Lorna Shore
Maleficium EP

Deathcore has been waning for a while now, and the only pre- new Whitechapel release that even remotely entertained me recently were Carnifex,  Thy Art Is Murder‘s Hate and Eternal Torture‘s dubstep tinged Lacerate the Global Enemy. But right before Whitechapel’s Our Endless War dropped I got this solid little EP from New Jersey’s Lorna Shore, who is named after Batman’s comic book love interest.

It’s a short, sharp 5 songs and twenty or so minutes of standard deathcore, but with a few keyboards thrown in (“Cre(ha)te”) and a decent grasp of the style, I’ve certainly heard worse music and seen worse band names in deathcore. Deep inhaled growls and squeals, slow Calmed by the Tides of Rain-ish, lurching, huge breakdowns (i.e “Maleficium”, “Born in Blood”, “Accumalatory Genophage”), beefy guitar tone and a few death metal blasts (“Godmaker”) litter the EP with a burly confidence, and I’d be lying if this didn’t wet my palate a bit for Whitechapel and being a bit more open to deathcore.

The band isn’t forcing the deathcore issue or stepping out side boundaries, just doing everything well withing the confines of the genre, and certainly comparable to I Declare War’s recent opus as far as massive heft.  The keyboards are subtle and only used here or there, not Winds of Plague of Carnifex style, but they do add something. Also, the band seem genuinely hard working with a pretty solid tour schedule, rather than simply post videos on your tube. It’s a shame its about 4 years too late, as back then these guys might have got signed to Century Media, Artery Recordings  or Metal Blade in a heart beat, but as it stands they have probably seen their music and the genre’s star completely burn and fade in the next year or two (or does anyone really think a new Suicide Silence album can resurrect deathcore?).

[Visit the band's website]
Written by Erik T
May 30th, 2014

Comments

  1. Commented by: Erik T

    That last paragraph has not aged well…..


  2. Commented by: J. Mays

    Hahaha! Who could have predicted the deathcore resurgence?


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