Zao

Item: The Funeral of God
Author: John Sant

The Funeral of God

(2004)

Reviewed by John Sant

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Label Ferret RecordsHM Magazine #109September/October 2004

hardcore heavy metal metalcore post-hardcore

There's a minor bit of irony in the fact that Zao has removed its famously troublesome element, spent a great deal of time (relatively) conceiving and writing "The Funeral of God," and hit 99% of their tour dates without a cancellation, but still the new album is flawed enough to be frustrating.

Zao has been and continues to be, even after this album, a mosh-band. Depending entirely on personal inclinations, this may or may not be a good thing. Every song element on the album only serves to set up two minute bumpers on both ends of the track. They exist to hold up the breakdown that constantly sits square in the middle. It seems as if the entire point of the song is that middle, or two-thirds mark. And if that mark is the moment the band unloads and gets heavy, does that mean they were holding out on us before that? Are they building tension? Oh, believe me, I get the concept of tension, and the need to build intensity, but the art and a delicacy is hard to come by. Where a band like Neurosis slowly bleeds into a build up, each Zao song more or less plows forward in uniform manner with no obvious effort to increase tension. It's the "verse/chorus, verse/chorus, bridge, chorus" format by the numbers, go into that "super heavy, man this is cool hook" and then exit to the chorus again, without nuance.

Here is the key, however, and you're going to have to choke down your fanboy anger to get it: the album is near perfect in terms of concept and execution of that concept. A great deal of credit goes to Dan for the lyrics he's penned and also to the band for the arrangement of the tracks. I may feel that the songs on their own are weak, but as a whole – as an album – they're seamless. The album carries the listener in such a vivid, linear fashion from God's departure to the personal and global effects of His absence that it's near theatrical in its execution. By the time you reach "Praise the War" machine, you're witness to a planet in complete disarray, and the following two songs, "Truly, truly, This is the End," and "I Lay Sleepless in My Grave," the devastation has become more visual than audible, which is a major credit to the band.

It's frustrating that Zao did so well conceptually. If they're able to break out of the formulaic songwriting and continue to evolve as they have on this album, with Scott's raspy singing and Dan's continued brilliant performances, they'll be absolutely stunning. As it is now, they have restricted themselves by forcing the same formula on each of their songs. The Funeral of God, is certainly worth picking up, and has infinitely more replay value than Parade of Chaos. It's obvious with this album the band is moving toward great things. Negative aside, I do love listening to it—evident by the fact it hasn't left my playlist in a month and a half.

Editors' ratings — Doug 4/5, David 3.5/5