Cormorant – Diaspora (Review)

Cormorant are a progressive black metal band from the US. This is their fourth album.

This is a highly ambitious release, with a wide range and scope across its hour long playing time. Spread across only four tracks, Cormorant pack a lot in on this release.

This is progressive black metal that liberally steals from other sub-genres and styles such as melodic death/black metal, funeral doom, folk, and psychedelia.

With a heavy reliance on melody and mood-driven riffs, the tracks on this album are extremely textured, layered, and rich in inventive and progressive blackened metal. A lot of the material here combines the band’s psychedelic black metal and funeral doom influences as primary drivers, which then form the bulk of what we hear. The other influences have a lesser impact on the band’s delivery, while still remaining important in their own right, of course.

This is a detailed album that brings to mind musicians that have endlessly scrutinised every second of music on here to ensure that it meets their exacting standards. This forensic attention to detail hasn’t dampened the emotive impact of the music though; the opposite is probably true in fact, as the music that Cormorant have created is resonant with feeling and depth.

Everything here is absolutely first-rate, but particular mention must go to the final, best, and most epic song – Migration. This is a whopping 26 minutes long and every second of its playing time is worth it. What a track.

This is an extremely impressive and well-realised release, providing an engaging and absorbing journey for the listener to embark on. I’m familiar with Cormorant’s older material, but I have to say that Diaspora has blown me away with its quality levels and songwriting, easily marking it as the band’s best material to date.

Extremely highly recommended.