Grace Hotel
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Album Reviews

When I first gave this disc a couple of initial spins I was not very thrilled. Not because it was suck, but because it seemed fairly simple and not as harsh as Where blood & fire bring rest. Now after about 10 solid spins I found Liberate te ex inferis to be nothing less than purely refreshing. I don't know what I was thinking at first. The LP is like nothing I've heard, mature, and powerful. If you've never heard the past two LP's from Zao and are a black metal fan you NEED to hear Daniel Weyandt vocals. No this is not a black metal band, but Daniel has a raspy delivery (not shrill) that can be compared to Heartwork (CARCASS) yet better. Before I go into the music I wish people (even the band!) would quit calling Zao hardcore! The early material was hardcore, but this (and the last LP) is plainly metal. Also I know this isn't hardcore because it doesn't suck! Even though Liberate isn't death metal speed with blastfest this is ferociously angry art. The band relies more on drawn-out, power chord aggression and Daniel's scalp-tearing vox as their primary weapon. The groove breakdowns throughout the LP are sheer punishment and usually include ornate harmonic squeals, but never KORN (I'm gonna spew from saying that name.) Even though I reaffirm the music is not hardcore I do notice the guitarist do frequent the abstract, light riffing common in hardcore/metalcore. Blended in the mix are plenty-o acoustical segments. They make the album somber and intelligent at worse. Skin like winter from the TRAINING FOR UTOPIA split EP is added on this album and while it is a little different than the rest of this LP it is still ruling as ever. As I mentioned, Liberate came off as being very simple in tempo and structure. It is not pummeling fast, but simple it is not. This album has so many amenities scattered around the backbone you really don't notice them until you play this a few times with full attention. When Liberate is not adding these pleasantries you'll realize you don't give a crap cause that's when they are just straight kicking your face in. I usually don't get involved much with lyrics, artwork, or general band image , but Zao again stands out here as well. The lyrics are infected with depth, poetically creative, and alive. As for the layout and photo art, I have seen nothing like this. It reminds me of a mix between a novel and a circus (?) I'm not even going to bother describing it, see it yourself, you'll be better off I'm sure. Some may think it lame, I say it's brilliant. Also, I have never mentioned this in my past reviews, but this is a max volume LP only! I can never seem to get the full effect of this release without blasting it till my feeble bones rattle. To end my inconclusive rhetoric, know that I am a death to all not death metal fan, but Liberate will be played along side my Suffocation, Malevolent Creation, and Nile disc with respect. Zao should be your first choice in your quest in finding extreme music that sounds like no other. "Skin lined winter. Cherished one fading away. I can see your breath begging to resurrect into death. Hiding scars back laced with splinters. Audience of a congregation make your way to the front. Close your eyes and grieve. You played your part so well."

~ Deadzine

A lot of people feel this is the band's best work. Likewise, it was the first record I heard by them and thus will always be the standard by which I compare other releases. However fanatical I was about this album after first hearing it, it has worn on me over the last year and a half. Liberate is a solid album straight through and there are definitely some fine moments but it takes less chances musically and is therefore not as interesting as Blood And Fire or Self-Titled. This is straight up death metal, played with fury and precision for the most part, but bringing little else to the table. The album is loosley based on the film Event Horizon which is an extremely terrifying sci fi horror movie about a lost spaceship which has crossed into hell through a space-time warp and come back as a demon posessed ghost ship. I still don't make the connection between this film and the lyrics on the album, but the sound bites run consistently through and do set the tone nicely with talk of demons and hell and damnation. The title of the record is actually from the film as well. Translated from latin as "Save yourself from hell", it was a warning from the ship's crew to whoever found their vessel. Here I guess it serves as a warning to the audience, although Zao moves even farther from their militant evangelist roots on this album and chooses to discuss more contemporary topics like mental illness and domestic violence. There is a lot of material that concentrates however on the pain and social isolation which come from holding onto strong beliefs in the face of adversity. This is a more universal standpoint for the band to relate to its audience but is obviously drawn out of their religious background and thus Zao does not abandon their beliefs on this record (as some have accused) but simply writes more personal and therefore intersting and unique lyrics. The same would hold true on their next album. Ideological concepts aside, there is some fairly decent music on this album. The band has obviously learned well from their acoustic experiments on Blood and Fire and plays the soft-loud card quite a bit this time around. The intro track is all instrumental, subtle and almost hypnotic in the way it draws you in and gradually builds tension before tearing your head off with the full out metal fury of the leading two tracks. Savannah and Autopsy are straight out death metal, fast and brutal, and harder than most other songs in Zao's catalogue. If These Scars Could Speak again works acoustics into the formula, trading off between remorseful acoustic guitar and gutteral death metal anger. These types of songs are when Zao is at its most powerful, mixing different elements of music together to express a wide range of emotions. The sorrow and reflection of the acoustic parts just makes the fury of the metal parts that much more unsettling. However for the most part, Zao avoids these contrasts in favor of straight death metal which is very well played but not as interesting as what this band is capable of. The Ghost Psalm and Desire The End both make use of acoustics and spoken word passages but they seem to be thrown in for good measure rather than fitting the songs. Dark Cold Sound and Skin Like Winter are both very hard edged metal songs more in the vein of the opening tracks. The album's closers Kathleen Barbara and Man In Cage are quieter and more reflective numbers. Basically, this album is very well done, but doesn't take as many chances musically as the band's other work. Therefore I would not say it is their best work, but it is definitely nothing to be ashamed of. A solid and sometimes surprising death metal album from an extremely talented band.

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