Album Review: Lorna Shore - Pain Remains
Reviewed by Dan Barnes
I think it’s safe to say that 2020 was a watershed year for Lorna Shore; while the rest of us were dealing with other matters, ever-present guitarist Adam De Micco was refitting his outfit, ready for a shot at world domination. With three albums and as many EPs under their belts before global events curtailed progress, it was the release of the …And I Return to Nothingness in 2021 that started the band’s meteoric rise to prominence.
This three track EP marked the first recorded involvement of vocalist Will Ramos, whose pipes across the record give fair warning that here was a band who meant business. All three of the EPs tracks were aired at the Bloodstock festival back in the summer and two – Of the Abyss and To the Hellfire – formed forty percent of the show on the recent Parkway Drive tour. But, on both of those occasions, the remainder of the show was filled with material from this (then) forthcoming full-length, Pain Remains.
Into the Earth, Cursed to Die and Sun//Eater have all become staples in the live show and have been given promotional videos. Into the Earth starts with the sort of bombast you normally expect to hear from Dimmu or Cradle: choral voices and overwrought symphonic motifs breaking into harsh vocals. Long-time drummer, Austin Archey, attacks his kit with the vigour of any blast-beat obsessed Black Metal percussionist, as De Micco and rhythm guitarist Andrew O’Connor, conjure sharp sounds from their strings. There’re choral interludes, sweepingly majestic epic moments that could have come from the pen of any classical composer; hugely theatrical interludes and bridges that would make Dani Filth look understated.
Cursed to Die winds it back a touch and concentrates on a driving rhythm, mixing in a few Slam vocals for good measure. Sun//Eater is as mythic as its title suggests, with the opening moments dominated by dramatically melancholic strings, prior to the commencement of drums that feel as though the End Time is upon us.
The band have not gone out of their way to showcase the most spectacular moments of Pain Remains to live audiences as Soulless Existence, Apotheosis and Wrath are equally exaggerated and melodramatic. Nothing really compares, however, to the opening track, Welcome Back, O Sleeping Dreamer, a seven-and-a-half minute symphony in itself, complete with otherworldly choirs – heavenly or hellish, you decide – and Will weaving between guttural growls and clean vocals.
The running time for the album is a smidge over an hour but a third of that is taken up by the climatic triptych of the Pain Remains suite. Part I: Dancing Like Flames opens with rain and ominous chords yet sees the band taking a more restrained approach to the material. There are moments when the spirit of Parkway is present in the bluster. Part II: After All I’ve Done, I’ll Disappear sounds massive, returning to the musical adornment of earlier on the record; whereas Part III: In a Sea of Fire brings back the grandiosity through orchestral bookending and a barrage of sound and fury.
For all its seemingly inflated approach to Deathcore, Pain Remains is never weighed down by its own purposefulness. All the elements slot together seamlessly and show Lorna Shore to be a creative unit wholly in commend of their creation. So easy could the album have gone off the rails and had us chasing it down with pitchforks and blazing torches, but the delicate craft of piecing such an entity together is remarkable.
Pain Remain should rightly feature highly in the End of the Year polls and see Lorna Shore catapulted to greater heights. The only problem here will be how to better it next time.
