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Zao
Legendary
2003, Solid State
One of the metal realm‘s most talked-about/revered bands ended its contract with Seattle‘s Solid State label with this best-of, spanning songs from every one of their SS releases as well as three new songs(‘The Icarus Complex‘, ‘One Last Time‘ and ‘All Dressed Up‘). From their inception in the mid-‘90s til the present, Virginia‘s Zao remain a veritable soap opera, with no less than ten members, past and present, on Legendary, most notably the recently-departed Jesse Smith, the original drummer and only remaining founding member of the band until he left late in 2003. As well, you might know one-time guitarist Brett Detar better as the ringleader for Pennsylvania‘s emo kingpins The Juliana Theory. Detar played guitar for Zao on their best album, 1997‘s Where Blood And Fire Bring Rest, and his skills are represented here with ‘A Fall Farewell‘, ‘Ravage Ritual‘ and ‘Ember‘; these were heady days for the band, and the album has remained a classic in the underground, name-checked even by Deftones guitarist Stephen Carpenter as a big influence on that band‘s sound. Blood and Fire was a beast of a record, even with no bass guitar; the vocals were immense to match the guitar‘s thick, rich, bruising sound and the songs were lyrical poetry at its best.
Tracing back, The Splinter Shards The Birth of Separation was Zao‘s Solid State debut back in 1996, featuring vocalist Shawn Jonas screeching his lungs out with what remains a versatile set of pipes in his new band, Symphony In Peril. At that point, just starting out, Zao were among a handful of other ‘spirit-filled hardcore bands‘ making waves across the U.S. alongside acts like Strongarm (now Further Seems Forever), Focused, Unashamed, etc. ‘Walk On By, Walk On Me‘ and ‘Times of Separation‘ are on display from that album, while 1998‘s Liberate Te Ex Inferis shows up in the form of ‘Skin Like Winter‘, ‘Savannah‘ (still among the very best Zao songs - what a riff towards the two-minute mark), and ‘Ghost Psalm‘; Liberate was the concept album to end all concept albums in the minds of some listeners, a complicated, multilayered story that this hack writer still doesn‘t fully understand.
In 2000, Zao came out, a distinct left turn for the band in which they began incorporating electronic influences into their overall sonic madness; ‘Trash Can Hands‘, ‘5 Year Winter‘ and ‘The Race of Standing Still‘ represent this experimental period on Legendary. ‘Trash Can Hands‘, in particular, was a standout, having been written as an overt confrontation of some kids trashing the band on the internet; it was an unusual gesture that specifically named online users ‘dxcboy‘ and ‘firekid‘, and the final kiss-off is a stunning maelstrom of death vocals and black guitar thunder. Fun stuff.
Zao‘s last album, barring the upcoming Ferret Records debut, was 2002‘s Parade of Chaos, thought by many to be an inferior effort; the band was going through all kinds of turmoil outside of their art and there was no real touring to support the album, which contained some decent songs, but nothing approaching the magic of the band‘s huge mid-‘90s material. Songs on Legendary from this particular record include ‘Suspend Suspension‘ (featuring actual singing by vocalist Dan Weyandt), ‘Free The Three‘ (a song written about a high-profile case concerning three teenagers arrested and imprisoned on rather flimsy charges in Arkansas in 1993, who still sit behind bars) and the ‘big single‘, so to speak, called ‘Angel Without Wings‘, again with Weyandt singing competently. Overall, Chaos was a decent record, but no more.
Regardless of what particular subgenre of metal you might bag on, where you live, how old you are - you‘ve heard of Zao in some context or other, even if it‘s only hearing about the band canceling a show somewhere (it‘s been known to happen), and this compilation gives listeners a pretty solid look at the albums they‘ve produced thus far that have launched them above most of their peers. If you‘re a longtime fan, it isn‘t really essential except for the three brand-new tracks, but for purists and/or newcomers, a must-buy.
Copyright ©2004