Dwellings

Album number two from California's surreal metal maestros Cormorant, Dwellings. This release is one that has particularly wowed me over the last few weeks, after having prematurely almost written it off. What initially attracted me to Dwellings was its absolutely stunning artwork (especially the full-sized long version).

On first impressions I found the gargantuan arrangements brought forth on Dwellings to be impenetrable and struggled to grasp what the band were going for, and you know what they were trying to say with the music here. Having shelved the album for a month or so I decided it was time to give this another chance, and I'm glad it did because this time around it just clicked. The melodies took hold, the riffs hit their mark and I altogether grasped the release. Their overall sound is a hard one to peg, but I'd say a Frankenstein mix of Bergtatt-era Ulver, Orchid-era Opeth and limbs of early folk-laden Slough Feg, with lashings of UK death metalers Mithras would be a good starting point.

Everything here is impeccably well conceived, from the masterful delivery of the actual music to the brilliant lyrics; the band oozes a lot of ability. The melodies are particularly well done, and while at first they sort of passed me by, on my second or third listen I began to follow them, hanging on each and every note almost like in the old cartoons where a character would float along to a visible scent. Tracks such as "Junta" and "Unearthly Dreamings" display these melodies to superb effect, with the latter standing as the highlight of Dwellings. The vocals are quite good here, and remind me of Ansur in places though the growls and shrieks are far, far stronger here.

Whilst the album boasts a lot of draining, almost plodding melody, just about every track houses aggressive outburst that really solidify the quality of the listening experience, folk-style melodies are delivered well, with an instrumental track ("Confusion of Tongues") showing the band's capability in these folk melodies, as well as the riff department, largely reminiscent of Slough Feg. The production is ideal here, and really there isn't a lot left to say. This keeps growing on me, and I have no idea how well I'm going to like this down the line. Fans of progressive metal, post-black, folk and melodic death metal are going to want to get this. As much a great album as it is an artistic statement. Highly recommended.

Originally written for http://www.metalcrypt.com

Perhaps the most talked about independent metal release of 2011, or at least the second half of the year, Cormorant's Dwellings is the sophomore effort of a group of talented Californians slowly carving out their sound from a number of influences in the folk, progressive, and melodic black metal spaces. For something self-released, Dwellings is an impressive package, with intriguing artwork, evocative lyrics, fluid and highly proficient musicianship, and most importantly scads of riffs that clearly took some time and effort to conceive. Strangely enough, though, despite it's obvious array of weapons, this is one of those LPs that I must admit to shoving off after only a few spins. Cormorant are emotional, dynamic and pleasant to experience, but I did not find the songs to have nearly the profound impact that so many have raved over.

Perhaps an accurate comparison for the music here would be Opeth threaded with Agalloch melodies and percussive elements redolent of Mastodon's lighter, progressive writing and the swagger and gallantry of Slough Feg. Season with hints of folk metal flavoring and Scandinavian melodic black and death acts like Dissection or Insomnium and then stir. It's a wide range of influences, so many that the coherence of the music is often questionable, but some credit is due to these gentlemen for their flow and pacing in what might otherwise seem a marginally jarring clash of components. Their lyrics explore the worlds of the natural, the social and the personal, with a vivid poetic sensibility, and combined with the vocals that deliver them, comprise my sole favorite aspect of Dwellings. Harsh, charismatic rasps and barks stand out well above the incessant, streaming guitars, but there are also clips of thematic narrative, soothing and clean calms ("Funambulist"), and even some French (?) samples which admittedly seemed a touch pretentious.

