If you think wall-to-wall Seahawks fans clamoring across the top floor of Baba Yaga two hours after the Super Bowl could stop wizard doom metal from reverberating through its basement stage, you’d be sorely mistaken. Under a cool wash of purple and red stage lights, three musical acts performed to a crowd of music lovers and football enthusiasts alike Sunday, Feb. 8 at 9 p.m., for Seattle band Cofgod’s album release show for their latest project, “Who Goes There.”

Brazilian jazz guitar duo Marco de Carvalho and EJ Crocker kicked off the show. A hush fell over the crowd as the two began dynamic guitar melodies and sweeping vocals, shifting the crowd’s energy from chanting in support of the Seahawks to gently swaying, ensconced in the melody.

Up next was the hardcore melodic Seattle three-piece Bosque, featuring vocalist and rhythm guitarist Yahaira Souza-Hartman’s chilling, sustained vocals, shifting seamlessly into rhythmic shoegaze with bassist June Jane and drummer Jack Hartman. Deeply melancholic yet thrillingly danceable, Bosque’s music is reminiscent of a long walk through a darkened forest. 

Souza-Hartman hopes to capture the soul’s journey through life and death through her lyricism, inspired by her own spirituality and experience with auditory hallucinations. 

“Sometimes I think to myself that people regard themselves as human first and then a soul, but I’ve always felt like I’ve seen myself more as a soul floating within this vessel, trying to find a way to go about the world with this understanding that these materialistic things don’t matter,” Souza-Hartman said. 

Self-described “stoner wizard doom trio” Cofgod took the stage last in front of a video screen background of rats swarming coffins and scattering across a decadent feast—all clips from Werner Herzog’s Nosferatu the Vampyre. Donning dark medieval-themed attire, with guitarist, vocalist and lyricist Ethan Cosset in a particularly shiny chainmail tank top, Cofgod leapt into the opening track off their new album: “Rat Catcher.”

“Up until joining Cofgod, I played primarily salsa for my work music for a couple of years. Then a lot of funk, hip hop, pop kind of confluence for a while,” bassist Jesse Kura said. “I was never a rock player of any sort. It’s fun to play!”

Cofgod specializes in dystopian dark fantasy-inspired lyrics that read more like sonnets than traditional rock ballads, with a level of high concept and detail reminiscent of King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard’s “Murder of The Universe.” Cosset drones lyrics like “A dreichly gloaming haunts the shore / The enemy is eighteen more,” over Kuras’ growling bass on standout track “Santo Vs. the Dread Kings.” Dynamic drumming from Ethan Geller grounds thrashing guitar throughout the album, with layered vocals and frequent tonal and rhythmic shifts. 

“Jesse and Ethan are my two favorite musicians, hands down, that I’ve ever played with,” Geller said. “Jesse showed up to the first rehearsal, having already practiced the songs, and hit most of the transitions. From the first rehearsal we had together as a trio, we were already at a place where we had learned a baseline of the songs and we could generate new ideas from there.”

As the night concluded and newly minted metalheads in Seahawks gear descended upon the brick-lain streets of Pioneer Square, the celebratory spirit of the night remained alive and incredibly loud.