Zao’s album “Where Blood and Fire Bring Rest” is a classic example of metalcore innovation. At the time, 1998, no one really was playing innovative metalcore in the Christian music scene. Branded as a Christian band, thanks in large part to their first record featuring a different vocalist, and the moniker of Tooth and Nail Records being the only label who was pushing only Christian music at the time, Zao didn’t really want to be pigeon holed, but had to just deal with it.

The timers were just different, and while many youth group’s did not embrace the vocals of Dan Weyandt, others were right there to embrace what could very well have been the first break through artist in underground music, that was 100% Christian.

The band’s lyrics were explicit in their devotion to the faith, but didn’t stray away from controversial topics like rape, death, and sorrow, personifying past experiences that might not be what the traditional religious person would have expected from a label such as “Christian music”.

The album’s length is only 39 minutes, but there are enough transitional stages to rival any other metalcore band past and present. There are break downs, spoke word interludes, piano only closure, and plenty of growled and screamed vocals. The record really was ahead of its time, not selling as many copies as the next record, which featured one of the biggest marketing pushes of Zao’s career to that point.

Some people got it. Many people were just not into the extreme form of music that the boys in Zao were making at the time, and didn’t really buy into the hype that people were giving them.

The one sad part of all this, 1998, many people just couldn’t get behind a band that was overtly Christian. While they were a band of believers, they were not “selling” Christ, or promoting “Christ” from the stage, even though their music couldn’t be called anything but spiritual.

This record did not push them into secular homes, but it broke a lot of perception, and by their fourth and fifth record, they were no longer solely playing Christian festivals, churches, and basements, they had garnered enough of a push to go on tour with bands such as In Flames and others.

For the players in that day and age, the line up was amazing, and could be considered the best that Zao had ever:

Dan Weyandt- Vocals
Russ Cogdell- Guitar/Bass
Jesse Smith- Drums
Brett Detar- Guitar/Bass

Where Blood and Fire Bring Rest took me a while to get into, and the artwork itself drew me nearer than ever to heavier music. The paintings were just amazing, and something that you can never really get from downloading an mp3 these days. A lot of attention was made to the packaging, and while it was an independent release, the art direction could rival any major release by any mainstream artist to date.

If you do not have this disc in your collection, and you like metalcore, you need to pick it up. This album set the ground work for a lot bands past and present, and rivals anything being put out by hardcore and metal bands right now. It might not be the gold record that record executives dream about, but with a whole hearted, sincere message, and a sound that for the lack of money involved, stands up like a mainstream release, Where Blood and Fire Bring Rest is an epic in 10 tracks of music revolution.

Purchase Zao’s Where Blood and Fire Brings Rest From Amazon.com