CORMORANT Parts Ways With Frontman

Bassist, vocalist, and lyricist Arthur von Nagel has decided to leave San Francisco progressive black metal creatives CORMORANT. He explained in a statement, "After the overwhelming reception for 'Dwellings' and national tours with longtime personal heroes, I feel fortunate to end this chapter of my life on a high note. Nick, Brennan and Matt will continue to write and perform as CORMORANT with my full support. The albums we created together were very personal to all of us, and I know the music they are composing now is of the same passion and honesty. I cherish our time working together, and I wish them the best.

"I am taking a break from music to pursue my career in video games — another lifelong passion. Since May of this year, I have been at Telltale Games, hard at work on 'The Walking Dead' episodic adventure series. Contributing to the game's development has afforded me artistic fulfillment I never thought possible professionally. Thanks to the many colleagues I count as friends and projects I care deeply about, I look forward to going to work every morning for the first time in my life."

Added the remaining members of CORMORANT: "We would like to collectively thank Arthur for his contributions to CORMORANT over the years and wish him well in his future endeavors. He was an important part of the band and worked very hard to help get us where we are today, and we're grateful for all his efforts, both musically and professionally.

"As for the future of CORMORANT, we're pleased to announce that we've been diligently working on new material and currently have five songs in various stages of completion. These new tunes are a further progression from the music on 'Dwellings', with more pronounced doom and black metal influences. We're looking forward to recording new material sometime in 2013.

"As for replacing Arthur, our focus is entirely on writing new music right now. Obviously a replacement will be announced in the coming months, but for now, we feel strong and confident as a trio and are enjoying writing some of the best music we've ever written.

"CORMORANT has always been (and will always be) a collective effort between the musicians involved. The band started as a three-piece, then evolved to a four-piece, and now it's time for the third incarnation. Will CORMORANT sound different now that our former vocalist/bassist/lyricist is no longer involved? Unquestionably. But our music has always been based on consistent progression, and the future will be no different. 'Dwellings' sounds vastly different than 'Metazoa', which in turn sounds entirely different than 'The Last Tree'. Our forthcoming work will reflect this progression, and we're very excited about the prospect of experimenting with new vocal approaches, bass stylings and lyrical content."