Skip to main content

The Lesser Lights of Heaven

If you've ever heard Zao, chances are you haven't forgotten what they sound like: extreme, exorcism-like vocals over brutally heavy riffs and big drums. No, this isn't the kind of music I listen to on a regular basis, but I respect it and enjoy listening to it from time to time. After seeing the recent 3 and 1/2 hour documentary on the band called The Lesser Lights of Heaven, I don't know if I find the band's history more interesting than their music.

Other than Napalm Death, Zao is the only other band that I know of that retains none of their original members in their current line-up. Led by drummer Jesse Smith and a number of membership changes over a dozen years, certain members like vocalist Dan Weyandt, guitarist Scott Mellinger and guitarist Russ Cogdell floated in, around and out of the band. Now without Smith in the band, it sounds like blasphemy that the band is carrying on with the Zao name. I don't think it is, but how I feel this way can only be summed up after watching The Lesser Lights of Heaven.

I first read about Zao in Alternative Press in '98 shortly after Where Blood and Fire Bring Rest. The write-up on them was in a multi-page look at the current state of hardcore and it proved to be one of the more influential articles for Post. Ryan J. Downey wrote the blurb and it turns out, he produced and directed The Lesser Lights of Heaven.

At first, it seems natural to ask, "Why spend 3.5 hours on one band?" But I think that's plenty of time. This isn't your standard, chop-chop/get-to-the-point documentary that focuses on the main points and leaves out a ton of stuff in order to have an 80-90 running time. Probably every question I've ever wondered about the band is discussed. Band members, especially Smith, make no bones about personality differences, their views on organized religion and how certain records were thrown together to make some money. Not many bands are this blunt about who they were/are and this makes for a very engaging documentary.

The topic of Christianity and how it plays into organized religion has a big part in this film. Band member's views on organized religion and heavy music have been a controversial part of the band since their beginning. Playing a style of music that is often considered "death metal" because of the detuned guitars, pounding drums and screaming vocals, many have thought that metal band made up of Christians is an oxymoron. For Zao and a whole slew of bands, it's about creating good and powerful music, and not about being a ministry. As someone who doesn't subscribe to one set of beliefs under one organization, this attitude is something I really relate to. There is no way I can get into crappy, mediocre music, secular or non-secular.

Overall, this is a great DVD. A 3.5 hour documentary on a band is a tad long, but with it being on DVD, no one is holding you down to watch it in one sitting. Maybe this will start a trend of band documentaries and how length isn't that big of a deal. I get a little annoyed with documentaries that cut out so much stuff so they can make for a user-friendly running time. If the band's story is that interesting, take all the time you need.

Comments

Eric said…
Zao. Haven't heard them in awhile. Interesting that they have no original members.

Popular posts from this blog

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Catherine Wheel

Originally posted: Tuesday, August 29th, 2006 Despite managing to release five proper albums, Catherine Wheel was one of those bands that always seemed to slip past the mainstream rock crowd. Yes, they got some nice airplay in their day, but people seem to have forgotten about them. You may hear “Black Metallic” or “Waydown” on a “classic alternative” show on Sirius or XM or maybe even on terrestrial radio, but that’s about it. For me, they were one of most consistent rock bands of the ’90s, meandering through shoegazer, hard rock, space rock and pop rock, all while eluding mainstream pigeonholing. Led by the smooth, warm pipes of vocalist/guitarist Rob Dickinson (cousin of Iron Maiden’s Bruce Dickinson), Catherine Wheel featured Brian Futter on lead guitar, Dave Hawes on bass and Neil Sims on drums. They weren’t a pretty-boy guitar band, but they weren’t a scuzzy bunch of ragamuffins either. Though the band hailed from England, Catherine Wheel found itself more welcome on American air

Hello, Control

I'm still a big fan of iTunes . I haven't tried Napster , Urge or eMusic as I've been perfectly happy with Apple's program ever since I downloaded it two years ago. However, an annoying new feature has come up with its latest version, 7.0. Whenever you pull up your music library, a sidebar taking up 3/4ths of the screen appears plugging the iTunes Music Store. Why is this an annoyance? Well, first and foremost, since you can't close the sidebar, you can't escape it. I believe a music library is a private collection, a spot away from the music store. So what's the need for constant advertisements and plugs? To provide a better visual, let me describe what I see whenever I pull up a song in my iTunes library. When I listen to "This is a Fire Door Never Leave Open" by the Weakerthans, I see a graphic for Left and Leaving , the album that it comes from (and available in the iTunes Music Store), along with a list of the Weakerthans' other albums,

Politics Shmolitics

Yesterday, the more pleas I saw for people to go out and vote, the more uncomfortable I felt. Plenty of the blogs I hit up everyday said something along the lines of "Vote and if you don't, don't complain." Folks, this is why I find discussing politics so alienating. There are plenty of reasons why I don't discuss politics on here or in my everyday conversations. The biggest reason is because I don't have a lot of interest in politics in the first place. By what I've seen, heard and read for the last eight years, political debates are usually pissing contests. Judging by the views I've processed, it would be easy to think that we're all slowly going downhill either on the left, right or down the middle. Yet I don't think we're going totally downhill or totally uphill. Debating the direction we're going seems futile, especially when adults start screaming at each other like they're in grade school. To my ears, political debates are s