Lorna Shore made a big entrance last year with their single To the Hellfire and their subsequent three-track EP. Since then, the entire modern metal community has been excitedly following the single releases and the well-anticipated album release.
If I have to be honest, pretty early on I started feeling the staleness of their new music that, soon after, a small minority of other listeners also noticed. By the time their third single released, I felt like they all sounded pretty similar, and in a way, too similar to enjoy. To be fair, it is in the nature of the genre of blackened deathcore to be consistently intense, and there are limits to how distinct that can get. Yet, I couldn't get into some of the single releases no matter how much I wish I could.
Up to the final month, and with the release of Pain Remains I: Dancing Like Flames, I regained a bit of my interest for the album release. The song showed a much more distinct sound from them that was actually really well-done and super emotional, and I was hoping that meant I could expect a more diverse range of sounds from the album.
I think you can tell that I was a bit let down by the actual record. I have to clarify, by the way, it's still really good deathcore songs all around, it's just the record as a whole that felt a bit repetitive. Other than the Pain Remains trilogy, which with its a twenty minute runtime can get a bit uncaptivating near the end anyways, the rest of the record feels like different renditions of the same formula. Sure, they have the formula on lock and it's still top quality stuff all around, but the lack of variety ends up making every song seem dull.
If all these songs were released on their own, far away from each other or even in their own individual records beside other kinds of songs, they probably would've felt a lot cooler to me. I guess they lost the novelty when the songs were all released together like this.
Despite all that I dislike about Pain Remains, there are great things to highlight in the record still. There's an astounding level of musical skill and talent in every song, no one can even begin to argue otherwise. Every part of the band is top tier and are all equally integral to the sound of Lorna Shore.
When it comes to the many similarities in every song, like the use of symphonies, the expected super heavy breakdown, an extensive guitar solo, and the tremolo-picked chorus, they are all very effective musical tools for their genre. Ignoring the fact that they are seemingly overused by the band, they excel at designing horrifically brutal sounds or extremely melodic ones.
I still have to commend how inspiring and moving Pain Remains I: Dancing Like Flames was. It was such an unexpected release from Lorna Shore, yet it was absolutely touching despite its genre's nature. I was super glad they wrote a song that sounded different, even if for only one track.
I wonder if this is one of those records where you have to listen to it numerous times before you start to appreciate it for what it is, but I doubt that and I don't want to listen to it enough times to find out. There are songs from this record that I'm happy to cherry pick and enjoy, but trying to sit through the full hour experience of Pain Remains ends up feeling really dull and uninteresting halfway through.
Rating: 4/10