Cormorant (band)

History

The band's beginnings trace to Brennan Kunkel and bassist von Nagel meeting while playing in a thrash metal band in their late teens. Bored with that project's limitations, they began creating and demoing progressive black metal songs with Kunkel on guitar, forming the earliest Cormorant content. They then invited Nick Cohon, a friend from their high school thrash/groove band Kubla Khan, to join. The trio recorded and released the EP The Last Tree. Shortly after, the band met Matt Solis at an Enslaved show and recruited him as second guitarist. The complete lineup then wrote and recorded the debut album Metazoa, released on September 22, 2009, to critical praise for its varied sound. Produced by Billy Anderson, the independently created album was featured on Ultimate Guitar Archive for its DIY success. The band's second album, Dwellings, was released on December 6, 2011, to further critical praise and received more widespread acclaim than Metazoa. Sites including NPR Music, Yahoo! Music, and about.com listed Dwellings in their year-end favorites; NPR Music named it the number-one metal album of 2011. The band draws from various genres, with members having diverse musical tastes: Kunkel enjoys creating hip-hop beats, Cohon previously played in an old-time fiddle band and a blues band, and von Nagel grew up on French folk and classical music before experimenting with pop and rock.