Metal, Hardcore, Indie, Rock
Zao might be working on the sequel to 2021’s The Crimson Corridor in the studio right now, as per lambgoat. The following mysterious image was shared on social media by the veterans of metalcore.
Eric Reeder, guitarist Roy Goudy, bassist Mic Cox, and drummer Jesse Smith were the original members of Zao. The Greek word ζõω, which means “alive” or “to have life,” is the source of the band’s name. The band’s name is credited to Eric Reeder, a vocalist with Zao. They dubbed their sound “Christ-centered hardcore” in an effort to appeal to a demographic they believed had been alienated from the mainstream church. The majority of their early songs, which were featured on their first two full-length albums, “All Else Failed” and “The Splinter Shards the Birth of Separation” (which saw the band rerecord a large portion of the “All Else Failed” material), featured overt allusions to God and focused on the idea of God’s peace.
Shawn Jonas, who later formed Symphony in Peril, took Reeder’s place before Zao recorded “All Else Failed”. Reeder had appeared on Zao‘s “Author” and “Sustained” demos, as well as a split with Outcast. Mic Cox, the band’s original bassist, left, and Kevin Moran took his place. Jonas left the group after recording two albums and is currently a youth pastor at New Life Church in West Virginia. Following the recording of “The Splinter Shards the Birth of Separation”, Ron Gray joined the group as a second guitarist. After the 1997 Cornerstone festival and a few performances they performed on the way back home, all of the band members—aside from drummer Jesse Smith—left Zao.
To assist him in creating a new version of Zao, Smith enlisted Brett Detar, guitarist for the Pennsylvania emocore group Pensive, in 1998. Detar recommended two of his pals, singer Dan Weyandt and guitarist Russ Cogdell. Weyandt and Cogdell were members of the Christian hardcore group Seasons in the Field, which issued a split EP with Pensive. To co-write and rehearse “Where Blood and Fire Bring Rest”, the first (and, in many ways, defining) record from the new Zao, Smith would travel for several hours to Greensburg, where all of these new members resided.
