Love this band, probably my favorite metalcore band. Highly influential but underrated, and with a extensive, diverse catalogue. Can anyone recommend something similar? Doesn’t have to sound like Zao necessarily. Really I’m just looking for other metal/hardcore bands from the late 90s-2000s era that helped spawn other clone bands. Thanks in advance

I was briefly into that kind of thing around 2000. It's been a while since I listened to any of it, but bands like Shai Hulud, Strongarm and Skycamefalling should be what you're after.

https://youtu.be/ZWSPilo9fhA
https://youtu.be/kToqKYVTVZo
https://youtu.be/q7Ywib-oQhk

Prayer for Cleansing only released one (ultra sick) album, then the guys went on to form Between the Buried and Me. PfC had a very prominent metal sound though.



Undying were another more extreme metal oriented group with another of my favorite metal core albums ever



The first Norma Jean album is some serious business, definitely closer to Zao stylistically but I just wanted to post those first two since they rule. But this one is not without its share of brutality.



Disembodied deserve notice



I have a ton of metalcore though, it's an area I have considerable expertise in.

That being said I feel compelled to mention Bloodlet. Not as influential as Zao and with a unique sound they didn't bring about to many clones, but Entheogen has been my favorite metalcore album for as long as I can remember and definitely needs to be blasted by core fans. The vocals might take some getting used to, but the music on this album is something else. Very sludgy but super tightly knit and intricate without really going full mathcore. Jazzy drum work that's some of the best you'll hear in the core world

Earth Crisis

Coalesce - A Safe Place & 002 (super intense hardcore)
Thoughts of Ionesco (check out their discography, holds up better than a lot of their peers)
Deadguy (Victory band I really dug back in the day)
Puritan (might be hard to find stuff by them but they were better than average)

I made a pretty comprehensive list for metalcore related stuff over on rateyourmusic that may be worth some of your time:

https://rateyourmusic.com/list/devouredbyvegans/core-blimey-metallic-hardcore-metalcore-and-post_math_wtf-core/

^ that's legitimately one of my favorite lists on rym

edit

Thanks man, there was a major lack of decent metalcore lists on rym so figured I'd fill the void as best I could, glad someone found it useful.

one of my first metalcore bands, Training For Utopia, did a split with Zao too

Cool list, lot of great bands here. Thanks