YMMV / Zao

• Broken Base:
  • Asking if Zao is a Christian band is a pretty good way to start a flame war. Basically, the fandom seems to be broken into three camps: those who believe that Zao is still a Christian band, those who do not, and those who don't care one way or another, and wish the others would stop squabbling.
  • A more minor one is Scott Mellinger's Soprano and Gravel dynamic with Dan Weyandt, which began with The Funeral of God. While Scott certainly isn't a bad singer, a minority of fans and reviewers believe that clean vocals in general don't really fit with Zao's sound.
• Tear Jerker: "To Think of You is To Treasure An Absent Memory" and "A Fall Farewell" are both about the suicide of one of Dan's very close friends. On those tracks in particular, you can hear genuine grief in his tortured shrieks.
• The Scrappy:
  • The band members themselves consider the 2003 re-recording of All Else Failed as this, as they more or less rushed it out for some quick money and to fulfill contractual obligations, and because they feel it disrespects the memory of the original.
  • Joshua Ashworth, the live vocalist who replaced Dan Weyandt, was and continues to be pretty unpopular with the fans. This is mostly due to the fact that his "rock star" stage persona presented a stark contrast to Dan's darker, more brooding presence. It reached the point where Scott decided that he didn't want to continue on without Dan on vocals. Fortunately, Weyandt would return the very next year.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: Averted. Zao's material after they switched from hardcore punk to metalcore has been far more influential and almost universally better acclaimed.