Artist: Zao Album: Legendary Label: Solid State Records Rating: 7 out of 10

In the eight years since releasing their debut album, Zao has effectively become the reverse Spinal Tap - nine members have come and gone, with drummer Jesse Smith remaining the only constant. But though Legendary may be a bit of an exaggerated title for the group's first best-of, Zao comes closer to making it accurate than such a relatively young and unstable metal band has any right to. So what have they done to earn that distinction? Well, Zao pretty much invented metalcore, a brutal style of music that pairs down-tuned riffing, double-bass drumming and sick vocals that sound barely human. And despite having a new lineup on nearly every album - and breaking up and reuniting every couple of years - they've turned out one great record after another while continuing to push their sound relentlessly forward. Legendary captures it all in one neat package, but focuses primarily on the Dan Weyandt years. Thankfully, the more-basic hardcore album The Splinter Shards the Birth of Separation - one of two Zao releases to feature Shawn Jonas on vocals - is represented only by "Times of Separation." However, it is peculiar that the band's debut album - recorded once with Jonas and re-recorded recently with Weyandt - is completely ignored. It's a minor gripe, though, because while they were a good band from the beginning, it wasn't until Weyandt brought his throat-shredding style of "singing" to the table that Zao realized their potential for greatness. The two albums that followed - Where Blood and Fire Bring Rest and Liberate Te Ex Inferis - found the group perfecting their particular style of metal to an absolute science that few could rival. Legendary tracks like "A Fall Farewell" and "Savannah" are classic Zao at the height of their powers - brutally heavy, but also well-crafted, with the distinctive riffs and surprisingly-memorable hooks that elude most of their peers. But while those albums received near-universal acclaim, the duo of Weyandt and drummer/multi-instrumentalist/songwriter Smith weren't content to rest on their laurels. So on the band's self-titled album, Zao decided to explore their artsy side. Though you'd never hear them mentioned in the same sentence as Radiohead, the group's electronic explorations on Zao do beg the comparison. From the precise attack of the all-electronic drum kit Smith employed on the furious "5 Year Winter" and the epic "The Race of Standing Still" - both of which appear here - to the delicate acoustic ballad "FJL," this is Zao toying with being art-rockers, and pulling it off surprisingly well. Unfortunately, the album's musically-generic and lyrically-spiteful "Trash Can Hands," a rare misstep for the band, also makes an inexplicable appearance on Legendary. Zao's most recent album, the more-straightforward Parade of Chaos, also contributes three tracks, of which one - the politically-minded "Free the Three" - could have been left off. The title track or opener "The Buzzing" would have made better choices, but for the most part, Parade is represented well. "Suspend Suspension" demonstrates the band's further successful exploration of its techno-industrial leanings, while "Angel Without Wings" sees the rare melodic vocal crop up on a song that, like much of Zao's recent work, relies on a fairly traditional verse-chorus structure. Unfortunately, it's Legendary's "new" tracks that are least impressive. These three songs - recorded with singer Corey Darst during a brief period where Weyandt left the band prior to Parade - are very similar in tone to that album, but lack its spark. The guitars all have Parade's deep groove and the choruses still stand out, but "The Icarus Complex" and "One Last Time" just feel formulaic, which is something Zao is seldom accused of. Those songs aside though, Legendary is a solid record. For die-hards who've got all of the band's albums, those three anomalous tracks will make this an essential purchase. And for less devoted fans, this is the place to find some of Zao's best and most brutal work (so far) all in one place. Now, with Weyandt gone again and former Society's Finest screamer Joshua Ashworth taking the reigns, the only question is where Zao will go next - but that's anybody's guess. - Todd Thatcher