Lorna Shore - Pain Remains [2LP]

Lorna Shore pushed deathcore to symphonic extremes on Pain Remains, the 2022 album presented here as a 2LP set in a gatefold jacket.

The band's fourth studio album was the first full-length with vocalist Will Ramos, whose arrival had already sent shockwaves through heavy music. Produced, mixed and mastered by Josh Schroeder at Random Awesome! Studios in Michigan, it pairs blast beats and crushing breakdowns with sweeping orchestrations from guitarist Andrew O'Connor.

"Welcome Back, O' Sleeping Dreamer" opens the record with a seven-minute storm of choirs and churning riffs, while "Sun//Eater" and "Into the Earth" set the scale even higher, pairing cinematic grandeur with genuinely brutal, earth-shaking low-end. Ramos moves from guttural growls to piercing shrieks with unnerving control, and Adam De Micco's lead guitar cuts through the chaos with melodic solos.

The closing trilogy is the main event, building across three linked songs to the nine-minute finale "Pain Remains III: In a Sea of Fire," an emotional and sonic climax that has to be heard to be believed.

Brutal yet beautiful and enormous in scope, this is the record that turned Lorna Shore into one of modern metal's biggest names, and spread across four sides it feels as monumental as it sounds.