Lorna Shore – Psalms (Density Records)
Thursday, 23rd July 2015
After Maleficium failed to impress last year, it seemed the boys in Lorna Shore deserved one more go-round. Sadly, there are only a few changes from said release. Psalms is nothing more than run of the mill deathcore that does little to distinguish itself from the pack.
Some things have changed a bit from Maleficium, thus a slighty higher score this time around. One enjoyable aspect Lorna Shore has added are some increased use of synths. It helps with the atmosphere of the tracks significantly when they utilize them, like in “White Noise,” giving an added layer of sound and almost grandeur. Like with Maleficium, they can also pull out some solid solos and melodic riffs from time to time. But the biggest issue is still the overt reliance on breakdowns. It’s not the fact that they are all over the place necessarily (though it doesn’t really help song momentum), it’s that the transitions are still seemingly random. They’ll be blasting along and *poof* breakdown! If they would work on setting up and transitioning to and from breakdowns, it would be a much more enjoyable event.
All in all, it seems that Lorna Shore could be on to bigger and better things – they seem to be a bit of a crossroads. They could continue to ramp up the ‘metal’ elements (the heavy approach is noted and appreciated), yet the sheer number of breakdowns prevent just about every song from reaching its potential – rendering the band lost amid a sea of like-minded, breakdown-crazed deathcore bands. It will just be a question of the road they want to take for the next album. To metal or to core…that is the question.
