Zao -- The Crimson Corridor

9/10

28 years in, the miracle of Zao continues. Continuing in their five-piece, FINAL FORM mode, Zao takes the musical ideas from 2016's The Well-Intentioned Virus, and adds a bit more doom and atmosphere. If the last one felt like a funeral procession through a haunted, snowy landscape, this one sounds like they've reached the steps down to the crypt hallway. There are a few instances where the crypt walls fall away and you're in a spooky midnight forest, where you almost wish for the crypt walls to return. This is ghostly, terrifying music, bordering on cosmic horror, with Crimson Corridor functionally serving as Zao's scariest album--and this is a band who made a concept album about hell. Again taking the "core" out of metalcore, the guitars here are at times slow and grindy, and at others riffing away. Jeff Gretz has perfected his Zao style even more, continuing the circular tom-work that has highlighted his 15 years in the band, but also falling in lockstep when the time calls for a groove, in tracks like "Croatoan. Dan Weyandt's dark lyrics have somehow become even more poetic and evocative, while his vocal performance is as beautifully acidic as always. He takes this near mythical band into mythical territory here, even using a "Ship of Theseus" metaphor for this band that hasn't had an original member in nearly 20 years--I hope the serendipity of the actual myth of the Ship of Theseus trending after a recent Wandavision episode will lead newcomers to Zao. Meanwhile, Scott Mellinger continues to perfectly pick his spots with sparsely placed sung vocals, filling tracks like the incredible ten-minute closer, "The Web," with even more misty atmosphere. Meanwhile, bassist, Martin Lunn, reliably holds down the low-end, but shines most during this labyrinthine album's quiet passages, where he's able to fully come alive with some beautiful, complex work. And to top it off, the production here is perfect.
This music nourishes my soul. As of right now, The Crimson Corridor might just be 2021's album to beat.

Here but not here, torn from the axis
Torn from the axis, here but not here

We’re unable to awake
And we’ve forgot that we are sleeping
We’re unable to awake
And we’ve forgot that it’s a dream

A shell within a shell… within a shell…within a shell...
Within a shell… in a disguise

Pulled from a dream into another dream
Croatoan

At this moment, for this last Zao review, and with only two reviews remaining in this entire "Every Album I Own" series, here's a Zao full-length albums ranking list, even including the two I didn't review.

12. All Else Failed (Remake) (2003)
11. The Splinter Shards the Birth of Separation (1997)
10. Awake? (2009)
9. The Fear Is What Keeps Us Here (2006)
8. All Else Failed (original) (1996)
7. The Funeral of God (2004)
6. Parade of Chaos (2002)
5. Where Blood and Fire Bring Rest (1998)
4. The Well-Intentioned Virus (2016)
3. The Crimson Corridor (2021)
2. Self-Titled (2001)
1. Liberate Te Ex Inferis (1999)

2021 Observed/Observer
1. Into The Jaws Of Dread 4:19
2. Ship Of Theseus 4:00
3. Croatoan 4:18
4. The Final Ghost 4:24
5. R.I.P.W. 4:56
6. The Crimson Corridor 5:11
7. Transitions 3:07
8. Nothing's Form 7:03
9. Creator/Destroyer 5:20
10. Lost Star 3:56
11. The Web 10:23