REVIEW: Lorna Shore - I Feel the Everblack Festering Within Me

Through the ebb and flow of rebirth

01:06:28 // September 12th, 2025 // Century Media Records

To speak of deathcore in the late ‘00s is to speak of a genre in perpetual adolescence. Loud and brash, raw and divisive, occasionally ridiculous but undeniably alive, the bands of the early scene married death metal and hardcore while hammering breakdowns into every available space, brimming with half-formed ideas and energy too volatile to be contained. The result was one of the most discussed movements in extreme metal’s recent history, out of which Lorna Shore emerged and planted their flags as far back as 2009. Promise and potential could be identified in sparse moments of their first two full-length albums, Psalms (2015) and Flesh Coffin (2017), but the pumped up orchestration and expansive scale of their third album Immortal in 2020 indicated a more serious tilt towards spectacle.

This direction was boosted by the addition of frontman Will Ramos as vocalist for the band around that time, and the release of the … And I Return to Nothingness EP in 2021. For that unique moment in time, the planets were aligned and in perfect sync to catapult Lorna Shore’s popularity much further out the gravitational pull of the underground, and into the broader cultural bloodstream. From then on came Pain Remains in 2022, the first full work with Ramos behind the mic and a widely cheered album crowning them as the biggest stars of the deathcore revival. This allowed the band to transcend the genre and break into the spotlight with their larger-than-life blend of symphonic pageantry and guttural punishment, stapled onto long compositions that excelled in technical prowess and emotional heft through their very own, colossal wall of sound.

Success on all fronts brings us to 2025, and the latest Lorna Shore offering I Feel the Everblack Festering Within Me, as the title alone wears its melodrama like a badge of honor, and the record does much the same. With that many eyes drawn to the band in such a short period of time, the next studio work must have been a hell of a challenge and a real litmus test for them, but they have indeed managed to produce the logical successor to Pain Remains: larger, slicker, perhaps a little too enamored with its own polish. It prospers by sticking to a formula left more or less intact - orchestral swells and blast-beat barrages, speedy melodeath maelstrom and breakdowns as exaggerated as possible. The overall repetition in approach and delivery is noticeable, yet if the album works at all, that is the reason.

Opener “Prison of Flesh” showcases Lorna Shore at its flashiest and most untamed, perfectly designed to provoke awe and shock in reaction videos of people who were similarly unaware of the “To the Hellfire” experience four years ago. The band stretches almost completely into the domain of near-epic, modern melodic death metal in “Oblivion”, “In Darkness” and especially “Unbreakable”, without missing out on the occasional and necessary unhinged breakdown sections they have made a name for themselves with. I found even more appeal in the latter part of the album when moving through a series of highlights such as the outstanding “Death Can Take Me” and its ultra-heavy ending, or the superb gut punch that is “War Machine”.

But then you hit “Glenwood”, and the band for once steps out of the gladiatorial arena. Both in this track and the closing “Forevermore”, it once again goes through moments that are on the more vulnerable side and remind us that Lorna Shore are also capable of intimacy amid the avalanche, often (combined with Ramos’ expressive lyrics) landing harder than all the bombast around them. For me personally, I Feel the Everblack… reaches its peak at “A Nameless Hymn”, which has the most dominant orchestral synth use, riffing reminiscent of recent Behemoth, and the Lorna Shore melodicism combined with grandiose symphonic black metal in its middle part, giving way to a masterful guitar solo and the most compelling breakdown of the record.

If there’s a bane that torments I Feel the Everblack…, it’s the same that haunted Pain Remains: its sheer overproduction. Every element is cranked to maximum visibility, a take so buffed and polished that it surely impresses first but maybe lingers less than it should. It’s Lorna Shore at their most glorious and cinematic with moments certainly built to rupture stadiums, yet often just too formulaic, where guitar lines or even whole tracks blur with each other. This material reiteration gives in to predictability in a way that it takes away initial excitement I had for this band, and possibly other fans feel the same way about it too. At least there’s ample musical richness in I Feel the Everblack… and something unquestionably magnetic about Lorna Shore that will bring them the response they’re after with this release. They have definitely found their identity, but they’re trying to master a sound so vast that it threatens to swallow itself. Whether they will ever move beyond it remains an open question.

6.5/10