Review
Slowly but surely, Lorna Shore are making their way in the deathcore scene. A few EP’s, a few nice tours, a success growing up and 2020 was supposed to mark a new big step in their career. Social issues and Covid didn’t help us to get the success expected. But still, this 3rd full length album marks the foundations of a great future!
For a young band, Lorna Shore has already known a few vocalists. The former one, Tom Barber left the band in 2018 to join another big deathcore act, Chelsea Grin. To replace him, they put their faith in the hands – and mouth – of CJ McCreery (ex-Signs Of The Swarm). Only 18 months in the band before getting fired due to allegations involving sexual abuse started by his ex followed by a few others. The kind of news that would have killed a band, especially a young one when they’re on the good way to make a huge step. Despite that, the band confirmed the album “Immortal” to be released as scheduled on January 31st on their new label Century Medias Records. They didn’t want to throw away 3 years of hard work – and financial efforts. They even went on tour in Europe with Will Ramos as a stand-in… before Covid cancelled all further plans. Here they are early 2020: a new album recorded with a singer they fired and without any possibilities to promote it and were stuck as home because of the many lockdowns.
But let’s go back to “Immortal” and forget a few minutes what happened around the band to get focus on the music itself. From the first notes of the opening song Immortal, we receive a wall straight in the face. Powerful and epic as f*ck! The drums is tight, the screams deep, the breakdowns intense, the guitars solos powerful and it makes the full song louder than ever. Couldn’t expect a better start! The whole album will continue on the same level with the same characteristics: as much melodic and epic as powerful. More than a classic deathcore album, they bring stuff we usually find in other genre of musics (power metal, symphonic metal) than here. But still some real butcheries like Darkest Spawn and This Is Hell. With Death Portrait, Lorna Shore also introduce us their black inspirations.
During 45 minutes, they proved deathcore in 2020 is more than a generic style when so many sounds the same. We heard the classical influences like Thy Art Is Murder or Suicide Silence but also some from The Black Dahlia Murder or Behemoth. Many songs will sound massive live and offer the audience to give their biggest pit or circle-pit (This Is Hell). But some others will have some more calm moments just to headbang.
Immortal is a very ambitious album and it’s sad it has been released at the worst time possible. But at a time when Internet is omnipresent, Spotify and all the platforms should help them to spread the word. They are not the first deathcore band who break away with the barriers of the genre but compared to other, they make it well!
* This review has been written in January 2022 trying to not focus on everything that happened the last 23 months.