The issue I took with the music is simply that the songs are so intent on providing gleaming, catchy melodies at every given second that the maximum emotional potential of the better note progressions is almost constantly trampled upon. They all vary in texture, tempo and length, but I never felt that the riffs all interlocked very well, merely ceding to one another in an endless procession of spent creativity. Peaks and valleys are wrought only through the decisions to swap to acoustic cools and then burst back into either tremolo picked sequences or the majestic canter of mid-paced, ale pounding crescendos reminiscent of Rotting Christ in its late 90s pageantry. The drums remain busy and varied, not unlike a Brann Dailor ("Confusion of Tongues)", and the guitars and bass engage one another in the antithesis of monotony, but several of the songs drift on a bit too long and never hit that climactic stride that you'd expect ("Unearthly Dreamings", "Junta" and "Funambulist" to be exact.)

I felt that the rather raw and authentic production values of the album worked in its favor, and the vocals certainly stand out for their unchecked passion and versatility, much more so than the more guttural/brutal approach they took with their debut Metazoa. Yet in the end, I don't think I could point out a single song here that I felt the urge to cycle through repeatedly. For such dramatic use of melody, there seems a dearth of real tension in how the tracks are written. Riffs follow other riffs, occasionally circling around, but never all that inspiring as a quantified whole. In this way, the band very much recalls Opeth's dysfunction of occasionally conflating too many ideas onto a rhythmic skeleton not up to the task of supporting them, and I often found myself wondering just how much more compelling the album might have been if Cormorant had stuck to just a few per song and then played around with them.

That said, it'd be remiss of me not to mention just how much latent potential lies in the quartet. I might not have found the album quite so enduring and endearing as others have expressed, but there's enough pent up talent here to fuel a half dozen bands, so I expect that once the kinks are worked out we'll be dealing with some truly impressive songsmiths.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

I think it’s important that DIY doesn’t mean – at least not for Cormorant - that they didn’t put effort into creating this record (like some “trve” black metal bands) as the design and the production are really well done and there is nothing to complain about. The advantage of being indepentend is quite obvious. Although they have to pay every bill on the first hand, 100% of the money they get from sold records or shirts help to fund future projects.

The music of Cormorant is hard to describe as they are genre bending on every chance they get. Blackened progressive metal is the most common description for their style, but that doesn’t conjunct every influence they have. You can find folk influences which are well integrated as well as tremolo picked riffs or even melodies that are influenced by blues/jazz. They simply don’t care about “rules” that are defined by the genre. The interplay between raging, fast passages, gracious mid-tempo parts and really slow and doomy segments create an incredible arc of suspense that will catch your attention immediately.

The tracks are mostly overlong but they never tend to become boring at all, which can be tracked back to the aforementioned variation in terms of tempo and style. The genre bending helps as well, as they are playing with your expectations, which forces you to spend further attention. The strange harsh vocals of Arthur von Nagel are contrasting the orchestration. While the vocals are representing the wild, irrepressible the orchestration resembles pure control and variation. This shall not mean, that the vocals aren’t varied at all, as there are some clean vocal lines and choral passages as well, but the harsh vocals are prevalent.

As I mentioned before, it’s hard to describe the songs in detail, since there are so much variations and styles represented. The heart of the songs clearly is the progressivity though, which is played in a virtuoso manner and it’s a real pleasure to listen to the interplay of instruments/melodies. I want to praise the bass especially, as it’s -sadly- still a rarity that metal songs are featuring well written and well played bass lines. Besides the progressivity, there is a huge portion of heavy metal and several parts are sounding quite “trve” though, and this interplay of “trve” and extreme metal could be the best example for genre bending. There are several other styles besides those two main influences in form of black, doom, folk metal, jazz/blues melodies or even post-rock or death metal elements.

Conclusion:

Dwellings definitely deserves a place in the first row of the “hall of fame” of metal records of the year 2011. Many bands try to combine different genre to create something special, but none of them managed to create such a natural and – despite of the contradictions genre bending brings along – well done sound like Cormorant. Although the style of the band is running through the record like a golden thread, there is not a single moment that tends to become boring, as there is so much to discover. If you have to compare their style to another band you would have to create a bastard out of Agalloch, Enslaved and Mastodon but not even this would describe every single aspect of their sound. I’m sorry, but if you love progressive metal there is not a single chance, that you can come around buying this record.

