Image: Lorna Shore Live, Sara Velez Herrero
Lorna Shore from New Jersey went viral overnight in 2021 and has since become more popular than ever. An extraordinary journey for a deathcore band that has been around for over 10 years! So let's take a closer look at their story and give you all the essential information about the band.
Many people only became familiar with the metal band Lorna Shore after their big breakthrough, even though they were already well-known in the core scene before that. After all, they were formed in 2010, although a lot has happened since then. We will clarify how there have been multiple lineup changes on the vocals and how the band has gone viral on social media more than once.
Lorna Shore History: Formation and Early Years
The band Lorna Shore was founded in 2010 in New Jersey, USA, and at that time had five members. They were Scott Cooper (drums), Gary Herrera (bass), Jeff Moskovciak (guitar), Aaron Brown (guitar), and Tom Barber (vocals). Together, they were not idle and released their EP Triumph in the same year, which they recorded themselves. However, the album is not listed on Spotify today, presumably due to the band distancing themselves from their early releases. The lineup of the band changed before their second release. Austin Archey took over on drums and Adam De Micco played guitar, while the second guitar was dropped. The band self-produced the EP Bone Kingdom and released it in February 2012. At that time, the style of the tracks resembled that of the American deathcore group Chelsea Grin. Even if you don't know the whole album, you may have come across the song "Life of Fear" on the internet. It was used for a video that went viral: Heavy Metal Cat. Due to the enormous reach of the meme, Lorna Shore also gained more attention and new fans. However, this was not the band's big breakthrough - that would only come years later.
The third EP, Maleficium, was released in March 2014 as their first production under a record label: Density Records. The band refers to the album as their debut on platforms like YouTube and see it as the true beginning of their career. The producer of the album, Zakk Cervini, has become one of the most well-known rock producers of our time. He has since worked with artists such as Machine Gun Kelly, Limp Bizkit, and Architects. Additionally, they embarked on a tour as a support band for the deathcore group Carnifex throughout the USA. Many more performances followed in 2014 and 2015, including opening for Upon a Burning Body, Within the Ruins, and Fallujah. They were also booked for festivals, as they played on the main stage at the New England Metal and Hardcore Festival in Worcester, England. All of this brought the band some recognition in the scene before they even released a full-length album.
Debut Album & First Successes
That all changed in the same year when their debut album, Psalms, was released in June. The production at The Machine Shop studio in New Jersey was handled by Will Putney, who had previously worked with other well-known scene bands such as Thy Art Is Murder and Fit For An Autopsy. The album showcased the symphonic influences that now define Lorna Shore's style. In 2015, guitarist Connor Deffley also joined the band.
At the end of 2015, they embarked on their first European tour as a support act for Carnifex. They went on to play more shows in Europe as an opening act for other bands. Before returning to the studio for another album production, they switched to Outerloop Records. With producer Carson Slovak, they recorded Flesh Coffin, their second studio album, which was released in February 2017. The album led to more tours and greater stability for the band.
"Before Flesh Coffin, we struggled a lot, but with Flesh Coffin, we had a lot of success touring and we just felt really, really good."
- Adam De Micco
However, in the same year, their bassist Gary Herrera decided to leave the band due to a lack of passion for music. Additionally, vocalist Tom Barber also left in April 2018. He joined Chelsea Grin as their vocalist after their previous singer Alex Koehler had to leave the band due to health issues.
Image: Band photo of Lorna Shore with their first singer Tom Barber
Lineup Change: The Unexpected Breakthrough
As a replacement, Lorna Shore brought in CJ McCreery, who had been their vocalist until 2019. Previously, he had sung for the American deathcore band Signs of the Swarm. With him, they recorded the album Immortal, whose singles "Darkest Spawn" and "This Is Hell" were already released in 2019.
Their second guitarist also left the band again. Andrew O'Connor was announced as his successor at the end of 2019. And not long after, Lorna Shore also parted ways with CJ McCreery, as he was accused of both sexual abuse and racism. After kicking him out of the band, they had to decide whether the new album should still be released with his vocals. Ultimately, Immortal was released in 2020 by Century Media. After all the lineup changes, to make matters worse, the COVID-19 pandemic arrived, making work in the music industry significantly more difficult.
