If Spiritbox released the most anticipated album of 2021, there’s no doubt that 2022 bestows Lorna Shore with the same burden. Though not the first over-the-top deathcore band to retool their sound with black metal (see Carnifex), the quintet captured the imagination of old school extreme metal fans and TikTok users last year with 2021’s viral single, ‘To the Hellfire’, from their …And I Return to Nothingness EP. SBR acknowledged the game-changing performance of Will Ramos and speculated that “The malevolent vocals on this EP will have far-lasting ramifications for extreme metal once the incredulity dies down.” After millions of streams and countless reaction videos, we’re now at the point where the band have the platform to prove they can be the future of metal, and they make sure every minute of this bloated album hits you between the eyes.
For a band that earned their stripes the conventional way by relentless touring and working their way towards a Century Media deal with 2020’s Immortal LP, Lorna Shore can sense their time is now. All five members want to extract the most from their instruments. Will Ramos will settle at nothing until his vocals transcend human phonation and imitate the wild roar of a velociraptor. Three years ago, they had no certainty whether the band still had a future after the departure of vocalist, CJ McCreery. Now they carry the expectations of mainstream metal on their shoulders. Opener, ‘Welcome Back, O’ Sleeping Dreamer’, does not disappoint with its nod to Carl Orff’s ‘O Fortuna’ in the dramatic choir harmonies. A barrage of staccato guitar stabs and blast beats follow in a grotesque agony of vocal appendicitis. The bass levels are loud enough to crack the pavements outside. Will Ramos shows here that he can do the hardcore belting as well as the agonising screams.
The orchestral parts of this record will remind you of the score for a Ridley Scott epic. ‘Into the Earth’ leaves you clenching thin air as you reach for the oxygen vent that can spare you from a painful death. Where did that breakdown come from at 01:15 seconds? The keyboards conjure images of a band behind stain-glass windows in the chancel of a burning church. Listen to the clarity of the sweep-picking solo and think of a word that can do it justice. A thousand ideas bounce around your head amid the maelstrom of bludgeoning rhythms and unorthodox voice transgressions. ‘Sun/Eater’ starts like a My Dying Bride serenade with strings and the unusual choice of a child choir to set the scene for a night of suicide adrenaline. They should call this music The Exorcist: A Metal Opera.
The hope that Lorna Shore can hold your attention for one hour of merciless audio blasting comes unstuck as early as ‘Cursed to Die’, when you realise that gothic keyboards, blast beats, and inhumane vocals are the foundations for every song on Pain Remains. Why is this record easier to appreciate when you potter around the house with your vacuum cleaner rather than when you sit down at your writing desk to analyse it in more detail? If the definition of a success is to make people take notice of deathcore once again, then they succeed. Ditto if the goal is to bring extreme metal to the unsuspecting masses. As a listening experience, it’s more of an expedition. The sonics are murderous and unflinching in their violent delight, yet you feel like an overfed aristocrat at the Colosseum with your attention waning after thirty minutes of blood and guts amusement.
When they deliver, they deliver in style. ‘Soulless Existence’ is as good as anything in the Cradle of Filth back catalogue. The music is so theatrical in the way they execute their instruments, yet they remember to infuse the emotional tumult with a crunchy riff for the mosh pit. Ramos reaches notes here that agonise like the torturous screams of the Tuol Sleng dungeons of Pol Pot’s Cambodia. The blast beats are clearer than the June Alpine skies. Epic choirs in the background illuminate the grotesque elements with a tragic beauty. It’s not as effective when they repeat the same formula on ‘Apotheosis’, which feels more like a filler than a violent thrust of blackened deathcore for 2022. Likewise, ‘Wrath’ will have more value as a reaction video on YouTube than as a standalone composition. Should we be surprised that Ramos revisits the notorious animal grunts and decapitation death of ‘To the Hellfire’ with a similar piece of vocal pain at the end here?
It may not be the finest album of the year, but Pain Remains could be the most important. The sweep-picking solos lose their efficacy as the album evolves, but the trilogy of ‘Pain Remains’ songs to close out the listening experience let you know that the band’s confidence is at an all-time high. You know the roar in the breakdown will replicate the scream of the last bull in the slaughterhouse queue to experience the stun gun, but it’s still effective. There’s even a scintilla of hope in the keyboard melodies of ‘Pain Remains I: Dancing Like Flames’. Hark how it transforms into ‘Pain Remains II: After All I’ve Done, I’ll Disappear’ to the refrain of “Even inside a dream/This world has no meaning.” The guitars never feel diluted or displaced by the power of the drums or the string arrangements, which is a credit to the production team and the imagination of the musicians on this record. Dig out the lyrics when sitting through ‘Pain Remains III: In a Sea of Fire’. The words will remind you of the emptiness that could one day break you: “Hear the devil’s choir as I leave the stage/ In a sea of fire/ This is my epilogue, my soliloquy/ Take this broken melody straight to the grave.”
Lorna Shore have the attention of the metal world. They deserve their moment in the spotlight, and they achieved it by making no compromises. At forty-five minutes this could have been the album of the year. An hour is too long to achieve that accolade, but they earn the right to ascend to the higher echelons of the heavy metal food chain.
JVB
Verdict
Release Date: 14/10/2022
Record Label: Century Media
Standout tracks: Welcome Back, O’ Sleeping Dreamer; Soulless Existence
Suggested Further Listening: Shadow of Intent – Melancholy (2019), She Must Burn – Umbra Mortis (2022), Carnifex – World War X (2019)