After 15 years of hard work, adversity, and multiple line-up changes, Lorna Shore have achieved something rare. With 2021 hit To the Hellfire gaining 26 million views on YouTube, and 2022 album Pain Remains racking up 189 million streams to date, they’ve taken the extreme niche genre of deathcore into the mainstream.
Combining elements of black, death, and symphonic metal, astonishing technicality and prog sensibility, their latest record, I Feel The Everblack Festering Within Me, showcases a band at the peak of their powers.
What will you be listening to on the tour bus?
Andrew O’Connor: “I always go back to Lord of the Rings, or Ludwig Göransson’s score for Tenet. Metal is mostly for home; on the road it’s what you’re doing all day, so it’s hard to get into the bunk at 2 a.m. and blast some ripping death metal!”
Adam De Micco: “I’m the opposite. At home I don’t listen to any metal, but tour is when I get most of my metal fix in. I end up listening to the bands we’re with. Kublai Khan came out with a new record on our last US tour, so I was listening to that, and the new Whitechapel and Sanguisugabogg stuff.”
After the success of Pain Remains, you could have toned it down for the mainstream. Instead, the new album stretches your sound even further. Was that deliberate?
O’Connor: “The goalposts didn’t really move at all. Every single time we write new music, we want to make ourselves excited. Pain Remains taught us how to be more intentional about every part and how it affects the overall flow and feel of a song – not just shoehorning something in for the sake of it.”
De Micco: “After touring Pain Remains, riffs or ideas I thought were cool didn’t land when we played them live. You realize a part is too complicated, or isn’t musical or digestible.
“I was at the gym once and heard Guns ‘n’ Roses. Sweet Child O’ Mine is a terrible song – I hate Axl’s voice and don’t even like Slash’s playing, but it stands the test of time. Nowadays music comes and goes in less than a year, yet there are bands from 30, 40 years ago, and people are still excited to hear it, and I’m like, ‘How?’
“That was my main inspiration – writing something timeless. I wanted to write a guitar lick that some kid wanted to learn. Crazy Train was mine and Andrew’s.”
Which new song best showcases where you are as players?
De Micco: “I think they all go to different strengths. Prison of Flesh is very technical and over the top; very challenging to play live. Unbreakable is meant to be completely dialed back. On the last record I got used to putting the kitchen sink in, so trying to write songs that were digestible, anthems, or arena-style songs was very much a challenge.”
O’Connor: “I agree. But I’m definitely excited to unveil Glenwood. Adam and I sat in a piano room at the studio going over verse harmonies, and we got super hyped on it. It’s got some interesting harmonies, not just typical thirds the whole way. There’s some sixes and fives.”
De Micco: “And fours, threes, twos, and ones!”
O’Connor: “We were referencing tech death bands like Obscura and Necrophagist, whose guitar parts aren’t run of the mill. That track definitely keeps me on my toes, performance-wise.”
What were the biggest inspirations for the new album?
De Micco: “When we wrote Pain Remains we were feeling behind in life – living with parents, losing band members, or changing labels – so we were writing with a kind of vengeance. Our lives have changed so much since then. The pressure now is having all these great things I’m scared to lose.
“For my whole life I’ve been writing from this angry perspective, but now things are going great I don’t have the same fuel. That was a challenge! But back then I also don’t think we could have had fun and written War Machine, a meat-and-potatoes Headbangers Ball-style song.”
O’Connor: “For me it was a need to do better. It’s like that great saying: ‘Art isn’t really finished; it’s just abandoned.’ That’ kind of shit keeps me awake at night. Throughout the process I was focused on executing things a bit better – trying to serve the songs as best as I could.”
Has anything major changed on your live setup?
De Micco: “It’s pretty much the same. My whole thing with playing live is making it as seamless as possible. I read an interview with Steve Vai… I don’t like Steve Vai all that much either – ”
O’Connor: “– Blasphemy!”
De Micco: “He said, ‘I like to make my music complicated – I don’t want my setup to be.’ That stuck with me. The only change is getting my first custom build from Ibanez. Minus the paint job, it’s the same RGD body as before; same string gauge, pick thickness, pickups, everything. But I was like, ‘You don’t have a tiger-striped guitar. It’s not an option, so I need to make it an option!’”
O’Connor: “My setup is almost identical to Adam’s; we both use Ibanez RGDs and Fortin profiles on the Kempers, same picks and string gauge. I literally plug in, turn on the Kemper, and use that tone from the start to the end of the set. I’m on Fishman pickups, and prefer the EverTune bridge as I don’t really do any leads or bending. I like it to be as simple and stable as possible.”
De Micco: “I just want to focus on performing. Playing live is about connecting with the audience. No one is paying money to watch me practice guitar.”
Lorna Shore’s viral success has shown that extreme genres can appeal to a wide range of fans, not just metalheads. Have you won over any big-name fans or players?
O’Connor: “Wintersun were a huge influence on me as a teenager. They’re technical wizards. I learned one of their songs, I made a short insignificant post about it, and Jari Mäenpää saw it and hit me up. He was like, ‘Dude, that was awesome! I checked out Lorna Shore – you guys are great!’ That meant a lot.”
De Micco: “We played a festival with Dream Theater and I wanted John Petrucci to listen to us… But I don’t think he did!”
O’Connor: “I listened to them – I don’t think the favor was returned!”
With extreme bands like Cannibal Corpse and Meshuggah now household names, why do you think heavy guitar music is so powerful in 2025?
De Micco: “People are finally accepting there’s a place for it. Growing up, everyone in my life was like, ‘I don’t understand it.’ But these are emotions and energies we all experience, and you need a healthy outlet.”
O’Connor: “Social media exposes more people and a lot more lines are being blurred – electronic or dubstep artists sample death metal and expose that to people who may have never heard a death metal song in their life.
“The insane quality and output of bands these days means the bar is so high, it’s kinda hard not to be impressed. I can’t speculate on why it’s so popular, but I’m definitely happy that it is!”
- Lorna Shore are currently touring North America. I Feel the Everblack Festering Within Me is on sale now via Century Media.
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