In 1995 ZAO released their first album All Else Failed on Steadfast Records, 21 years later, after a series of highly influential records on Solid State and their biggest commercial/critical successes (The Funeral Of God [2004] and 2006’s The Fear Is What Keeps Us Here) on Ferret Records. Zao returned with their 11th full-length album The Well-Intentioned Virus in 2016.

Having ceased extensive touring in 2007 the band reconvened in 2009 for the album Awake?. After a non-existent press push and unhappy with the availability of the album to fans, the band decided to rebuild its operations and began planting the seeds of starting their own label Observed/Observer Recordings.

Never a band to repeat a past success and always searching for new boundaries to push within their own music, The Well-Intentioned Virus finds Zao utilizing just as many familiar touchstones from their catalog as introducing new ones. Dense and claustrophobic one moment, beautiful and spacious the next.

Track Listing:
01. The Weeping Vessel
02. The Well-Intentioned Virus
03. Broken Pact Blues
04. Jinba Ittai
05. Apocalpyse
06. Xenophobe
07. Haunting Pools
08. Observed/Observer
09. The Sun Orbits Around Flat Earth Witch Trials
10. I Leave You In Peace