History Music / Cormorant

The album was met with positive reception, and the band was awarded "Unsigned Talent of the Year" by readers of UltimateGuitar and a string of successful live shows. In 2011, they began working on a follow up which would later be known as ''Dwellings''. After it's release, it found even more praise and recognition than their previous album did, being included in multiple end of year favorites list and recognized by Creator/{{NPR}}, Website/{{Yahoo}} Music and WebVideo/TheNeedleDrop among others.

Cormorant is a Bay Area ProgressiveMetal band formed in 2007 that incorporates [[MelodicDeathMetal several]] [[BlackMetal other]] [[FolkMusic genres]] [[HardRock into]] [[DoomMetal their music]] who are noted for being musically independent and for their poetic lyrics. The band was founded by Arthur von Nagel and Brennan Kunkel, who grew disinterested with being in a ThrashMetal group as they felt that their sound was too limited. With guitarist Nick Cohon, they formed Cormorant in 2007 as a [[PowerTrio trio]], releasing a demo and an EP. When Matt Solis joined the band after meeting at an Music/{{Enslaved}} show, they dove into writing and recording their debut album, ''Metazoa'', with legendary producer Billy Anderson.

During a national tour in 2012, Arthur felt particularly homesick. Later that year, he left the band on good terms to pursue his career in video games with Creator/TellTaleGames. He can still be found supporting the band, following their updates and being present at live shows. The rest of Cormorant responded to his departure with enthusiasm as means to further evolving their sound with new members, as they had when Matt first joined the group. After searching for a replacement, they found Marcus Luscombe who took over being bassist and lead vocalist, and co-wrote the lyrics to their latest album alongside Solis.

** In 2012 the band wrote a note on their Facebook page announcing that they were the winners of the Mega Millions jackpot and had bought Creator/RoadrunnerRecords. The article has several (playful) [[TakeThat Take Thats]] at many bands including Music/DreamTheater, Music/{{Bathory}}, Music/{{Nickelback}}, Music/{{Gojira}}, Music/AnalCunt and Music/{{Dragonforce}}. They also said that they will endorse green-friendly fashion that will be taking over Finland, include commentary tracks from Arthur’s guinea pig that comes with a Subway footlong sandwich, have their albums included with anti-piracy spyware that will cause a computer to explode, and remove 20 minutes from each album to have fans pay extra for Main/{{DLC}} as well as eventually releasing an “[[LimitedSpecialCollectorsUltimateEdition ultra tournament edition]]” album bundle with Creator/{{Capcom}} that will include [[SpecialGuest guest appearances]] from everybody’s favorite characters [[ButtMonkey except]] Franchise/{{Megaman}}. When asked about how fans would react to this, von Nagel replied with “[[PrecisionFStrike Fuck]] our fans”.

** Avoided in “A Howling Dust”, [[HarmfulToMinors but not without being shot in the leg with a stray bullet, possibly witnessing a horrific murder]] and crossing the DespairEventHorizon.* DeepSouth: “Blood on the Cornfields” takes place in this, following the plight of Nat Turner.

* BadassBaritone: Arthur qualifies for this on “Sky Burial” and “Funambulist”, as well as the incomplete “Ronin”.

* GenreShift: Started as a straightforward melodic death metal band with one progressive metal track on ''The Last Tree'', became a progressive death metal band with folk and black metal influences on ''Metazoa'', became a progressive metal act with harsh vocals with doom passages on ''Dwellings'', and became a folky blackened progressive metal band on ''Earth Diver''. ''Diaspora'' essentially takes the progressive aspects of their style UpToEleven, with a total of four songs on an album lasting about an hour. These guys hardly stick to one sound.

* AdultFear: Aside from children dying (sometimes horrifically) listed in the examples below, “Junta” also plays on the fear of losing one’s child. A family is described having a son who went missing in the ensuing chaos. In the end, his body was never recovered.
** In “Daughter of Void” the father is among the tribesmen who find the body of the drowned boy floating in the water after having warned him about the creature that was the cause of his death.

* DownerEnding: An amount of their songs tends to lead to a depressing climax that it would be easier to list examples that did not. The biggest example is “Junta” where a huge amount of civilians are massacred in broad daylight, women were [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil raped]], stores were looted, a [[AdultFear child went missing]], [[DrivenToSuicide a girl commits suicide]] as a result of being [[RapeAsDrama raped]] and the one who orchestrated it all ended up getting away with it.

Cormorant is a Bay Area ProgressiveMetal band formed in 2007 that incorporates [[MelodicDeathMetal several]] [[BlackMetal other]] [[FolkMusic genres]] [[HardRock into]] [[DoomMetal their]] [[NeoclassicalPunkZydecoRockabilly music]] who are noted for being musically independent and for their poetic lyrics. The band was founded by Arthur von Nagel and Brennan Kunkel, who grew disinterested with being in a ThrashMetal group as they felt that their sound was too limited. With guitarist Nick Cohon, they formed Cormorant in 2007 as a [[PowerTrio trio]], releasing a demo and an EP. When Matt Solis joined the band after meeting at an Music/{{Enslaved}} show, they dove into writing and recording their debut album, ''Metazoa'', with legendary producer Billy Anderson.

