Album Review: Lorna Shore – Pain Remains (Century Media Records)

New Jersey deathcore heavyweights Lorna Shore will release their brand-new album, Pain Remains on October 14th, 2022 via Century Media Records.

A new Lorna Shore record was hotly anticipated even before they started to release music from it. Now, thanks to singles that have simply blown away all who have heard them, the eagerness for this new record has reached feverish levels.

The biggest, the grandest and the most intense release Lorna Shore have put out, Pain Remains is a staggering achievement. A truly spectacular album. An hour’s worth of music still doesn’t feel like enough. Such is the captivating qualities of it. This is Lorna Shore’s moment and they are grabbing it with both hands.

They couldn’t have started Pain Remain off in less of a lavish way as a powerful orchestra and choir set the scene for Welcome Back, O Sleeping Dreamer. When it comes time to rage, Lorna Shore rage like their lives depend on it. The initial explosion sounding more like a symphonic black metal band but quickly easing into their more recognisable deathcore brutality. Albeit, more furious and fiercer than ever before. Those drums, good gods, those drums. What a phenomenal start this is.

Take a deep breath, Lorna Shore are only getting started.

With Into the Earth that sense of epic is just as present but utilised to make the guttural growls, frenzied riffs and toe-curling percussion feel even more dangerous. One word to describe this track is frantic. Whereas one word to describe SunEater is extravagant but this track being so layered, one word is not enough. The orchestration is bright and brilliant, Lorna Shore taking a more measured approach to their savagery and hitting an epic high in the chorus. One of the album’s strongest efforts.

One of the most amazing things about this album, beyond the heart and soul that Lorna Shore have pumped into it, is its accessibility. Yes, that sounds insane when you consider that it’s unashamedly deathcore and consistently and ruthlessly heavy, but somehow Lorna Shore have pulled it off. There’s no dismissing this album just because you don’t like deathcore, it’s so much more than that and tracks like Cursed to Die, Apotheosis and Wrath are perfect examples of that.

Amongst those tracks, you’ll also find the seven-plus minute Soulless Existence. One of the album’s darkest tracks and one that jumps between tempos with such incredible ease. It builds and builds to an apex, before dropping down into darkness then back up again. It’s a roller-coaster of a song.

Which brings us to the title track trilogy. A three-part opus that is basically a deathcore love song. Absurd? The only absurd thing about this finale is how brilliant it is. The album as a whole has ‘album of the year’ vibes but with these three tracks, it becomes assured.

I: Dancing Like Flames is simply one of the best tracks released this year and easily one of the best things Lorna Shore have ever written. It’s amazingly emotional and remorselessly brutal. Enough good things can’t be said about this track. Just check out the guitar solo.

Now, while II: After All I’ve Done, I’ll Disappear might not reach that high, it is still a glorious part of this story. One that leans more towards the heavier side of their music but oozes poignant believability. The sense of loss and despair, too much to bear.

The story and the album culminating in the nine-plus minute finale of III: In a Sea of Fire. A bright and brilliant piece of music. Where the tears fall like rain in a storm. Yet, there’s a defiance here, a call to arms, a shout of enough is enough. It’s a very powerful state of mind and one that resonates loudly at this point of the story.

What more needs to be said? Lorna Shore have released the album of the year. From beginning to end, it is simply brilliant. They should be immensely proud of what they have achieved here.

Lorna Shore – Pain Remains Full Track Listing:

1. Welcome Back, O Sleeping Dreamer
2. Into The Earth
3. SunEater
4. Cursed To Die
5. Soulless Existence
6. Apotheosis
7. Wrath
8. Pain Remains I: Dancing Like Flames
9. Pain Remains II: After All I’ve Done, I’ll Disappear
10. Pain Remains III: In a Sea of Fire

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