Neurand, who has already worked with Guano Apes , Revolverheld and Subway to Sally , among others . According to singer Nick van Delft, the recordings were completed within two weeks and took place in the Horus Sound Studios in Hanover . The mastering took Jean-Pierre Chalbos. For the songs Follow You and Animal were music videos rotated. According to Nick van Delft, the album title Grain of Soul is a reflection of his inner self, as the lyrics are very personal.
background
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The album title deals with the soul in all its facets. According to bassist Ruben Claro, the lyrics are about human strengths and weaknesses, fears and doubts, mistakes, selfishness and passion. Sometimes personal stories of the musicians are processed in the texts. The skull on the album cover represents the human soul that wants to break out. In Rebirth by Fire is about to come out stronger from dark and bad situations.
The song Animal criticizes mankind who inflicts suffering on other people and does not notice it. The people were loud Claro from greed and stupidity the earth to destroy. Claro put forward the thesis that animals are more intelligent than humans. Follow You is about memories that accompany a person until death. Down is about Gamayun, a bird from Russian mythology . This bird has the head of a woman and is z. B. to be found on the coat of arms of Smolensk Oblast .
reception
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Chart positions Explanation of the data |
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Oliver Passgang from the online magazine Powermetal.de ost Grain of Soul "the hoped-for and expected further development, calm as always, with clearer contours than ever before and a focus on rock and nothing but rock". For him, the song Follow You is “an almost unbelievably soulful rock song”. Passgang awarded 8.5 out of ten points. Reinhold Reither from the online magazine Metalnews.de remarked that Zodiac "did not completely reinvent itself". The “consequent banning of almost all bluesy parts” would “happily look damn good” for the band, for which they awarded five out of seven points.
For Michael Walzl from the Austrian online magazine Stormbringer , the band presents itself as “timelessly rocking” and “craftsmanship above all doubt”. Because there is “a lack of compelling hooks and refrains ”, Walzl awarded three out of five points. Dorian Gorr from the German magazine Metal Hammer described Grain of Soul as the band's “self-confident declaration of war”, but criticized the fact that “Zodiac should more often dare to venture out of the safety of the tried and tested”. Gorr awarded four out of seven points.
Grain of Soul entered the German album charts at number 36.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Jens Peters: Courage for the gap . In: Rock Hard , August 2016, page 34
- ^ Frank Thiessies: Alternative Ascendant . In: Metal Hammer, August 2016, page 42
- ↑ a b Kostas Polizos: Zodiac. (No longer available online.) Noisefull, archived from the original on July 23, 2016 ; accessed on July 23, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ a b Markus Endres: Retro-Rock? Michael Jackson? Interview with ZODIAC about the new album "Grain Of Soul". Metal.de, accessed on August 22, 2016 .
- ↑ Zodiac in the German charts. GfK Entertainment , accessed on August 5, 2016 .
- ↑ Oliver Passgang: Zodiac - Grain of Souls. Powermetal.de , accessed on July 23, 2016 .
- ↑ Reinhold Reither: Zodiac - Grain Of Souls. (No longer available online.) Metalnews.de, archived from the original on July 28, 2016 ; accessed on July 28, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Michael Walzl: Zodiac - Grain of Souls. Stormbringer, accessed July 26, 2016 .
- ^ Dorian Gorr: Zodiac - Grain of Soul . In: Metal Hammer, August 2016, page 106
Web links
- Grain of Souls at Allmusic (English)