* NeoclassicalPunkZydecoRockabilly: They're a progressive metal band that takes influences from lots of genres of music, both in and out of metal.

* MohsScaleOfLyricalHardness: Almost consistently 8-9. A lot of their songs cover heavy themes, painting a dark and melancholic picture. Death and [[DrivenToSuicide suicide]] are popular themes throughout their lyrics. While most of the time [[GoryDiscretionShot gore is either implied or avoided]], other times such as in “Junta” and “Scavengers Feast” it comes in at full force and boost the rating up to a 10. Outside of their instrumentals, few songs fall below an 7.
* MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness: They tend to jump around 7 to 9 depending on the song, sometimes falling below that for their folk passages and interludes.

** In “Daughter of Void” the father is among the tribesmen who find the body of the drowned boy floating in the water after having warned him about the [[EnthrallingSiren creature]] that was the cause of his death.

* EnthrallingSiren: “Daughter of Void” features the Qalupalik; an Inuit mythical whale-like HumanoidAbomination that coaxes a curious boy to his death with a flash of her emerald tail and a [[CompellingVoice humming sound]].

* MohsScaleOfLyricalHardness: Almost consistently 8-9. A lot of their songs bare heavy themes, painting a dark and melancholic picture. Death and [[DrivenToSuicide suicide]] are popular themes throughout their lyrics. While most of the time [[GoryDiscretionShot gore is either implied or avoided]], other times such as in “Junta” and “Scavengers Feast” it comes in at full force and boost the rating up to a 10. Outside of their instrumentals, few songs fall below an 7.

Cormorant is a Bay Area ProgressiveMetal band formed in 2007 that incorporates [[MelodicDeathMetal several]] [[BlackMetal other]] [[FolkMusic genres]] [[HardRock into]] [[DoomMetal their]] [[NeoclassicalPunkZydecoRockabilly music]] who are noted for being musically independent and for their praised lyrics. The band was founded by Arthur von Nagel and Brennan Kunkel, who grew disinterested with being in a ThrashMetal group as they felt that their sound was too limited. With guitarist Nick Cohon, they formed Cormorant in 2007 as a [[PowerTrio trio]], releasing a demo and an EP. When Matt Solis joined the band after meeting at an Music/{{Enslaved}} show, they dove into writing and recording their debut album, ''Metazoa'', with legendary producer Billy Anderson.

-->'''Matt Solis''': Our sound is sort of hard to classify: do you call us "blackened death folk" or "progressive black metal" or what? So to bypass all the bickering, we jokingly align ourselves with a made-up genre. And to clarify, there should be a hyphen in there: Tiberian-Ass Bastard Folk. It's not anything serious, we're not going to try to start a revolution or something pretentious like that...it's just a funny way to describe something that a lot of people have a hard time describing. I think genre specification is stupid to begin with, though. [[NotSoDifferent It's all rock and roll when you get down to it]].

* HumansAreBastards: The band is not exactly subtle about their subject of human brutality and how they endanger the environment and themselves. Some songs opt for a more HumansAreFlawed view.

* DeepSouth: “Blood on the Cornfields” takes place in this, following the plight of Nat Turner.

* InfantImmortality:
** Horrifically inverted in “Scavengers Feast”, “Blood on the Cornfields”, “The Emigrant’s Wake”, "The First Man", “Junta” and “Daughter of Void”.
** Played straight in “A Howling Dust”, [[HarmfulToMinors but not without being shot in the leg with a stray bullet, possibly witnessing a horrific murder]] and crossing the DespairEventHorizon.

* OffWithHisHead: “Uneasy Lies the Head”, that wears the crown.
* PunctuatedForEmphasis: “Trojan Horses” is filled with this.
* RapeAsDrama: “Junta” includes a [[TearJerker truly tragic]] example of this. The narrative shifts to a young woman who is raped by a group of soldiers, who let her go [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone after one recognizes her]]. The song then describes how she is [[DespairEventHorizon unable to sleep or talk about her experience]], and at the end of the song it is revealed that she [[DrivenToSuicide killed herself]].

* TruthInTelevision: As is the case for HorribleHistoryMetal, a lot of their songs are very accurate as mentioned in ShownTheirWork. Played for NightmareFuel and TearJerker.
* WarIsHell: “Scavengers Feast” and the unfinished song “Ronin”.

** In “Hole in the Sea”, the man is [[SwallowedWhole swallowed whole]] by a [[SpaceWhale whale-like creature that is a possible deity]]. He awakes to find himself having been digested by the creature and is fully conscious, being able to hear cities and people dying as the whale brings about the apocalypse. After the last of humanity has died, his soul is spat out onto the remains of the destroyed Earth to which his body starts to become the vessel [[RestartTheWorld in which new life will grow]].