REVIEW: Zao - Decoding Transmissions From The Mobius Strip

Zao
Decoding Transmissions From The Mobius Strip

This current incarnation of Zao is firing on all cylinders.  Since regrouping in 2015 for their first batch of new material in six years, the Xenophobe/Fear Itself 7”, the metalcore stalwarts have put out a steady stream of impressive material including a full length record and a five song EP, both of which stand as some of the bands best material to date. 

More recently, Zao shared one half of a split single with tourmates Yashira.  On their side of the 7”, Zao provided “Hide From The Light”, a more straightforward, albeit crushingly dark, song.  The track focused less on the complex technicality of their recent records, and more on the grating darkness that helped to make up their 1999 classic Liberate Te Ex Inferis.

Decoding Transmissions From The Mobius Strip gives us a little bit of both.  The A-side offering, “Transmission 1: I Saw The End,” delivers similar moods to “Hide From The Light”, drawing from their sludgier, more Neurosis-like side.  Vocalist Dan Weyandt’s signature layered screams lead the song from heavy post-metal atmospheres to hammering riffs.  “Transmission 2: I Saw The Devil” alternately sounds more like something to be found on their 2016 full-length The Well-Intentioned Virus.  The track weaves it’s way through bouncing, wavering riffs, speeding up and slowing down before mellowing out into a melodic clean sung section.  And just when it seems “Transmission 2” is closing on a lighter note, Zao drops one of their classic minimalist breakdowns to finish it up.

Everything about Decoding… is distinctly Zao while yet again continuing to progress in new directions.  They don’t play a throw-back style of metalcore, the genre they had a hand in creating, and they certainly don’t play the modern version of it either.  Zao have always, and continue to, exist in their own world, unafraid to do things their own way.

Bottomline: Zao are putting together a new full-length for a potential release this year.  If this 7” is any indication of the group’s current state of songwriting, that record could continue the trend of the band being at the peak of their long career.  The two tracks on Decoding Transmissions From The Mobius Strip will have to hold us over in the meantime, and their good enough to do just that.

Zao - Transmission 1: I Saw The End - Decoding Transmissions From The Mobius Strip