Beautiful Brutality

  

If you like hard music and have not listened to Zao before your missing something special.  This band has been around for a good long while now which is pretty amazing considering they've had more line-up changes than just about any band I can think of.  Zao makes some of the best hard music ever.  I've heard them described as Screamo, extreme metal, and metal but whatever you call them they are fantastic.  Bands like Bullet for my Valentine, Underoath, and As I Lay Dying all owe some of their success to Zao.  They broke the mold for what a successful band in the modern music market could sound like.  

Of all the bands I listen to Zao is easily the band that has the biggest impact on my state of mind.  When I have had a rotten day and release some aggression this is the band I turn to.  Their music is so aggressive that it just saps it all out of me.  What I like best about it that even though it is extremely heavy music with mostly shouted/screamed vocals it is still musically fantastic.  These guys craft some absolutely gorgeous songs.  If you want to give them a try their greatest hits album Legendary is a great place to start.  My personal favorite CD they have done is  The Splinter Shards the Birth of Separation.  The intro to that CD is among the best intros ever.  It kicks off with the song Times of Separation which is my favorite song from them.  I also really enjoy Liberate ex Inferis (Save Yourself from Hell), The Funeral of God, and The Fear is What Keeps us Here.    To top is all off their artwork is always fantastic.  All in all this is a band you need to check out if you haven't yet.