Lorna Shore – Pain Remains
Release Date: 14th September 2022
Label: Century Media
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Genre: Symphonic Blackened Deathcore.
FFO: Shadow of Intent, Aversions Crown, Signs of the Swarm.
Review By: Rick Farley
Unless you’ve been living under a rock or have recently banged your head too hard, it’s a guarantee that you’ve heard Lorna Shore’s infamous breakdown featuring Will Ramos’s conjuring of multiple pig demons through the sickest, most vile and possessed vocals heard in recent memory. With over eleven million views of To the Hellfire, the band has been launched into the viral stratosphere of beyond hype for the new record. Does this New Jersey quintet deliver?
The answer to that is both yes and no. First, let’s get the negatives out of the way. Simply put, Pain Remains is way too long. Clocking in at one hour, the fat could have been trimmed down by at least fifteen minutes. The music can be overly complex and all over the place, listener fatigue can easily set in. Another gripe that may not be shared by everyone is, they visit the sledgehammering breakdown well a few times too many. By the fourth or fifth time, it has completely lost its value and ends up sounding exactly the same over and over again. Their formula, which is intricate structures that sound similar from song to song, hasn’t changed much, making it easy to get lost on what track you’re listening to. But enough bitching, on to the good stuff.
The European melodies of Cursed to Die bring forth the epic feel of melodic death metal. Fast alternate picked riffs, harmonized synths, and epic melodies. Soulless Existence has a slow build with mildly distorted twangy guitars and beautiful melody mixing with fast percussive start/stop double bass pattern. It careens to black metal influenced shrieking and blast beats. The huge chorus gives way to a crunchy chugging riff ripe for headbanging. Operatic choirs kick off Apotheosis with synths and hooky guitars in a similar fashion to Septic Flesh. Wrath is chock-full of frosty black metal riffage and chord progressions. Pain Remains I: Dancing Like Flames, is emotionally heavy as well as having powerful fast crunchy riffs, and double bass. The pain filled chorus melodies are beautifully tragic and hit your feels hard. Will’s harsh vocals sound like a tortured soul screaming out for the loss of a loved one.
The addition of Will Ramos vocals proves to be the equivalent of striking gold. The guy is a beast. No one else reaches the levels of range he possesses. Squeals, screams, gutturals and growls of every pitch and tone. His voice is a versatile instrument, and he uses it masterfully. A major high point. Drummer Austin Archey is an engine of blast beats, complicated drum fills and machine gun double bass. Precise and powerful, he stands above most drummers in the genre. The guitars by Adam De Micco, and Andrew O’Connor are sharp with a metallic heaviness that strikes the balance between riffing speed, lavish melody, and disgusting breakdowns. Adam’s solos are virtuosic, but thoughtfully executed. Michael Yager’s bass has a full sound, making everything weighty and booming. The production is massive. It’s extremely clean for as dense as the music is.
The record sounds like a band that had huge expectations and immeasurable pressure to live up to the hype that’s been bestowed upon them. In some ways Lorna Shore exceeds that hype and gives us some brilliant music, but in other ways they should have shown some restraint and dialled it back more. The negatives will keep it from being on end of the year lists, but it’s still a strong album with an intense amount of energy being released. Pain Remains sounds like a revitalized band who will eventually live up to their full potential. Next time perhaps? For now, though, this will definitely suffice. 
(4 / 5)
