Customer Reviews

Zao: Lesser Lights of Heaven

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This DVD is perfect. If you are a Zao fan at all you need this. The 3 1/2 hour documentary is totally engaging. I watched it all the way through in one sitting and wasn't even the slightest bit bored. It tells you everything you've always wanted to know and more. It starts with the first incarnation of zao and also talks about what current members were doing at the time. It even talks about past bands they were in ( Seasons in the Field, Pensive, Creation is Crucifixion, Chapter). The live footage is great too although it's secondary to the great documentary. If you are a little too pc, you may be shocked with the foul language, drinking, smoking, etc., but get over it and enjoy this. I can't recommend this enough for anybody with even the slightest interest in Zao. Amazing.

I give this two starts, one for the documentary and one for the live footage.

I think xxxfreekxxx works for Ferret because "totatlly engaging" does not describe this DVD. I'm a hardcore Zao fan but I was a little worried when I bought this DVD off eBay for $12. There are copies being sold on eBay with a description that reads, "watched once. Didn't like." After getting my copy in, I could see why.

Let's start with the live shows (because that's the DVD I popped in first). The quality of the fan submitted shows isn't that great, but that's to be expected from one person and a camcorder. To record some of those shows on a camera phone would have been a step up, seriously. The full sets recorded this year, 2005, were a huge disappointment. They play "At Zero" in one fo the sets and Dan in on his knees giving it his all and you can't hear him at all over the drums. When the drums let up for a bit you can hear the guitars but back in come the drums and the song is over. In the age where you can get a live CD of the show you just watched this is a huge disappointment (and don't tell me that's only a big record label thing. Check out Matisyahu - Live at Stubbs, for some spirit filled reggae [/end local band plug]).

On to the documentary. Where do I start. I'm not bagging it because I didn't like what I heard out of the band's mouth, because it was the cold hard history of the band, but the overall quality of the documentary. 1.) I don't like the flow of the documentary. It starts off with how the current line up meet each other. To me it would've made more since to start at the beginning with Eric, instead of going back to that point, then working their way back up to the current line up, where they tell the story of how they came together, again. 2.) It's censored for cuss words... sort of. In one chapter Jesse's is edited for saying the s-word, but the next chapter he drops a f-bomb that goes unedited but in the chapter after that, he tries the f-word again and it's censored. 3.) It's too long, I didn't even watch it all the way through. I am dead serious when I tell you there is a scene in there, while they are interviewing Jesse, that he stops, pulls his sleeve up and looks at his watch! That should've been edited out. 4.) The guys at Ferret comment on their signing Zao. They say, and I quote, "that we're not backstroking in money [off of Zao] but we're doing good." That made sick. As soon as I heard that I felt like they just called me a sucker for buying this DVD set that they slapped together to make a few extra dollars. This was thrown together at the last minute and it shows.

I take that back; I only give it one star.

This DVD definitely isn't for everyone, it's all about your tastes. I've been a longtime Zao fan and have seen them in concert, as well as Dan being a huge influence on me when it comes to my vocals. So here's my review.

Disc 1 - The Documentary
Okay so this is really, REALLY, lengthy, and it's hard to watch all in one sitting. I broke it into segments (for example when I saw the part for a new album come up I turned it off did something else then came back) but personally, I loved it. Not the greatest production quality, but if you want to be informed on literally EVERYTHING about Zao, then this is for you. I enjoyed it quite a bit, and I know a lot more about this amazing band then I did before. It also might get you into some other bands that are featured on this DVD, so hey, it works.

Disc 2 - The Live Stuff
The Glasshouse show, it is friggin incredible. The sound is great, although the vocal mixing is a little, shall I say, uneven I guess would be the best word for it. Sometimes you can hear Dan really well, other times it kind of cuts off, and the snare drum is way too overpowering. But this way, if you've never seen them live, it's incredible. It just sounds like they didn't take a constant sound source, it seems that they just cut the clips up and used whatever sound was going into that certain camera, which is kind of unfortunate.
Live at the Soma, umm yeah. It does not sound well at all. Just watch the Glasshouse show and you'll be set, besides, both sets are almost the same.

It's an interesting DVD and it's inexpensive. If you're a hardcore Zao fan, buy it. If you only kind of know them, then it can go either way. If you're new to them, don't even think about it because I guarantee you will not appreciate it.

This dvd is one hell of a beast to sit through and watch with it's documentary runtime of 3 and 1/2 hours. This dvd is for hardcore fans of Zao that really want to know what happened behind the scenes. I became exposed to Zao later on in their run sometime after Funeral of God was released and have fallen in love with all their stuff. This dvd is exactly what i needed to get a history lesson of the band. I knew they had an ever changing line up but never knew why...this dvd told me why. I've only watched one of the concerts so far (and i've never had the enjoyment of seeing Zao live) and thought it was great.

I will say this about the documentary and it's this reason i give it 4 stars and not 5 is because it seemed like there wasn't much editing done to it. They could've done a better job of putting the documentary together. I realize that with a history like Zao's it's hard to condense it, but just as a quality stand point it could've been better at keeping the watcher intrigued in some parts instead of dragging on.

Even though this was a beast of dvd to digest, i loved it. This is a must have for any hardcore Zao fans.

