Where
there was a major change in music style between their first album �The
Splinter Shards, The Birth Of Separation� and �Where Blood And Fire Bring
Rest�, this new album is more in the line of the metal of �Where Blood��
. The line up only changed a little this time, althoug just after the launch of
this album, Russ (singer) and Dan left the band and there�s a new singer
called Corey.
ZAO�s
latest album is called �Save Yourself From Hell�. This has everything to do
with Dante�s book �Inferno�, in which Dante gives his opinion on what hell
looks like. Dante divides hell in 5 circles, each circle contains a certain
group of people who �deserve� hell. ZAO divided the album in the 5 circles,
each circle containing 2 songs. The circles are called Limbo, The Lustful, The
Gluttonous, The Hoarders & The Spendthrifts and The Wrathful.
The lyrics of this album almost look like poems: they consist of about 12 lines,
giving written existence to the writer�s thoughts. They deal with themes like
rape, vanity and unconditional love. In all honesty: i couldn�t have figured
out these key words myself, the lyrics are kind of short and they are, as i
already said, kind of poetic. Since the HM Magazine reporter who did a ZAO
interview in HM #79 knew how to describe it, i borrowed his themes (thanks for
that!).
Now
let�s talk MUSIC here! The first song of the album, realistically called
�Intro�, is an instrumental song that sets the �mood� for the album: a
dark atmosphere is being created. The second song, �Savannah�, is more
representative for the rest of the album: a great metal song with speed changes.
�Autopsy� is a faster song than �Savannah� and has some great guitar
licks.
One of the things i totally dig is songs that start in a really �soft� way,
like with an acoustic guitar, and then throw a wall of guitars over that. �If
These Scars Could Speak� not only begins with an acoustic guitar, it
continually switches from the usage of an acoustic guitar to a blast of great,
distortioned guitars. The song ends with Russ screaming SCARLET whilst the song
goes faster and faster. Great!
�The Ghost Psalm�, the fifth song on the album, has this amazing guitar
thing that keeps returning, accompanying Russ�s voice. The guitars in this
song are terriffic. Definitely my favorite song of this album! The next song,
�Desire The End�, came in as second best � again, the guitars are great,
this song also has some �softer� parts, which is great on an album full of
hard music. About the other songs on the album, �Dark Cold Sound�, �Skin
Like Winter� and �Kathleen Barbra�, i can be short: they�re as good as
the rest of the songs, though for me they�re not better than �The Ghost
Psalm�.
The
album ends the way it started � with an instrumental song. The song is called
�Man In Cage Jack Wilson�. I must say that i don�t really like those
intrumental songs. Usually, when i play an album, i wanna hear a band�s best
work and since i don�t like classical piano concerts and stuff, for me
instrumental songs don�t go with the best of music. I always get the feeling
that an instrumental song is put on an album because the band lacked inspiration
when they had to create songs for a new album. And on this album, having 2
instrumental songs, i kind of regret that they didn�t put on some more songs,
'cause now it feels like the album only contains 8 songs and that�s really not
that much�
In
general, i can say about this album that the guitars are great, the drums are
grand and the bass is okay as well. I especially like the constant speed changes
within the songs. Perhaps a real �metal head� has other opinions on this
album, that�s why the last thing i have to say about this review is that metal
is not my favorite genre but i must say that this album is great, even for
people who aren�t into metal that much! Before i heard this album, i someone
told me that this album was even harder than Scandinavian stuff. I can�t
really agree with that, i think this album isn�t that hard. Which doesn�t
mean it�s a poppy album either!
Martijn
for
The Tooth & Nail Records FAN Homepage � 1999