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"Thence up the Devil flew, and on the tree of life, the middle tree and highest there that grew, sat like a Cormorant."
-John Milton. Paradise Lost. Book iv. Line 194.
San Francisco Bay Area quartet Cormorant is something of an anomaly: an accidental death metal band. Explains fretless-bassist and lead vocalist Arthur von Nagel: "I listened to folk rock and classical growing up. I started playing bass three years ago because I'd written some poetry I wanted put to music. I thought it would come out sounding like Bob Dylan or Serge Gainsbourg, maybe Johnny Cash. That didn't quite work out as planned..." When not punishing his kick drums for Cormorant, percussionist Brennan Kunkel composes and sells hip-hop beats. "It's a nice outlet for me," he says. "It really opens my mind to new drumming ideas, new ways to accent the melody that are usually foreign to metal." And guitarist Nick Cohon? "My last project before Cormorant was a old-time country band called The Yellow-Bellied Sapsuckers," he laughs. "I played acoustic guitar with them, but I'm a pretty decent banjo, mandolin and fiddle player too."
How this mix of musicians with such disparate tastes produced a melodic death/black metal hybrid project in the vein of Celtic Frost, Moonsorrow, Agalloch, Enslaved, or Opeth is a mystery, even to the band members themselves. "I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that I can't sing worth a damn," jokes Arthur. "But I can growl. You get your words out there anyway you can." Says Nick: "When Brennan and I were teenagers, we had a sludgy hard rock band going in his basement. Rage Against the Machine, Alice in Chains, Pantera sort of sound. We grew up with heavy music." Brennan adds "We're in our early twenties now, and our music, with all these influences we've acquired over the years, has matured along with us. Arthur and I have been studying under local jazz-fusion legends Clarence Stephens and Chuck Brown, and Nick took lessons with Willie Nelson guitarist Jackie King. It's afforded us a unique perspective on extreme music. In the case of many progressive or avant-garde bands, metal is the new jazz."
Though only officially formed in January of 2007, Cormorant made quick headway. They released a self-produced 3 song demo, downloaded over 30000 times on their MySpace website. The band captured the music live in their home recording/practice studio, only overdubbing the lead guitars and vocals. The songs "Trojan Horses," "Ballad of the Beast," "Two Brothers," and "Ronin Part 1" have even benefited from internet and FM radio airplay in both the US and Canada, a rarity for a death or black metal act. As featured artists in Zero Magazine's Metal Report, they've performed all across the Bay Area to enthusiastic crowds, in venues like the Oakland Metro at Jack London Square, Roosters Roadhouse in Alameda or the Octopus Lounge in Pacifica, surprising many a metalhead with their proclivity for improvising complete songs on the spot. Cormorant secured the sponsorship of master luthier Greg Nelson, who custom-built the monstrous, 5-string fretless "Leviathan" bass to Arthur's specifications, modified Brennan's drum kit, and recently completed a gorgeous Explorer-style guitar for Nick.
Cormorant's debut EP, entitled "The Last Tree," released on December 21st, 2007 to unanimously positive reviews, is available at many Bay Area record stores, including Watts Music in Novato, Red Devil in San Rafael, Streetlight in Santa Cruz, Bedrock Music in San Anselmo, and Amoeba and Streetlight in San Francisco. The band finished the recording on September 30th at Sausalito's Studio D, of Faith No More, Melvins and Soundgarden fame. The EP explores many facets of the death, black, thrash, doom, and folk metal sub-genres while still referencing the formative influences that make Cormorant's music unique. Nick comments: "I have no qualms introducing a blues-based guitar solo into a Norwegian black metal piece if the song calls for it. Why worry about rules?" Arthur agrees. "Other music genres have so much to offer. Aside from Steve DiGiorgio and Sean Malone, hardly any metal players are utilizing the tonal advantages of fretless bass guitar.†Arthur's own voice and lyrics play a major part of the Cormorant sound. "People have trouble with the harsh vocals," he admits, "but I truly think if people can get into Tom Waits, they can enjoy this. Once you get used to the singing style, you realize how essential it is to the presentation of the music, and eventually you're even able to understand the lyrics." The words to Cormorant's songs are also of a kind very seldom seen in metal. "The lyrics start off purely as poems, very much influenced by 19th century French Romantic and Symbolist literature, then I combine those with American folk music's story-telling and a healthy dose of old school punk's sense of social unrest. They deal with my own dreams, questions of morality, politics, history, mythology†Brennan loves that kind of contrast. "You need a balance of brutality and beauty to fully appreciate both," he explains. "If I'm dropping blast-beats the whole album, it all ends up sounding the same, and it's not scary or impressive anymore." Brennan smiles and adds, "Sometimes you have to lull your listeners into a false sense of security."
