Zao "The Funeral of God" CD
[Ferret]
I was never a big fan of Zao per se, I don't know, what I've heard was okay, but never blew me away for various reasons. This, to me, is the best material I've heard from them based on what I remember of their past work. There are still elements that I'm not into, but minor flaws aside this is a solid record of metalcore that has a major sinister sort of sludge groove kicking at its finer moments. There's a big emphasis on rhythmic chunkiness, and some of the more dissonant chords and arrangements are pretty generic, but they've got more than that going on. Some of the riffs get rocked out at times (see the intro to "The Rising End (The First Prophecy)") with lots of pull-off riffs and whatnot, whereas other tracks pick up the pace with energetic tempos and some slightly more frantic passages. I'm not into the majority of the singing vocals at all though, as they come off as strained and just lack the character/force of the insane screaming (which are definitely some of the most over the top and unique sounding screams you'll find). The backup singing in "The Last Revelation (The Last Prophecy)" is actually great, but the lead singing parts of "Breath of the Black Muse" are a huge weak link in an otherwise strong track (the singing in "Truly, Truly, This is the End" is probably the poorest herein). "The Lesser Lights of Heaven" opens with a much more melodic post-hardcore sounding set of chords that immediately jumps out; while "Praise She War Machine" has some layered metallic riffing at times. Towards the end of the disc the brief clean instrumental "I Lay Sleepless in My Grave" leads into the epic (and largely instrumental) eight-minute closer "Psalm of the City of the Dead", using a lot of driving melodic chords and accent layers with some great harmonized singing for a fairly repetitious piece that's certainly among the more effective and forceful. The softer guitars and choral singing lend a much more dramatic and almost cinematic element to the piece as well. The production is of course pretty damn massive. The guitars are ever so slightly lacking in sustain, so the sludgy grit works well but doesn't possess quite enough overt punch, but the bass tone is awesome - playing a central role that's fairly balanced against the guitar volume. The percussion has a mix of strong density and slightly rigid presence, so I'm not bothered by it at all. I think the vocals sound perfect, so those shouldn't be touched. The layout generally looks awesome and uses a consistent, clean appearance. There's not much text on the outer packaging, the color scheme is minimal, the imagery bold, and so on. The center spread with the statue of Jesus is the only thing that looks a little goofy, the other statues are framed at far more interesting angles that are a bit more abstract in some way. As one might expect the lyrics follow a concept that's far bleaker than one might anticipate from a christian act (dealing with god basically washing his hands of humanity and the apocalyptic aftermath of such an occurrence), but it's actually far more interesting and well proposed as a result, so it makes its point powerfully without any form of preaching or whatnot. "Live from the funeral of god, this is the day you've awaited, sponsored and celebrated, he has answered your prayers, corpses have piled up with your riches, they have spilled over the earth, we spit and wear our fear like masks, everything is locked into a form, (interrupt the feed), it's closing in... the sky is so dark, are men no worse than demons?" Not too shabby. Like I said, minor flaws aside this is a solid record. Certain fans of this band are a little odd, so I can't predict how they'll react to this, but I dig it and I'm certain it will please many, so... check it out if you're into 'em. (7/10)
Running time - 47:18, Tracks: 11
[Notable tracks: Breath of the Black Muse, The Last Revelation (The Last Prophecy), The Lesser Lights of Heaven, Psalm of the City of the Dead]
Ferret Music - http://www.ferretstyle.com

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