Metal Monday - Zao

The point isn't really to feature a band but to talk about metal. Next week I'll be more on top of this (maybe). I would have posted this earlier but I read the Hammock interview and metal monday got pushed aside.

So Zao played the first show in(and possibly for) a while in Pittsburgh this weekend. I wish I had gone. I love Zao and I haven't seen them live since Cornerstone.... 2003. The set list was awesome.

Entropica
The Rising End
Skin Like Winter
Hard Not To Shake
Cattle Masses
Breath of the Black Muse
Physician Heal Thyself
Reveal
My Love, My Love
3(Last Revelation)
Romance of the Southern Spirit
Savannah
Angel Without Wings
What Will You Find
American Sheets
Praise the War Machine
Ghost Psalm
Lies of Serpents
5 Year Winter

A great set list. Songs from all the Dan era Zao albums. I've always been interested in how the songs from The Fear is What Keeps Us Here would sound live. Zao does, always have, and always will kick ass. There have been moments of pain; The Corey Darst year and three songs, the phoned in, mostly terrible Parade of Chaos, the rumors of and the actual break-ups but alas Zao is still alive and still awesome. I know I had checked out of Zao (as I think a bunch of people did) after Parade of Chaos, which was a mistake. Funeral of God is a fantastic record, The Fear is What Keeps Us Here is raw, fast, and heavy, and Awake? is a great album. Zao is great. Their influence is Christian metal is fat too understated (they were the band that influenced As I Lay Dying). I hope they take their show on the road (at least down to DC).

Until then I only have this video...