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What kind of band are Zao?
It's thanks to bands like them that metalcore still retains a minimum of dignity. No nonsense, no fringes, no pandering. After all, what is metalcore if not metal plus hardcore? If many bands today thought this way, many abominations could be avoided.
The intro catapults us right where it wants, to the gates of Hell; but we haven't entered yet, we are still in Limbo like in the best Dantean tradition: in fact, the ten tracks that make up the album are divided into five groups, each with two songs, representing the first five circles of hell.
The atmosphere is leaden, sulfurous, painful, you can sense decay, the screams of suffering sinners are excruciating, and it becomes clear there will be no way out. With closed eyes, you can see the flames, the sulfur blows on us. And it's incredible how these images immediately surface clearly in your mind. Dan’s screams and the hardcore-rooted riffs from the Mellinger-Codgell duo are the conduit and the means through which you can see and experience all of this. However, there are also more detached moments, like in "If These Scars Could Speak" (circle of the lustful), where the acoustic guitar takes the lead initially, still maintaining strong dark shades, and then, despite the subsequent metal outbursts, always remains present.
As they say about every great album, each track is different from the others, but if you are looking for variety here, you have to look elsewhere (or if you want to stick with Zao, throw yourself into "The Funeral Of God"), that does not take away that the sound is absolutely unique and unrepeatable.
What would Dante and Virgil have listened to in their infernal descent? What a question, "Liberate Te Ex Inferis".
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