Review Summary: Zao's album the funeral of god is an album to be reckoned with. The album is a concept album about god getting so fed up with humanity that he up and left or died. The album is absolutely amazing on all levels. so read the review if you want to find out w
The first track of the album is Breath of The Black Muse. Starting out with a killer riff it then goes right into Dan coming right out with his amazing lyrics. This song is the first part of the story of how god leaves us. The song is wrote as god sending a prophet from heaven to us down on earth and in our rejection and evil ways we turn him away and murder him (..." Your body torn apart you could not escape trembling prophet Anointed wrath of God incarnate..."). Great song, Great start to an amazing album.
The next song on the album and my personal favorite is The Rising End {the first prophecy}. Scott rips an amazing, in your face, riff which leads right into (..." bombs rain down like heavens tears..."). Here is where God begins His departure. War and strife overcome the whole earth. When men cry to the heavens, their screams are as a flame burning to reach the sky, continually getting higher but never reaching its target. Also, we see that there is no more salvation or sacrifice from Christ. (..."No miracles, no bleeding hands...") This truly defines a time when life and death are equally terrible and thus are one. It doesn't get any worse than this and truly is a think (... "To dark to think about...").
The Last revelation {the last prophecy} is just an all out in your face song. Many people think that it is the worst song of "the funeral of god" but I disagree. The song starts out with once again with another killer riff, with all the other instruments at a fast pace just sticks out to you. The vocals stick out to you more than the other songs, its fast compared to the other songs on the album. Also Scott has a backing vocal part for the chorus that really makes the chorus; with out it I think it would almost sound empty. The break of this song is so sweet. The Guitar parts change dramatically and the vocals slow up it's just an all around sweet break. To me this song means that all hope for us is gone in the picture painted here. Because we are told Heaven is the home of God, the earth is cast from heaven itself. War and death rage. We are repentant, but it is too late. The death we've brought upon ourselves claims us. This is the part of the story that this song reveals.
Now personally I feel that the next song is the worst song on "the funeral of god" but it’s still not that bad of a song if that makes sense. The track is called the last song from Zion. It starts out kind of soft and gets a lot heavier for the post chorus. In the story of "the funeral of god" this song is God's final words to us before God ("...goes to sleep forever..."). I think the line "I see Cain in all your eyes" is extremely powerful.
The next track is a title track of the album called Live... from the Funeral of god. The song comes right out with Dan screaming. But the chorus is mostly Scott singing. And it has a really cool break I thought, but there's not very much to say about the song about its place in the story which is... The world submits to deception yet again. We lament the departure of God but are deceived in thinking we can go on without Him. Our hearts are granted their full desire of being able to do whatever they want for no one is there to stop them. Death and hatred rule upon the earth.
The next have become one of my favorites when I ignored it at first, I regret that now. I like the guitar part although it is not technical it is actually very simple but sometimes simple is good. and the lyrics...well they're very good and I like them a lot I also really like the part of the story that it is...the lines (Listen to the chorus, so divine and unkind) suggest that angels are quite unhappy with their new kings (us since again, in the bible we are said to be higher up on the hierarchy) and will take vengeance upon us. The lines (the lesser lights of heaven cast crowns upon your throne dissipate into nothing, we truly are alone,) support this idea I think as well. Lastly, the very last lines of the song (can we survive this?) suggest they have commenced their attack and humanity is screwed.
The Seventh song of the album is In times Gone Past. The song starts out very soft with Scott singing and some 16 note double bass and some simple guitar. That’s really all there is to say about it besides its place in the story which to me is that man is now regretful in making god go away and is begging him to take away this curse of killing and hatred out of them which leads right into the next song and one of the best…
Number 8… Praise the War Machine comes right out to blast beats on the double bass and high guitars. This song is truly amazing all around I love the lyrics as well as the music. The break of this song always sticks out to me in every single way, they start using fast guitar riffs ending in pinch harmonics and lots of double bass that just makes it so heavy… and when Dan screams SIX SIX AHHHHHHHHHHHH SIX! Is just amazing I love that part of the song but if you care about the meaning that has a lot to do with it too which is… After God died, man did begin to seek Him and in the process found Satan who pretty much said “do whatever you want it is ok with me."
The term war machine holds a dual meaning here: man's evil nature and Satan. In short, 666.
"The death of the Omega pilots the war machine
we shall destroy the earth
Rebuild it
none shall inherit it"
God has died/gone away/whatever and now Satan and man run rampant without check. WE is the key word here. It doesn't mean Satan it means man and Satan. If it were just Satan it would be He, not we.
"The earth it shall burn bright tonight in our eyes
The earth it shall burn right into our eye on this very night
Praise the war machine
Burn tonight"
Again, a plural I, OUR eyes not HIS. The war machine is 666, the union of man and Satan.
The ninth and final actual song on the funeral of god is called, Truly, Truly this is the end. I have become very fond with this song to the day. It has a cool drum intro that leads into Dan and also this is another song where Scott gets a clean vocal chorus. I really like how this song was set up. With the beginning of every verse starting out with “…they say…” then continuing on which is cool because its like how everybody else is talking about the past and how this truly is our end…this song it talks about "our new kingdom" and in "praise the war machine" it talks about rebuilding the earth so that none shall inhabit it. In other words, man destroys himself, and in the afterlife, there is no God, the kingdom of the dead. Man walks about the earth sharing it with everyone realizing what he has done and people pray in vain due to there being nothing coming of it, God has left us and everyone realizes it truly is the end. It’s the opposite of what we are promised, a perfect world after life, but because God left there is nothing left, no where to go, nothing to do, no God, it’s simply the end.
I Lay sleepless in my grave, is the actual final track of the album but it is just an emotional instrumental. And seriously if you listen to the whole CD and actually think about it and its meaning this last track is very soothing and you can recollect your thoughts about it that’s what I did the first time I sat and tried to make something out of the story… thanks for reading my review please don’t be too harsh this is my first review ever so yeah…
