Zao's original incarnation formed in the mid-90s with the evangelical zeal of Focused, the fervor of Earth Crisis and the image of vintage rockabilly. When that version of the band fell apart shortly after the 1997 Cornerstone Festival, Zao as it would come to change the course of heavy music was born in the fires of creative tension.

"Where Blood & Fire Bring Rest" took the conventions of hardcore and heavy metal and turned them upside down. Thunderous, epic, and full of passion, the album was driven by vocals that exorcised singer Daniel Weyandt's demons as if his life depended on the songs. His words reshaped a personal history wrought with tragedy, suicide and death into beautiful musings that connected with their brutal honesty and naked self-observation. Guitarists Russ Cogdell and Brett Detar, and original drummer Jesse Smith, played the songs with a passion to match Dan Weyandt's soul-wrenching lyrics as the now Greensburg based band (linked to the Zao of old only by West Virginian Smith) devastated stages across the country. Not since Unbroken had jaws dropped like this. "If the melodic end of the kingdom has been taken by Killswitch Engage then the extreme end belongs to Zao. No question." -- Metal Hammer magazine. Zao's new album, "The Fear Is What Keeps Us Here," is due in June. Recorded by Steve Albini (Nirvana, Neurosis, The Pixies) the album combines the dark and creepy vibe of "Liberate" with the rock n' roll thunder of "Self-Titled" and the metallic fury of "The Funeral Of God." Zao's storied career was documented on the two-disc "The Lesser Lights Of Heaven" DVD and the luminaries of today's heavy music scene are well aware of their debt to the band. Underoath and Unearth opened for Zao. Thrice and Fall Out Boy listened to Zao while growing up. As I Lay Dying invited Dan Weyandt to guest on their last album and Matt Heafy from Trivium joined the band onstage to perform "Praise The War Machine." Greensburg, Pennsylvania isn't known for many things besides being in close proximity to the mall where George A. Romero filmed "Dawn Of The Dead." And the renegade spirit, commentary on the world around us, and personal introspection that drives the bespectacled filmmaker lives and breathes within Zao, a band whose backwoods roots have allowed them to stay one step ahead of the trends by staying true to their isolated selves. Zao's original incarnation formed in the mid-90s with the evangelical zeal of Focused, the fervor of Earth Crisis and the image of vintage rockabilly. When that version of the band fell apart shortly after the 1997 Cornerstone Festival, Zao as it would come to change the course of heavy music was born in the fires of creative tension. "Where Blood & Fire Bring Rest" took the conventions of hardcore and heavy metal and turned them upside down. Thunderous, epic, and full of passion, the album was driven by vocals that exorcised singer Daniel Weyandt's demons as if his life depended on the songs. His words reshaped a personal history wrought with tragedy, suicide and death into beautiful musings that connected with their brutal honesty and naked self-observation. Guitarists Russ Cogdell and Brett Detar, and original drummer Jesse Smith, played the songs with a passion to match Dan Weyandt's soul-wrenching lyrics as the now Greensburg based band (linked to the Zao of old only by West Virginian Smith) devastated stages across the country. Not since Unbroken had jaws dropped like this. When Scott Mellinger joined Zao (replacing guitarist Detar, who left to focus on The Juliana Theory) it began a song-writing partnership with Weyandt that persists to this day. Smith's West Virginian friend Rob Horner filled the long-vacant bass position before the band made "Liberate Te Ex Inferis (Save Yourself From Hell)," an album that redefined the sound of an era AGAIN and created one of the band's biggest live hits, "Savannah." Zao's next album, "Self-Titled," was recorded by only Dan, Scott and Jesse and featured a vast amount of experimentation with electronics, dark soundscapes, and melodic interludes. "A Tool To Scream" and the lovelorn letter that is "Five Year Winter" eclipsed all they had done before, while "At Zero" is the kind of devastating album closer that brings to mind Metallica's "Dyer's Eve" or "Damage Inc." After the album's release, Zao toured with a new singer, Corey Darst, who did an admirable job mimicking Dan's voice but never captured the same energy. In December of 2001 Zao broke up onstage, ironically as Dan stood in as a "guest."