Lorna Shore – Classic Grand, Glasgow – 3rd March 2022

From Warren County, New Jersey, Lorna Shore is a metal band to watch, with their powerhouse take on the deathcore metal genre. Tonight, the band is playing a sold-out show at the Classic Grand in Glasgow. In fact, the venue for the show had already been upgraded due to the high demand for tickets. 

The Classic Grand has hosted many great metal shows over the years, and tonight is no exception. With great supporting sets from Distant and Cabal, Lorna Shore’s musical onslaught is quite something to behold.

The audience give the band a tumultuous reception, as they hit the stage. They begin their set with To The Hellfire from the excellent ….And I Return To Nothingness 2021 EP. The gentle acoustic introduction is shattered by the intense reverberation of the guitars and the most menacing of screamed vocals, and then the sledgehammer blast beats thunder in. The mosh pit immediately opens up in the centre of the Classic Grand floor. The audience chant back some of the lyrics to the song, as the crowd surfers now start up. A squalling guitar solo flies out from the stage and the final massive breakdown seems to literally shake the venue. The power of vocalist Will Ramos’s screams and growls is a defining part of the Lorna Shore sound, and live his incredible range is pushed to the very limit.

Of The Abyss, from the same EP, with its taped choral voices and orchestration, witnesses the most dynamic of interplay between voice and drums. Austin Archey’s polyrhythmic drumming fires out at an incredible intensity, completely matched by Will Ramos’s frenetic vocals, which both ascend and swoop alongside the shifting rhythms. The band’s complex ensemble playing is simply astonishing, in its timing and dynamic precision. The crowd surfers are now increasing in intensity, with one wave following another.

The title track …And I Return To Nothingness completes the trio of songs from the EP. It is an absolute crushing wall of sound, accompanied by many nuanced instrumental counterpoints swirling through the live mix. In some ways, it is the metal equivalent of John Coltrane’s sheets of sound approach, with lead guitarist Adam De Micco’s wailing guitar solo navigating the multilayered rhythms. At one point Will Ramos lets out the most astonishing of screams, holding it for what seems an impossible amount of time. The song is a defining musical moment in the show. 

The set never lets up in energy and intensity, with many other highlights, including the extended crunching breakdown in Death Portrait from the Immortal album. Here the mosh pit seems to stretch from the front of the stage right to the back of the main floor. While King Ov Deception, from the same album, witnesses the band hit an immense groove, generating unison headbanging throughout the audience, and our photographer being unable to resist joining the mosh pit.

The encore of the title track from the Immortal album sees the band step up another gear, as all the instruments and vocals seem to meld into one single hypnotic rush of sound.  Lorna Shore on the evidence of this performance, and the audience reaction, are a metal band really going places. They will likely soon find themselves deservedly high up the running order at major metal festivals. 

Photos of Lorna Shore by Lewis Allen. 

You can find Lorna Shore online here: Website (store) / Facebook / Twitter / Instagram

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