San Francisco Bay Area progressive extreme metallers CORMORANT have unveiled a new song off their upcoming full-length, Metazoa.

The album was recorded with and produced by Billy Anderson (NEUROSIS, MELVINS, SLEEP, PRIMORDIAL), mixed by Anderson, and mastered by Justin Weis (HAMMERS OF MISFORTUNE, LUDICRA, SLOUGH FEG) and is slated for a September 22nd release by Saturnine Media. The new song, entitled 'Uneasy Lies The Head', is now streaming on the band’s MySpace .

The band have also announced a CD release show on September 24th at Thee Parkside in San Francisco, CA with VELNIAS, ELM and FELL VOICES.

Cormorant vocalist, bassist, and lyricist Arthur von Nagel comments: "'Uneasy Lies the Head' was our attempt to fuse 70s hard rock/NWOBHM with blackened folk metal. I like to think of it as Falkenbach exhuming Thin Lizzy riffs. This is a hell of a fun song to play live, and I'm especially fond of Matt and Brennan's harmonized viking chants near the end. The understated Hammond keyboard playing comes courtesy of Matt's brother Andrew Solis. Lyrically, the setting is the public decapitation of Maximilien Robespierre, the leader of post-revolutionary France in its "Reign of Terror" period. Over a mere year and a half in the country's history, approximately 40000 citizens were executed. It was a pleasure writing about a subject from my own Gallic ancestry, as I feel there's a rich history there, ripe for re-interpretation in metal songs. The opening lines are sung in French and translate to "Liberty, equality, brotherhood... what beautiful ideas! The tyranny of the people," a sardonic play on the national motto.”

'Uneasy Lies The Head' lyrics:

Liberté,

Egalité,

Fraternité :

Quelles belles idées!

La tyrannie du peuple.

He once fed the scaffold

On Revolution Square,

But now the crowds cackle

At his skull shaved bare,

At his shirt torn and bloody

From the bullet in his jaw,

At his hands worn and muddy

From years burying the Law.

The Reign of Terror

Will fade into lore,

With the King of Errors’

Head on the floor.

Uneasy lies the head

That wears the crown.

They called him "Incorruptible,"

The Prince of Anarchy,

But all men grow tyrannical

At the reins of liberty.

The guillotine is power,

Its steel a despot's rage;

Blood rains down in showers

When democracy's a cage.

The Reign of Terror

Will fade into lore,

With the King of Errors’

Head on the floor.

Uneasy lies the head

That wears the crown.

He tries to speak his final words

But his mouth drips off its hinge.

The flesh, ravaged by the birds,

Makes even soldiers cringe.

On a plank his body's laid,

The wood dampened by his fear;

The lever's pulled, a falling blade,

And all the people cheered.

Check out a video of Cormorant performing 'Hanging Gardens' off their new album, Metazoa, below.