Review by Shadowdoom9 (Andi) for Lorna Shore - Pain Remains (2022)

If you're about to listen to this album and read my review, let me say, congratulations on having the bravery of continuing your epic deathcore exploration after the incredible starter pack that is Lorna Shore's EP And I Return to Nothingness. If you decide to listen to their new album Pain Remains, while sleeping and absorbing it subconsciously, here's a quick warning. You're gonna witness, in your dream, change that has never happened in reality, so intense, that when you wake up, your pain remains. In the dream, you're the sleeping dreamer. The scenario I've made throughout this review will be your dream!

Lorna Shore had their own painful situation over two years ago that they have overcome. It started just a month before the release of their previous full album Immortal, when vocalist CJ McCreery was fired due to a scandal of abuse allegations (not clickbait), then most of their touring was cancelled due to the rising virus. However, the following year, the band wrote and release the EP And I Return to Nothingness with a new frontman Will Ramos, and for the first time in their over decade-long tenure, they've hit the stratosphere of global success! Fast forward to late 2022, their epic new album Pain Remains showed the band pushing their deathcore boundaries further. Keeping up the addition of symphonic black metal darkness and technical sludge-ish breakdown aggression into their epic deathcore sound, the anticipation is all worth it.

"Welcome Back, O’ Sleeping Dreamer" begins with an ominous intro, where symphonic orchestra rises as if you were expecting Two Steps From Hell. Then at the top, the band strikes in a devastating touchdown, as the guitarists conjuring a searing riff storm raining down on you. A brutal breakdown chops you down to size, then sharp riffing once again decimates you while fitting well with the brilliant cinematics. The Sleeping Dreamer finds himself in a world that has been, and can be, designed using his own imagination. However, he falls into a world of nightmares that always changes to become worse than before and cannot be changed by the Dreamer himself until he can succumb to the possession, which he refuses to do. Driving further is "Into the Earth", with its frantic verses and dramatic chorus. The Dreamer has to shine like the sun, with the rays touching the dream Earth. However, he grows cold and crashes into the dream Earth, with vivid nightmarish hallucinations surrounding him and projecting into his mind, leaving him immobilized. "Sun//Eater" is the first single released for the album, and has psyched fans up with its furious fret force and mythological lyric themes. A young choir of angels appear, chanting "Kyrie eleison" ("Lord Have Mercy"), giving the Dreamer wings and the unlimited power to fight back the hallucinations. He flies back into space and, like Icarus, heads towards the sun, this time conquering and consuming it, regaining his shining power, now shining a colorless black-and-white light, a hint at his possession of evil slowly beginning.

One epic shining highlight is "Cursed to Die", in which the speed and precision from the band's rhythm section work like a charm. The breakdown fits well right in the middle of this epic glory without being abrupt. Despite all that power, the Dreamer starts to feel weaker and more fearful, believing that he might lose his legacy and be cursed to die. However, the evil within possesses him to continue what he was doing before, building up its legacy to the point where it still hasn't reached enough, decaying his soul greatly. The breakdowns in "Soulless Existence" have the same greatness as the previous track, invited in by the Lord of the Rings-like epicness and emotion. At this point, the Dreamer has lost 90% of his soul. The evil has greater control in him than before and begins melting the tundra and ice of the blackened dream Earth, flooding the whole world. The Dreamer's weak soul could only question the existence of himself and the world. Without showing off, in "Apotheosis", the technical speed in the drumming is so insanely impressive, keeping up the band's heavy fury. The evil within the Dreamer is now powerful enough to leave his body to continue its destruction of the dream Earth. The evil spirit boils the water and burns a hole into the dream Earth. The weak Dreamer falls into the hole and finds himself in the Labyrinth of Hell, which he must go through into the center to find the altar of power to regain his power, though at the risk of having his soul decay again. "Wrath" has more of this visceral fire from the rhythm section and is a f***ing heavy highlight overall, like probably the heaviest of the year! After praying at the altar, the Dreamer regains his infinite power and the missing part of his soul, and zooms back up to the surface to unleash his wrath on the evil spirit who's already burning the Dream Earth with his fire powers. As the battle goes on, the flames expand and cover more of the land, and the Dreamer is unaware of his soul decaying until he is struck down by the evil spirit.

At last, we've come to the coldest blizzard of this dark snowy journey, the 3-part title trilogy suite of grieving sorrow. The first part "Dancing Like Flames" is so d*mn beautiful. It's been referred to as a "deathcore ballad", and I kinda agree in the emotional sense. The Dreamer finds himself lying down in the flaming ground, in never-ending pain from the flames and the earlier strike-down from the evil spirit. All he could see is a ghostly image of a passed lover from the past. With little strength he has, he dances with the ghost in the flames before finally collapsing once more. He sees one last hallucination, the Grim Reaper telling him that it's his time to die. The suite continues seamlessly into the second part "After All I've Done, I'll Disappear", expanding the emotionality and adding in a little more intensity. The hammering instrumentation and vocals allow the band to shine in the symphonic black-deathcore realm. With only minutes left before the Dreamer's time to die, he realizes that after all he has done in his desperate attempt to protect the dream Earth, he will have to disappear, leaving behind what he failed to save, now having no meaning. His soul leaves his body and transcends out of the world that has reached its heating point and begins to disintegrate. He transcends through the astral plane. The climatic final part "In a Sea of Fire" is a highlight you can never skip. It shows the band at their most epic, then wraps it all up with a soft outro of ethereal atmosphere. Suddenly, the evil spirit grabs the transcending soul of the Dreamer, possesses him once more, and burns him away into nothingness. The evil spirit then burns away the remains of the Earth out of existence. With its own infinite power, he then proceeds to burn away the rest of the galaxy and the rest of the universe. In the end though, it all turns out to be a dream for the main character who then wakes up.

Pain Remains can be described as a lot of adjectives, more than just the decently overused "epic". With an intense production of complex instrumentation, dynamic vocals, and brilliant lyrics, all to marvel at, you're in for a fun remarkable deathcore treat. The early 2020s can be pretty much a new rising era for deathcore, all thanks to Lorna Shore taking out their pain on an immaculate masterpiece of a lifetime!

Favorites: "Welcome Back, O’ Sleeping Dreamer", "Cursed to Die", "Soulless Existence", "Wrath", the complete "Pain Remains" trilogy ("Dancing Like Flames", "After All I've Done, I'll Disappear", "In a Sea of Fire")