Sweatin To The Oldies...Zao - The Funeral Of God

"There's no reason to be afraid, everything is under control"

Ahh yes, i remember the summer of 2004 like it was yesterday, i had been listening to bands like Living Sacrifice and Disciple and As I Lay Dying and Norma Jean, as well as Zao for a while at that point, and i had been going to alot of local shows and digging deeper and deeper for good music, it was sort of like a drug addiction...just one good band wasn't enough. At that point, though i had listened to Zao, i hadn't really LISTENED to them you know? It was one of those "oh, wow...these guys are heavy, and gritty...and kind of awesome....perhaps too awesome" kind of things; all that would change very quickly.

Zao had recently announced a full comeback, albeit with a new drummer and bassist, and they were newly signed to Ferret records, it was also announced that they would be embarking on the "Ferret Records Tour" alongside Scarlet, Misery Signals, and Twelve Tribes. With that tour announcement there was a shocker, they were bringing this tour to Shreveport! I quickly tried to find people who were going, and lo and behold my newfound friend Josh Gross was planning on going and he left me a spot so that i could come with him...after that trip to Shreveport to see Zao my life as i knew it would be changed forever, they quickly became one of my favorite bands ever and i couldn't stop listening to them, and then they announced the release of "The Funeral Of God" and i remember thinking "whoa, what an intense album title!", i waited patiently for the album to come out, and on July 13, 2004...my ears never knew what hit em!

I do realize that "The Funeral Of God" is a very very intense album title, almost controversial even...but the concept behind it is absolutely genius. According to Wikipedia "The album narrates an apocalyptic story in which God, fed up with the path chosen by humanity, decides to disappear, leaving humanity to its fate. Subsequently, the world falls into a state of war and self-destruction. However, man soon reverts to a state in which he waits for God to return."...see what i mean?

Wikipedia also states that the album sees them leaning more towards the metalcore sound of Killswitch Engage and Shadows Fall...which, in my opinion, is COMPLETE rubbish! This album is also, a very very underrated album, mostly because Zao has such an incredible back-catalogue, that it's very easy for a reunion album to get lost in the shuffle...but as far as i'm concerned, this is the best album they'll ever do...i'm not saying it's better than "Blood and Fire", but they will NEVER record an album better than this.

The Vocals are incredibly hoarse and grating, Dan Weyandt's howl on this album is part of the reason it's so good, that gritty, hoarse, "does anybody have a coughdrop?" sound of his voice is the perfect way to narrate such an intense story. Also, an interesting fact about this album is that they recorded it with a brand new rhythm section, including bassist Shawn Koschik and drummer Stephen Peck, and of course Scott Mellinger was back on guitar, but it's interesting to note that this was the first time in quite a while Russ Cogdell had been back with the band on a recording, and also this would be the last album he would do with the band.

My favorite part about this album though is the incredibly unique tones the different instruments have. The drums have a pretty standard sound, but the way they accompany the super downtuned bass, which, at times like in Praise the War Machine, and "Truly, Truly" sounds like it would fit in perfectly on a SunnO))) or Yob or Weedeater album, and the incredibly dirty sounding guitars is absolute perfection! The guitar playing is very gritty and heavy and there are more memorable riffs and breakdowns than i thought was humanly possible, there are also some incredible guitar solo's as well as some very cool insertions of noise and random noodling which always makes for good times when done well. But seriously, there are SO MANY good riffs on this album! Especially on Praise the War Machine, Breath Of The Black Muse, The Rising End, and Truly, Truly, This Is The End.

The aforementioned songs, plus the entire concept of the album, plus the incredibly doomy bass and the many many incredible riffs and breakdowns and breakdown-esque riffs (ie: lots of awesome chugga-chugs) and the incredibly beautiful, epic, and heavy as balls album closer "Psalm Of The City Of The Dead" make this album by far one of my favorite metal albums ever made, in fact, this album is very very addictive, i try to listen to this album as much as possible because due to it's incredibly disgusting nature, makes it very hard to stay away from. In fact, i once went an entire day without listening to it right after it came out and the entire day, all i could do was sing along and air-guitar the songs in my head because the riffs on this album are so incredible that not hearing them in some capacity drove me crazy.

But seriously, do yourself a big favor and buy this album (or download it) and, if you havent heard it before, listen to it with an open mind, noting that it is much heavier than most metalcore at the time, and it came before Deathcore bands brought alot of these elements into the mainstream, and if you are a diehard Zao fan, please break this album out and give it a spin or two.

In lieu of giving it a base-10 rating, i've chosen to rate this album according to where it would fit in the scope of my top 100 albums of all time, Zao - The Funeral Of God most definitely deserves a spot in the top 25 at least, maybe even the 11-20 area in fact.