Nearing three active decades, snake-metal veterans Zao are still one of the most impressive and relevant bands making music today.
Steadfast Records worked with Zao on their first three releases.
SFR001The Tie That Binds was released in 1995 as a split 7" with Dayton-core heavyweights Outcast sharing the second side.
This was quickly followed up in the summer of 1996 by their debut full length release All Else Failed. An amazingly complex album far ahead of its time. All Else Failed was recorded near Cleveland, Ohio at Spider Studios. Engineered by Ben Schigel and Produced by Myk Porter (Six Feet Deep/Brandtson/Golden Streets of Paradise). Zao later re-recorded a second version of this album, released in 2003 by Solid State Records.
Later in 1996 saw the band's second split 7”, this time with Canada's Through & Through taking the second side to the Zao ripper 'Repressed'.
In 1999 Steadfast Records re-issued The Tie That Binds 7" as a CD with updated artwork and a bonus Zao track 'Security' that we couldn't fit on the record.
In 2020 Steadfast Records released the compilation Preface: Early Recordings (1995-1996). These14 recordings document the earliest days of the band and their first two vocalists Eric Reeder and Shawn Jonas. Collecting tracks from the Sustained cassette demo, their first two split 7”’s, an alternate compilation recording of Exchange and six previously unreleased tracks.
