Zao: The Funeral of God — Zao

Most metalcore albums are about the end of a relationship. Zao's The Funeral of God is about the end of everything else.

The record

The Funeral of God is Zao's seventh studio album. Ferret Music released it in the US on July 13, 2004, and Roadrunner and Ferret released it in Europe and Asia a day earlier. Eric Rachel produced, engineered and mixed it, and Alan Douches mastered it.

It brought back guitarist Russ Cogdell and added bassist Shawn Koschik and drummer Stephen Peck, after drummer Jesse Smith left. Dan Weyandt sang, and Scott Mellinger played guitar and sang the clean parts. Koschik also wrote string arrangements, Josh Momper played piano, and Sara George added vocals to the closing track.

The album was nearly called Live... from the Funeral of God. The band's management worried fans would think it was a live recording, so the title was shortened.

The story

This is a concept album. God, fed up with the path humanity has chosen, decides to disappear and leave people to their fate. The world falls into war and self-destruction. Then, slowly, humanity returns to waiting for God to come back.

For a band that had once been seen as a Christian band, and whose members later debated that label, it's a striking premise. It asks what people do when they believe God's silence is real.

The sound

The album swings toward the melodic metalcore of Killswitch Engage and Shadows Fall, and goes further into melody than anything before it, most of all on "Psalm of the City of the Dead."

The Rising End

"The Rising End (The First Prophecy)" was the band's first music video. Ferret promoted the album heavily, and Zao toured the US several times behind it and made their first extensive European headlining tour. It became the biggest-selling Zao album up to then.

The band announced a vinyl release through Tragic Hero Records in 2018, but it got caught up in legal issues and hasn't come out.

Where it fits

For Zao's earlier, rawer sound, go back to Where Blood and Fire Bring Rest. The Funeral of God is the record where the band took their long argument with faith and turned it into a whole story.