The band already knew their current vocalist Will Ramos from the deathcore scene in New Jersey. He had sung in numerous band projects and was even a big fan of Lorna Shore. Before recruiting him as a vocalist for a tour, he was the frontman of Monument of a Memory. The tour with Will Ramos went so well that he was immediately offered a permanent place in Lorna Shore.
Image: Lorna Shore Live, Sara Velez Herrero
With the producer of Immortal, Josh Schroeder, the band reorganized and went back into the studio to record the EP …And I Return To Nothingness. The single "To the Hellfire" was released with a music video and overnight, it changed everything. The song reached number 1 on the iTunes charts in its first week, and the video has already garnered over 18 million views today. The well-known breakdown was used for videos on the platform TikTok , while the single reached the top 10 on Spotify in the USA. Among the usual mainstream artists, the deathcore band naturally stood out. Suddenly, the band gained a huge online following and quickly became much more well-known.
In 2022, their fourth album Pain Remains was released, which even reached number 6 on the album charts in Germany. After that, Lorna Shore continued to tour diligently. In 2022, they even performed at the Lollapalooza Festival in the USA. Michael Yager joined as their new guitarist in 2022.
What Does The Band Name Lorna Shore Stand For?
Usually, with deathcore bands, it's quite easy to deduce what their band name is about. Nevertheless, some fans may have wondered what exactly Lorna Shore means and who came up with it. Lorna Shore guitarist Adam De Micco provided the answer on Reddit. According to him, their former guitarist came up with the idea for the band name. He knew about the band Gwen Stacy, named after Spider-Man's girlfriend. However, he personally preferred Batman and decided to name the band after the character Lorna Shore from the comic series Batman Confidential. She is a museum curator who dates Bruce Wayne for a while before he ends their relationship to protect her.
Genre And Influences
Lorna Shore is often described under the umbrella term of Deathcore. However, they have incorporated various styles and influences into their albums. In the beginning, the group could be classified as Metalcore. Some are more specific and categorize them as Blackened Death Metal, Blackened Deathcore, or even Technical Death Metal with their album Psalms. Especially from their debut album onwards, symphonic influences have become an integral part of their sound, giving their music an epic quality. Elements from Death Metal and Black Metal are commonplace for them - and surprisingly, even Pop. This may not be immediately apparent upon first listen. However, Adam De Micco has mentioned multiple times that he has been heavily inspired by Justin Timberlake since his youth and tries to incorporate this inspiration into Lorna Shore's music. After all, he is responsible for a large portion of the songwriting, including demos. In previous recordings, drummer Austin Archey was involved in the arrangement process.
But not only that; during the recording of …And I Return To Nothingness, producer Josh Schroeder suggested incorporating classic pop song structures. This allowed the songs to be somewhat catchier, despite Lorna Shore's extreme style. With the addition of Will Ramos as their vocalist, Lorna Shore gained someone with a wide range of singing and screaming techniques. This enabled them to work and experiment extremely well since the EP.
In an interview with EMP in 2022, Will and Adam describe their own sound in three words: loud, chaotic, and sad.
The Band Members Of Lorna Shore On Ihe Internet
Lorna Shore naturally has several official band accounts on social media, including Instagram, Facebook, X (previously Twitter), and TikTok. But you can also find the individual band members on the internet. Will Ramos, Adam De Micco, Austin Archey, Andrew O'Connor, and Michael Yager all have their own Instagram accounts where they keep their fans up to date. On YouTube, the band posts their music videos and guitar playthroughs of some of their songs.
Additionally, Will Ramos runs his own YouTube channel called "The Will Ramos." On this channel, he mainly focuses on vocal techniques and analyses from the metal scene. He analyzes some songs together with other musicians, and in other videos, he covers his favorite songs, including tracks by Sleep Token.
