Pain Remains
| Lorna Shore
Pain Remains
Pain Remains is the fourth studio album by American deathcore band Lorna Shore. It was released on October 14, 2022 through Century Media Records and was produced by Josh Schroeder. In addition to being the first album (and second overall release) to feature vocalist Will Ramos and guitarist Andrew O'Connor, the album is their first release featuring new bassist Michael Yager. -Wikipedia
Critic Reviews
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Angry Metal Guy
Its maximalist attitude works because everything remains tight, cohesive, and colossal, balancing brutal heaviness with engaging hooks and garnished with one of the best vocalists in extreme music today. Lorna Shore managed to get through a difficult situation and come out on top, and I suspect this is just their initiation in the halls of deathcore royalty.
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Metal Injection
Pain Remains is even better than we had hoped. Anyone who thought the last EP was a fluke or a passing trend has been proved wrong. Lorna Shore joins the likes of Spiritbox and I Prevail at the very top of modern metal. Lorna Shore are several degrees heavier than those two bands though, an unstoppable juggernaut driven by confidence and raw talent. Nobody can accuse them of selling out. It's been a long, hard road and all the work has paid off. Lorna Shore have delivered the best album of their career and one of the best symphonic metal and deathcore albums in recent memory.
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Kerrang!
Three years ago, Lorna Shore didn’t even know if they had a future, but with Pain Remains they have sealed their fate as one of the bands to take actual heavy music forward. Hear them roar.
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GBHBL
What more needs to be said? Lorna Shore have released the album of the year. From beginning to end, it is simply brilliant. They should be immensely proud of what they have achieved here.
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Distorted Sound Magazine
With Pain Remains, LORNA SHORE have straddled the online hype and delivered a record that not only exceeds the surge of reaction videos, but cements the band as the flagbearers for modern deathcore. Expansive, technical and utterly monstrous, Pain Remains is the face of deathcore in 2022 and showcases a band more than ready to lead the frontline.
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Dead End Follies
There's a lot to like about Pain Remains, but it's sonically so voluminous that I'm not sure that I'll come back to it more than one song at a time. All the songs have a certain standard of quality, but you've experienced the entire bouquet of what Lorna Shore has to offer after only one. Two perhaps if you're having a really bad day and need to blow off steam. Ramos, Archey, Adam De Micco, Andrew O'Connor and Michael Yager are interesting musicians, but this current sound is just the start. It has to be.
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Rock N Load
Any fan of Deathcore simply must get this. Any fan of extreme and brutal music also needs to get on the Lorna Shore train. Granted there are some elitists that will aim criticism their way through ignorance, but that’s their loss so let’s now waste any time or energy on those people. Pain Remains is the best release of 2022 so far and it’s going to take some beating.
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Blabbermouth
Frankly, "Pain Remains" is fucking ridiculous — far beyond deathcore. The entire game just changed, and LORNA SHORE have already won it.
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Sputnik Music
With the release of Pain Remains, Lorna Shore have proven the hype they’ve received over the last few years is entirely justified, and as of this moment it is easily my favorite album of the year.
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The Soundboard Reviews
In terms of a whole package within this corner of heavy music, Pain Remains is about as conceptually airtight as it comes. There’s barely a loose end present, nor is there an idea that hasn’t been realised to its fullest potential, moulded around a scale that’s exactly where Lorna Shore want to take it for an album that’s the definition of creative independence in metal. It’d be more surprising if this more ornate style isn’t replicated to hell and back in the coming years, such is the shake-up that Lorna Shore are capable of facilitating and spearheading. But at the same time, Pain Remains just has a feel to it of the genuine article, as if for all that’ll come in its wake, this is the central pillar standing tall and never surpassed.
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Wall of Sound
Pain Remains extends over an hour to deliver the symphonic masterpiece you expected, with more drama than a Shakespearean poem. Packed with not-so-kosher/halal pig-squeals, this record will have you pulling a stank face that might just leave a mark. My only gripes on the album include a slight overuse of symphonies (despite its impressive variation) and some of the track lengths, which may be a bit hyperbole. Other than that, it delivers above expectations and will be an album you remember for a very long time.
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Ramzine
Blending the best parts of black metal, tech death and deathcore, Pain Remains has the potential to be remembered as a landmark of the genre.
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Louder
brutality, bombast and ballads on 2022’s most audacious deathcore album.
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Noizze UK
Lorna Shore build atmosphere and convey emotion while remaining crushingly heavy at times, as exemplified throughout Pain Remains. It would be deliberately ignorant, however, not to point out that this album repeats structure and themes ad-nauseam at times. This is possibly due to the fact the average song length is almost 6 minutes – meaning many tracks are bulked out in a way which wouldn’t have been necessary with a shorter running time. When all is said and done, Lorna Shore have produced a strong album with great ideas and unique styles of heaviness, but they have reused these ideas so predictably between every song on this album that it is mired by a sense of repetitiveness.
