Their tenth platter takes its cue neatly from its predecessor, starting us off gingerly before descending into a fully-blown discordant crescendo of grinding guitars, thunderous drumming and vocals that are biting enough to peel the skin off a grown man's face. With Steve Albini (known for his stellar work on acts like Neurosis) on board as producer, Zao also seem a distinctly more confident act, and notwithstanding Albini's glaringly abrasive analogue production, songs like "Killing Time 'Till It's Time to Die" -- with its nod to Entombed-style death 'n' roll -- makes landfill of any formulas the band may previously have followed. So effective in fact is this experimentation, that the record's more archetypal moments ("There's No Such Thing as Paranoia" and "Everything You Love Will Soon Be Gone" being two examples) sound indubitably pedestrian by comparison. Of course such criticisms aren't likely to mean anything to long-time fans, and odds are that this time around Zao have created a record that's searing enough to win them more than a handful of new admirers as well.

Another Stryper these boys most definitely are not.