Zao тобы: Американдық металкор тарихы

American metalcore band

Metalcore
post hardcore
alternative metal is an American metalcore band founded in Parkersburg, West Virginia, and later relocated to Greensburg, Pennsylvania. Founded in March 1993, Zao has hosted several musicians and endured numerous roster changes to the point where no original members remain. Former drummer Jesse Smith, vocalist Dan Weyandt, and guitarists Scott Mellinger and Russ Cogdell are seen by some fans as the "core" of Zao, with the current line up being the longest running in the band's history. For a time, the band featured Christian themes in their music and was regarded as a Christian band, however this theme was eventually met with debate among the members and the band currently no longer considers themselves a "Christian band" with only bassist Martin Lunn identifying as a Christian. To date, Zao has released 11 full length albums, 9 EPs or splits, a two disc DVD documentary and embarked on numerous concert tours, garnering a limited but global fan base and earning critical praise in the process.

The founding members of Zao, were vocalist Eric Reeder, guitarist Roy Goudy, bassist Mic Cox, and drummer Jesse Smith. The band's name comes from the Greek word ζάω, which means 'alive' or 'to have life'. Zao vocalist Eric Reeder has been credited with coming up with the band's name. Calling their sound "Christ centered hardcore", they sought to reach an audience that they felt has been pushed away from the organized church. Reeder (who appeared on Zao's Author and Sustained demos, as well as a split with Outcast) left before Zao recorded All Else Failed and was replaced by Shawn Jonas, who went on to form Symphony in Peril. Jonas left the band after recording two albums and is now a youth pastor at New Life Church in West Virginia; original bassist Mic Cox left the band, and Kevin Moran took his place. Ron Gray also joined the band as a second guitarist after the recording of The Splinter Shards the Birth of Separation. All of the band members, except for drummer Jesse Smith, quit Zao following the 1997 Cornerstone festival and a couple of shows they played on the way back home.

In 1998, Smith recruited Brett Detar, guitarist of Pennsylvania emocore band Pensive, to help him build a new incarnation of Zao. Detar suggested a pair of his friends, guitarist Russ Cogdell and vocalist Dan Weyandt. Both Cogdell and Weyandt had played in Christian hardcore band Seasons in the Field, who had released a split EP with Pensive.

However, the Liberate era lineup reconvened in Greensburg around the promise of a new record label that offered to fund a new Zao album. The "label" ended up falling apart before a note of music was ever recorded, prompting Smith to reach out to Ferret Music who agreed to sign the band to a two album deal. After cutting some new demos, Weyandt left the group, due to some issues with addiction at the time. However, by the end of 2003, Cogdell and Mellinger realized they did not want to make a Zao record without Dan on vocals. Smith and Horner quit Zao and joined up with former bassist Kevin Moran to focus on their new band, Gods. Ashworth stepped aside. With Weyandt back on board, the remaining three "core" members recruited the rhythm section from Jade Meridian (bass player Shawn Koschick, drummer Stephen Peck) to round out the Zao lineup. At this time the band started to write their 7th album. For a time, the band could not find a bassist or a drummer, with talks of Cogdell playing drums if they could not find someone. The following year, Stephen Peck told the band he was quitting two weeks before they were set to leave for the UK to tour with Bleeding Through. Scrambling to find a replacement, the group hired local drummer Jeff Gretz. Weyandt worked close by to Gretz's place of employment and evidently left Gretz a note that the band needed a drummer. The band set out with the goal of recording an album that felt like a band and not individual members recording their parts separately, as well as having an album with no "filler songs". Not long after the statement was released, the band said that Walters would in fact not be performing with them. In mid 2008, Zao played their first show since 2006 with Demon Hunter at Mr. Smalls in Pittsburgh, PA. The lineup for the show was Weyandt, Mellinger, Lunn and Gretz. Following this, they began recording their new album, Awake?, with Scott Mellinger, Daniel Castleman and As I Lay Dying singer Tim Lambesis co producing. The guitars and bass were all engineered by Mellinger, vocals engineered by Dave Hidek, and the drums were engineered by Castleman. According to Gretz, Lambesis was not highly involved in the production, with Daniel Castleman being very hands on. The band released the album on May 5, 2009, on Ferret Records.

The band took to the web updating the world on the status of the band, as it stands, ZAO is Daniel Weyandt, Scott Mellinger, Russ Cogdell, Marty Lunn and Jeff Gretz. Among other things in the recent update, the band said they were extremely surprised at how well their last album, Awake?, did in the market considering it had no tour support by them and that it was thrown onto Ferret's label in the 11th hour. Zao said the best thing to come out of it is that they learned a lot of the last release and it showed them that fans still enjoy their music and this inspired and motivated them to continue making music. According to social media reports, on July 11, 2014, Zao went into the studio, after a five year unofficial hiatus and working on side projects like Lonely Ghost Parade and Young Fox, is currently, tracking and recording their 11th album. Guitar tracking began in January 2015. Xenophobe, the band's first EP since 1998, was released on July 10, 2015. On October 13, 2016, the band released "Observed/Observer", the second song that would be on The Well Intentioned Virus, the first being "Xenophobe". The band premiered the next song, "A Well Intentioned Virus", on October 27, 2016. On December 1, 2016, the band released the album stream for The Well Intentioned Virus. The band announced an EP, Pyrrhic Victory, which was released on November 3, 2017. In the first half of 2018, Zao announced that their 2004 album The Funeral of God would be released on vinyl by Tragic Hero Records, but this release got caught up in legal issues and has yet to be released. On September 21, 2018, the band released a split 7 inch vinyl with Yashira through American record label Mind Over Matter Records, which included the songs "Hide From the Light" (Zao) and "Led to Ache" (Yashira). They followed this split up with a 7 inch EP entitled Decoding Transmissions From the Möbius Strip on February 8, 2019, which included the tracks "Transmission 1: I Saw The End" and "Transmission 2: I Saw The Devil." The same announcement by the band hinted at a new album in the works. Starting in August 2019, the band is embarking on a Midwest tour of the United States with Hollow Earth and Wolf King. On November 15, 2019, the band released Reformat/Reboot, a remix album featuring eight remixed tracks from The Well Intentioned Virus. It was released on numerous formats including a Nintendo Entertainment System game cartridge. On April 9, 2021, the band released their eleventh studio album, The Crimson Corridor, the band's second release with their independent label, Observed/Observer Recordings.

Christianity has been a key influence in the band's early work; because the founding members claimed to have a strong relationship with God, they were considered a devoted Christian band with second vocalist Shawn Jonas often preaching Christianity between songs, which changed as time passed and members changed. Former drummer Jesse Smith slowly changed the band's vision with citing wanting to be able to play to more secular music scenes and providing less emphasis on religion because he felt the original line up would "force it down peoples throats." Upon vocalist Daniel Weyandt joining the band; the lyrics shifted to more personal content albeit initially still retaining an occasional Christian message which became less prevalent with every album. Certain members have gone on to state that they had never held the Christian belief, including Mellinger and longtime Bassist Rob Horner. Although it was previously stated that he was not a Christian upon his joining, Jeff Gretz stated that he was raised Catholic and that he "never said he never believed."