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Cryptic Rock
Poets of the macabre who defy Deathcore while elevating Death Metal, their latest is an immense collection: 10 songs that last just over an hour and take listeners on a mind-boggling journey the likes of which only Lorna Shore could hope to craft. Cliché as it may be, they have cemented their niche by expertly placing the ‘fun’ back into Funereal Metal. And their balance of gorgeous obliteration and haunting instrumentation is the best thing to happen to Extreme Metal in years!
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Rock Sins
Unyielding, heavier and clearly more confident than ever before. Ever the underdogs, LORNA SHORE have more than risen to the occasion with their fourth album. They’ve set a standard that many will try and struggle to reach and put anything that might previously have held them back firmly in their rear view mirror.
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The Razor's Edge
Pain Remain should rightly feature highly in the End of the Year polls and see Lorna Shore catapulted to greater heights. The only problem here will be how to better it next time.
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Lambgoat
Lorna Shore seems to be reaching for epicness on Pain Remains, but they mostly fall flat due to overindulgence. While the band's stylistic hodgepodge, artificially huge sound, and Will Ramos' incessantly over-the-top vocals are certainly nothing new for their fans, some longtime supporters might still end up preferring a quick jaunt through Pain Remains' singles to the hour-long marathon of the full album. However talented the members of Lorna Shore may be, their over-reliance on cheap tricks is becoming less forgivable with each improvement they make in other areas.
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Square One Magazine
Pain Remains not only builds on the hype and expectations surrounding Lorna Shore’s name in this current time, but goes beyond exceeding them, building a solid foundation for the band's future domination.
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Boolin Tunes
All in all though, I believe Lorna Shore’s story will go down as one of the greatest triumphs in the face of adversity that the music world has ever seen. While I have my gripes with Pain Remains’ structure, it’s undeniable that the musicianship on display here is nothing short of stellar. A heightened emphasis on dynamics would have truly elevated this album to the next level, but as it stands, what the New Jersey deathcore titans have crafted here is impressive.
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Metal Wani
Pain Remains is a testament that Lorna Shore can still hold their own and not crumble under the weight of their own escalated stardom, by being a collection of aggression, evil, anguish, and depth in a way that fans will truly find dear to their hearts. A flag standard record in the genre.
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Ghost Cult Magazine
All in all, I was quite impressed with this iteration of Lorna Shore (with or without Ramos). My one comment is the length of this album (around an hour) seems too long as by the time I get halfway through the final act; I am pretty spent. Perhaps the last three tracks that make up that trilogy would have been better off as an EP? Other than that, I find myself looking into the band’s history as I look to experience the other eras of this group to see how the sound has evolved over the years.
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Scream Blast Repeat
Lorna Shore have the attention of the metal world. They deserve their moment in the spotlight, and they achieved it by making no compromises. At forty-five minutes this could have been the album of the year. An hour is too long to achieve that accolade, but they earn the right to ascend to the higher echelons of the heavy metal food chain.
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Metal Digest
For those uninitiated in the deathcore ways, ‘Pain Remains’ will certainly not cause them to suddenly adopt a new favourite genre and whilst this album might not be the best album that Lorna Shore have delivered, it is solid and continues to show a band continuing to deliver solid material over and over again.
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Get Rocked
Lorna Shore has made something special for deathcore fans who know the sub-genre can be more than riffs and gutturals.
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Metal Epidemic
The record sounds like a band that had huge expectations and immeasurable pressure to live up to the hype that’s been bestowed upon them. In some ways Lorna Shore exceeds that hype and gives us some brilliant music, but in other ways they should have shown some restraint and dialled it back more. The negatives will keep it from being on end of the year lists, but it’s still a strong album with an intense amount of energy being released. Pain Remains sounds like a revitalized band who will eventually live up to their full potential. Next time perhaps? For now, though, this will definitely suffice.
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Loud
At an hour long, this never feels too long but it can start to feel unhinged, and right when it does, something comes along to soften the mood or break the frenetic pace just enough to keep it interesting. This won’t win over haters of the genre, but it will surely draw in those that are observing from a distance for its insistence on bringing something slightly different to a much maligned genre of heavy music.
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The Moshville Times
Whilst admittedly, this album will not be for everyone, what it does deliver it does so on such an exceptional level. This is not an album where the “Chug Chug Bree” formula is rinsed and repeated across every track. Each one is crafted to interlink to the next but also stand on its own feet. Is Pain Remains the best Lorna Shore album? Yes, and it’s quite possibly one of the best albums released this year.
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Sense Music Media
Overall, this is an extreme album for the ages. If you enjoy musical brutality of any kind, death metal, black metal, tech death, speed metal, even grindcore, put aside any prejudices you have and wrap your ears around this release, you will find plenty to love here. Pain Remains is one of the absolute best albums of 2022, no question.
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Devolution Magazine
A trilogy of ‘Pain Remains’ titled songs end the album in an almost conceptual way. Shades of Pink Floyd in manner but a whole different ball game in the heavy stakes. Lorna Shore keep going from strength to strength and this you feel is another intense marker that they have much more to give.
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