Album Review : Lorna Shore - ... And I Return to Nothingness (2021)
Deathcore is a musical genre that is bound to be controversial by its nature. Since it’s born out of the fusion of two musical genres that foster an insufferable gatekeeper culture, it’s bound to have a lot of haters. Don’t get me wrong, there are dozens of mediocre, generic deathcore bands. But it was sort of born with a bad reputation. That said, I haven’t seen a deathcore band make consensus like Lorna Shore did with their 2021 EP … And I Return to Nothingness.
Although it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, the consensus is earned.
In order to understand why …And I Return to Nothingness is a great record, you have to understand it was somewhat of a fresh start for Lorna Shore and their new vocalist Will Ramos. The band was always bending genre rules and combining unlikely influences, but they never had the wide-ranging vocalist to follow along with their wild experimentations. Listen to Ramos mixing black metal shrieks and gurgling growls on their comeback single To The Hellfire:
This song took planet metal by storm because of its multiple personalities. It goes in every fucking direction at the same time and yet sound so cohesive. The mid-paced, melancholic guitar riff layered over the balls-to-the-walls drumming of Austin Archey and the multifaceted performance by Will Ramos is perhaps my favourite touch. It has the melody of death metal, the grandeur of a black metal song and the sick, almost-but-not-quite-ridiculous breakdowns of hardcore.
A lot of bands pride themselves in their changes of tempo and their complex song structures, but Lorna Shore really mastered the art of making you travel within the same song. The next song Of The Abyss, features fucking keyboard and choruses, for fuck’s sake. You gotta love the sheer balls of trying to do this on a record (and in a genre) that mostly takes itself seriously. Lorna Shore reappropriates the corniest elements of extreme metal and ennobles them again. It sounds therefore both crazy and liberating at the same time.
…And I Return to Nothingness definitely isn’t the easiest EP to wrap your mind around because it’s trying to be everything at the same time. A lot of bands incorporated unlikely influences in their music before, but it was mostly to shape its edges. At its heart, it was always one thing. Not this new Lorna Shore album. It’s everything at once. The guitar goes into one direction. The vocals in another. The additional elements go on their own. It’s a total work of heavy metal art in you will.
Did I mention that shit was catchy? Because it’s catchy as hell. The title song is so full of hooks it once again borderlines on corny, but it never quite capsizes into it. It is driven through its six minutes length by a soaring melody that Will Ramos actually shrieks himself. I mean, it’s a lot to take it but I’ve never quite heard anything like this before. Lorna Shore is thoroughly unafraid of being extreme in every possible sense of the term. All three songs on the EP fucking obliterate, but the title song is the very best one.
The lyrical content is perhaps the least important part of …And I Return to Nothingness because Will Ramos uses his voice as such an instrument, but it works anyway. It consists in mostly difficult and abstract imagery about being caught between life and death (or between Earth and hell), but it’s vague and universal enough for you to be able to superpose your personal experience to it. When Slayer sing about war or the undead, it’s never REALLY about war or the undead. Same thing goes on this record.
Now, it’s not the easiest or the catchiest listening experience. This is DENSE music, but it is DENSE in the best possible way. Lorna Shore is trying to tell a story throughout their songs and not just showboat on their instrument. There is plenty to remember the songs of …And I Return to Nothingness by outside of the musicians’ individual performance. It’s just a very heavy, active life and it’ll undercut the listening pleasure for certain ears. The songs need some repetition before settling in.
*
I might be sinning by saying this, but the only thing missing to …And I Return to Nothingness is clean vocals. I understand deathcore is not supposed to have any, but it is the last frontier for emotionally layering their music. It has many faces, but it still needs another one. Deathcore usually isn’t my jam, but I’ve checked out Lorna Shore out of curiosity and was intellectually and emotionally pleased. These guys are gung ho and uncompromising. That’s what you need to be to make great art.