Originally written for http://threnodies.com

Cormorant are a Californian metal band, with ''Dwellings" being their latest self-released, sophomore album. "Dwellings" is a nice little surprise that has landed at the end of this year; these guys have a lot that's worth admiring. They're heavy, melodic, detailed and very dynamic. There's so much to say about this album, I don't really know where to start.

As I listen to the album, every time I thought I had Cormorant figured out, they throw another spanner in the works, so I guess I'll just start with the sound, which is awesome. The production on this album is amazing; whether the band are shooting for colossal, soaring highs, or dramatic and quiet lows. The recording has a really nice mix of clarity and grit. The gutiars come in very heavy, the vocals come in very raspy, and it all just sounds alive. And not that a low-detailed recording sounds bad, but I think it's nice to be able to make out the bass lines, and make out the detail of the gutiar solos, and make out the intellectual vocals that tell a very strong narrative.

The band covers a lot of different sounds and textures on this album. There are really booming, heavy gutiar chords that ring out in a really doomy way on the second track, harmonized guitar solos on 'Unearthly Dreamings'. There's an instrumental track as well with these oddly timed progressive riffs, and shots of black metal blast beats here and there too.

These guys really work to blend a lot of genres together, and that is what their style is. Black metal, doom metal, progressive metal, and death metal as well, it's all fed through this great production and this melodic sensibility. There parts on here that made me think of Mastodon, and then they would push into a different direction making me think about Agalloch, and then they would push into a DIFFERENT direction and I'd think of Opeth. The bands and sounds that influence Cormorant on this record are pretty obvious, but how they pull them all together is just really graceful. And that's what makes this record unique.

Like the opening chords on 'A Howling Dust' which are kind of folky, in a way, build into these pummeling riffs very nicely. 'The Purest Land' has these interjecting black metal moments that bring the insanity of that track even higher. And I love how there are spots on these tracks that kind of transition into the post-rock vocal samples, where you'll get a nice, long vocal snippet that will push the narrative of the song forward. That really is the last thing on this record that makes it a pretty bold release: the narrative, the tales that are being incorporated into these songs.

Some of the lyrics on here you can follow from the beginning to the end of the song, and really get a lot out of it if you're listening hard enough. It's almost like these guys are composing stories as well as songs. Sometimes it's like the lead sing is playing a character in the story that he's pulling together. And a lot of these stories reflect real life; every song has a different tale behind it. The song 'The Purest Land' seems to be about this genocidal madman who's out of control and is a bit of a megalomaniac. The vocals on that track just feel noticeably crazier than the other songs. The song 'Junta', is lyrically one of the most specific songs on here; about atrocities that happened in Guinea not too long ago. The song 'Unearthly Dreamings' is about an astronaut that dies in the line of duty and 'A Howling Lust' is about a lynch-mob that gangs up and kills a Chinese man for defending himself against someone who is trying to help him.

All of the stories on this album deal with death, facing death, injustice, and the darkness of humanity. The songs and the emotions on this record react to those ideas and situations, kind of tumbling back and forth between aggression and melancholy. I know I love what I'm hearing, but I don't feel like I understand 100% yet. Because there are a lot of layers and details to breathe in. Whether it be narrative wise, or musically. This album really manages to come across as a piece of thinking-man's metal, without being really technical or inveloped in its own skill. It's a great balance of story and song. There's lots of variation on here and it all comes together underneath this consistent vocal and great production. I think that someone who's really not even into metal could really get into this record and really appreciate the melody and the songwriting that goes in these songs.

As far as negatives go, I feel like some of the tracks on here do feel a little long-winded, some of the vocal samples here and there get a little distracting. And I felt like on the instrumental track here, these guys did lose their flavour a little bit. I do think their vocalist and their ability spin out these narratives are part of what makes these guys so interesting and original.

All of that aside, this thing is a hell of a record. It sounds like a lot went into it, and therefore, you should get a lot out of it.