Year: 2025
Label: Century Media

US deathcore act Lorna Shore have truly been the talk of the day for the past couple of years already. Seems like nobody into hard, heavy and extreme music is without an opinion of them. Just as it is popular to love them, in certain circles it’s en vogue to bash them regardless of whether you’ve actually given them the time or day or not.

And, I admit, it’s true: it gets tiresome to hear some people talk about them like some kind of messiahs. Or going on about how Lorna Shore are doing things nobody’s done before in extreme music. Or how Will Ramos is the bestest and most skilledest and most superest vocalist, like, ever.

But, hey, when haven’t the fans been the worst part of any band? And do the fans really make a band worse? (For the nitwits among you, “never” and “no” are the correct answers.)

Beneath the hype, what is the new album I Feel The Everblack Festering Within Me like actually?

Well, first of all, underneath the veneer of modern production, it actually explores familiar territory. Lorna Shore’s sound starts from deathcore, but incorporates a plenitude of other elements: black metal, death metal, melodic death metal, symphonic metal, cinematic symphonic sequences and… uh, probably a dozen more things. And it does this in a way that someone who’s been into metal a long time will recognize: this is essentially what a shitload of bands sounded like in the noughties, drawing from symphonic black metal, melodic metal and the death metal popular at the time. It seemed like every nook and cranny was crawling with bands combining these things.

At the same time, it’s absolutely true that Lorna Shore have their own, unique approach to this sound. Maybe it’s the deathcore, maybe it’s because they’re doing this in 2025, not 2005. Or maybe it’s because they have vision and the skills to realize it in their music.

The modern sound, which is kind of over polished, shiny and sterile, took me a while to get used to. I got over and past it with previous album Pain Remains, so at this stage I knew what to expect. Still, the drum barrage sounds a bit plastic and hollow, just like during the worst days of triggering. And the drums dominate too much over the guitars, which could use a bit of an extra oomph. On the other hand, during the more symphonic sections, the album sounds fucking phenomenal.

But get past the sound, and I Feel The Everblack Festering Within Me is a powerhouse of an album. It’s full of brutal, fast blasting and massive breakdowns – but even more impressive is when the band get emotional. Take Glenwood, a song about estrangement: this is probably as close to a ballad as Lorna Shore will get. Largely mid-paced, very melodic and extremely atmospheric. Beneath the deathcore veneer, there’s a lot of melodic gothic death metal in this track. You know, again, in a noughties vein.

Or take Unbreakable. The riffing sounds very much like noughties melodic death metal – maybe even a bit of Gothenburg in there? – but the orchestral backing adds a whole other layer. And then there’s chorus, a thoroughly emotional and fucking anthemic thing.

Or album closer Evermore. It perfectly displays just what a knack for cinematic songwriting the band has, containing ebbs and flows of swelling and receding walls of sound. Its tragic melodies and powerful orchestrations perfectly contrast Ramos’ heartfelt, tearing performance. This is in fact a pretty perfect note to end the album on, a true climax.

I do get that for some, Lorna Shore can be a bit too much all over the place. Hyperspeed blasting and heavy breakdowns mix with swelling cinematic orchestrations, melodies are laced over furious shredding, and the band are wont to jump from one extreme of their sound to the other in a heartbeat. But get accustomed to that, and I Feel The Everblack Festering Within Me reveals itself to be a powerful, even massive album.

And, yeah, I get that many older metalheads feel some kind of natural aversion towards all things deathcore. But there’s no reason for it. Essentially, Lorna Shore piece together their music from stuff that is familiar to most metalheads. There’s a bit of Behemoth, a bit of Dimmu Borgir and Cradle Of Filth, a bit of At The Gates and a bit of a lot of others classic bands in here. And, at least from my viewpoint, not a whole lot of “core.” Essentially, this is accessible music to even old timers (like me).

I guess Lorna Shore is just about as mainstream as an extreme metal band can get. But this album goes to prove that success hasn’t come at the expense of artistic vitality. This is by far Lorna Shore’s best album to date, and definitely, one of the best albums of the year. Don’t believe me? Give it a couple of honest, unprejudiced, open-minded spins. You might be surprised.

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