Review: Cormorant – Metazoa (2009)

Remember when melodic death metal used to be original? Remember when In Flames was a name to be reckoned with in the underground death metal community? These days it’s harder and harder to be surprised by melodic death metal; notice I said “death metal.” Playing watered down Gothenburg or melodic metalcore does not equate to death metal, and I have stressed this all too much on this site, so I won’t weigh down this review going off on a subject that has been beaten to death. Nonetheless, true, melodic death is fairly rare so when I discover an album that echoes the true spirit of death metal with creative melodies, I can’t help but take notice. One such recent discovery is in the form of Cormorant from California. Combining Swedish melodic death, Skeletonwitch, and a healthy helping of The Lord Weird Slough Feg, Cormorant and their debut Metazoa have sparked a curiosity on the Web that could lead to some big things for these Californians.

Metazoa isn’t just a melodic death album as I so diligently expressed, it also contains doses of folk and classic metal elements that add some lovely layers to the album as a whole. “Salt of the Earth” is very much reminiscent of Opeth’s finest work, while “Uneasy Lies the Head” exacts positive influence from fellow Californians, Slough Feg, who are known for melding folk and traditional elements into a form of metal that few have really perfected. I don’t know if Cormorant have taken Slough Feg’s music as a direct influence, but the fact that they are able to, consciously or not, combine traditional influences with the extreme so seamlessly is by far the band’s biggest draw. As far as Opeth goes, the progressive downplay that they are so good at is also notable on Metazoa. Another influence that stands out quite broadly for me is that of Skeletonwitch. While a relatively new band themselves, Skeletonwitch have honed their art of thrash and black metal while maintaining the swing and swagger of traditional metal. For Cormorant to bring so many great influences together under one roof, how could they possibly fail?

What I find absolutely shocking is that this fantastic album is self released. I know I bring this up quite a bit, but it never fails to surprise me when a superb album is brought into the limelight by a band and no one else. Yes, the production suffers a bit from this, but even that gap of self financing vs label financing is growing smaller with access to quality personal recording technologies. In the right hands, a small time underground act can release a quality product that the average consumer will appreciate as much as the highly polished efforts of bigger acts on major labels. Metazoa represents a new age in metal, and in all truth, is the essence of what metal is; putting out a product that has NOTHING to do with mainstream success, but rather what the band and like minded appreciators want to hear.

Cormorant are set to do big things with or without a label, but truth be told, I highly doubt these guys will be without a label come winter. In fact, I bet there are labels pining for these guys as we speak, before this album is even set to hit the shelves. Should they take a deal? Well, let’s put it this way, the negotiations will be in the favor of Cormorant, because they have shown they can release a fucking beauty of an album without “The Man” butting in to take their share of the profits, which could very well be all of it depending on the size of the label. I can’t recommend Metazoa enough, this could re-shape the future of melodic death metal in America, simple as that. Fuck melodic Christian metalcore clones! Buy Metazoa instead!

AMAZING

Top Tracks:  Salt of the Earth, Hanging Gardens,

Similar Artists: Slough Feg, Skeletonwitch, Opeth, Gandalf

1.    Scavengers Feast
2.    Uneasy Lies the Head
3.    Salt of the Earth
4.    Blood on the Cornfields
5.    Hanging Gardens
6.    The Crossing
7.    Hole in the Sea
8.    The Emigrant’s Wake
9.    Sky Burial
10.    Voices of the Mountain

Nick Cohon – guitars
Brennan Kunkel – drums
Arthur von Nagel – bass and lead vocals
Matt Solis – guitars/backing vocals

Self Released

http://www.myspace.com/cormorantmusic

Review by CODY