I would have to say that this DVD is very interesting to watch if you have listened to Zao's music throughout the years or if you're someone trying to find out about some of the early Christian death metal bands that were coming out in the 90's. Not all of the original members of Zao are featured in the interviews. Primarily, longtime drummer Jessie Smith, and Shawn Jonas (even though Shawn was not the original vocalist) were among a few of the original members from the evangical Christian version of Zao that were interviewed (Eric and Mic were mentioned in the interviews, but they are not present). A large portion of the interviews come from vocalist Dan Weyandt, guitartist Scott Mellinger, and Jessie Smith. A majority of the DVD is about the drama that was going on with Jessie and the rest of the bandmembers. There is even a video that was recorded in 2001 where Jessie was performing with Zao, completely drunk, and Zao broke up onstage afterwards. Alot of curse words are used throughout, mainly by Jessie Smith, but some of the harsh words such as f@#k, and sh%* are bleeped out. As mentioned earlier, this is interesting to watch if you are love the material and if you have three hours to spare to watch the documentary. Recommended for spiritually mature audiences

This Dvd is 2 disc one live and and one over 3 hour documentary. So I will break the review into 2 reviews. Disc 2 live. the 2 full shows are live at Glasshouse and live at Sona. The live at glasshouse is great quality sound and pic. I had to play around on my surround sound to find a good mix but once i found it I started my one man mosh pit. Now the second set live at Soma is good video but the worst sound. I could not find a good mix for it. Also besides 2 songs it was the exact same set as the first one. Which does not make sense. Then theres 14 other live songs at differant venues each one a differant quality. but again most of the 14 are what we had allready seen in the other 2 sets.
so basicly what you get is one really good set of about 10 songs, a crappy sounding set of the same songs. I am a Zao fan and have seen them 5 times live. the live at glasshouse gives you and idea of what they are live, but you still have to experience it.
Disc one the documentary- I love documentary feature film and this is not trying to be that. Its not real structured or really well produced. But it gives you a great inside look into what Zao has gone through the past 10 years. You see there stand on christianity and religion and everything else. there more down to earth and I can relate to them better then metallica. One scene after the founding member leaves he saids "Im not going to do a dave mustaine and cry about it." Which was cool. These guys only are here because we support them. So even though this is not great and has its problems, if you love zao go buy it and support them. Do not burn it, but burn the metallica one, they dont need the money.

When I heard Zao was coming out with a DVD, I was happy, because finally we could settle some debates over who was in the band, why they did the remake of All Else Failed, and the true story behind the on stage breakup. Clocking in at 3 and a half hours, this dvd is very long winded and a little more clever editing could've helped as some points early on in the dvd, each interview seems to circle each other. One thing that came to me when watching the documentary portion is that it's laid out more as a book, as it's more informational than entertaining. The disc was done by Ryan Downey, the bands manager and long time friend, who also recently did the Bleeding Through DVD 'wolves among sheep', which pales in comparison to this. You'd also think that Downey, being an MTV vet, would at least know what to edit out to make the presentation a little more enjoyable, it's not easy to sit through a 3 hour plus documentary and not get bored. Oh yeah and to top it off, there are deleted scenes, which after watching the documentary, I can't imagine what they left off. The dvd was good in the sense that they had band members from the past, not everyone but just about everyone including Jesse Smith, who even though said he doesn't think so, at times came off like a jerk.
I will have to warn some longtime ZAO fans, there may be portions of this DVD that may offend you, some items dealing with religion, some dealing with why they recorded 'Self titled', 'Parade of Chaos' and the 'All else Failed' re-recording, not to mention what got them back together for what became their current incarnation for 'The Funeral of God' album.
If a 3 and half hour long documentary wasn't enough, you get 2 full live sets and more than a dozen fan submitted live clips. One concert taped from this summer, the audio isn't that good, but the concert at the soma from January was pretty good. You also get a new song in these. A little better audio on the shows would've been nice, as I know myself and other Zao fans have seen vids online that had better audio than these.
Other extras include Rising end video, and a tour of the band's hometown in Pennsylvania
Overall I'd say this release sets the bar for other releases, while it's not the best edited release, it does give you the most for your buck and leaves no questions unanswered.

if you got a taste for good and evil things blood and beauty, thias is for you, if not just turn the page and find something else more suitable for you. jared.

I'm not as much of a Zao fan or a metalcore fan as I used to be, but I did enjoy this DVD for the most part except for two aspects. For one, its far too long, just like Fugazi-Instrument. Another thing, all of the commentary from fellow bands and fans seems to be exclusively of the Christian hardcore Solidstate/Tooth and Nail crowd, which is very disappointing.

my earlier review was a sham and i apologize.

this dvd is really only for scene kids who want to know "the story."

primarily, it tells the tale of deep spiritual awakening and the subsequent sharp turn away from "youth group" christianity. while jesse and dan (who make the most comments about this transition) both have very valid points about the hypocrisy within the church, the main message i got was a common one: we got hurt in church, so screw it. it makes me sad and i hope that their hearts are healed.

in addition, jesse is set up as the ultimate fall guy for the turbulence of the band. of course his sometimes angry, sometimes smug interview lends credence to the accusation.

i was suprised to find that some of the people/bands from the early days that might have been included were left out, like 6feetdeep (brandtson). if i remember right, the boys of 6feetdeep saw zao on a side stage at cornerstone 94 and kind of took them under their wing, introducing them to the cleveland/canton hxc scene. matt traxler founded the steadfast label and put out all else failed 2 years later.
ultimitely, the biggest letdown was the absence of the original bassist, mic cox and the true founder of the band, eric reeder as their imput (especially eric's) would have been very insightful.

stem