Cormorant - Diaspora - review
Cormorant - Diaspora - review
Tracklist
01. Preserved In Ash02. Sentinel
03. The Devourer
04. Migration
A review by
RaduP January 22, 2018
Diaspora is Cormorant's second album since the departure of former vocalist, bassist and songwriter Arthur von Nagel and the addition of Marcus Luscombe. With the high standards set by the first two albums, their 2014 offering, Earth Diver, has left a few fans a bit doubtful, something which may change with this release.
The tracklisting on this monolith does make it a bit less of an accessible listen, seeing how despite having but four tracks it is spread over an hour with "Migration" reaching a whooping 26 minutes. Obviously, this should be a red flag that this would be either a snoozefest or an act of extreme pretentiousness. Thankfully Cormorant have their heads way outside their own asses and they manage to write such a dynamic and varied album, that no minute feels wasted and recycled.
The progressiveness of the music is, while obviously technical at points, much more focused on writing riffs and varied structures than technical wankery. Cormorant does bring obvious influences from black metal, death metal, doom metal, folk and 70s progressive rock and absolutely succeed at putting all of these sounds into place in such a way that the final result feels coherent and not like a disjointed mess. With sections that compliment each other so well, Diaspora never really runs out of steam.
Cormorant are quite an odd metal band, in the sense that they manage to make an album that sounds so great at this point in their career without any label intervention. Indeed, sound-wise but not only, this album is on-par with the highs of the highs.
Thus, Diaspora is a wild ride of twists and turns from bold riffs to snarling vocals to mellow solos, from fierce to epic to moody, it is extreme prog as extreme prog should be.
Rating breakdown
| Performance: | 9 |
| Songwriting: | 10 |
| Originality: | 8 |
| Production: | 9 |
Comments
Comments:
11
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Posts: 5989
People really seem to get a laugh out of that Dreadnought sandwich review, even almost five years after the fact  Great review. Need to scope soon because like Dreadnought, it sounds like the kind of prog I'd like: just all around excellent composition that, while intricate, isn't too wanky, djent influenced, or weepy. I'll get on it soon. By the way, these guys always bring great artwork too, as I see continuing here. I believe one album even won our "MS best album art" competition a few years ago!
---- I am the Magician and the Exorcist. I am the axle of the wheel, and the cube in the circle. “Come unto me” is a foolish word: for it is I that go. ~ II. VII
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Posts: 9639 Written by Auntie Sahar on 22.01.2018 at 15:05 I did remember when scoping earlier MSAs that we used to have artwork categories which we sadly don't have anymore. I also instantly recognized the artstyle as I've seen it before on Ur Draugr's releases, but it seems like the artist hasn't done much else, at least according to MA. Yes, definately do check both this and their debut, some damn good prog in a style you'd definately like
---- Do you think if the heart keeps on shrinking One day there will be no heart at all?
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Posts: 64506
I like part where you describe prog metal, I love 70's prog rock what you mentioned in revieev, but basically 95% prog metal bands are boring, this seems in other 5%
---- I stand whit Ukraine and Israel. They have right to defend own citizens. Stormtroopers of Death - "Speak English or Die"  I better die, because I never will learn speek english, so I choose dieing
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Posts: 9639 Written by Bad English on 22.01.2018 at 19:33 Indeed
---- Do you think if the heart keeps on shrinking One day there will be no heart at all?
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Posts: 5289
Album grew on me hard - I miss old Opeth, this suffices. Excellent review and thanks.
---- rekt
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Posts: 11983 Written by tea[m]ster on 22.01.2018 at 23:46 If you miss old Opeth, do yourself a favour and listen to The Thirteenth Sun and Soen now! Good review. I don't get why "Progressive music may get a bad rep" since it's the best genre out there  (I do know why).
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Posts: 113 Written by BloodTears on 23.01.2018 at 13:33 I think he meant young Opeth  And for that he should try bands like Gwynbleidd or Nechochwen (last album)... but nevertheless I have to thank you for recommending The Thirteenth Sun, didnt know them and started to really like them... 
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Posts: 11983 Written by qnick90 on 24.01.2018 at 16:08 Oh, cool. Glad you discovered The Thirteenth Sun. They are really good. Their only problem is that they sometimes sound too much like other bands but they just released their debut. I'm sure they will come into their own eventually
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Posts: 44 Written by BloodTears on 24.01.2018 at 19:00 As a person who was searching for filling the gap created by new records of Opeth. Thank you so much for the recommendations ! Also thanks for the review i'll check it out asap.
---- A mediocre metalhead.
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