Lorna Shore - Gig Review & Photo Gallery 18th February @ The Forum, Melbourne VIC

Lorna Shore
Forum, Melbourne VIC
February 18th, 2025
Supports: Bodysnatcher and To The Grave

The time has finally come for Australia to witness the immensity that is Lorna Shore live in concert. The modern deathcore extraordinaries experienced a rebirth a few years ago as vocalist Will Ramos joined the band. Creating an iconic name for himself, Ramos dazzled fans, new and old - with an immense range of pig-squealing belches in 2021's 'To The Hellfire' and the EP and LP that followed after. That 12-month period of new releases was a slingshot for Lorna Shore to embark on a multi-year world tour that would engage heavy fans across all corners of the globe. We first got wind of Lorna Shore's Australian tour all the way back in April 2024 at Knotfest with a teaser poster sneaking in. When the tour was officially announced, the lucky few with agile fingers scored tickets to the rapidly sold out tour, with supports from Bodysnatcher and To The Grave.

Let's face facts - Melbourne is the heavy music capital of our country and Lorna Shore deserve no less than showcasing their dramatic live performance at the Forum, a venue which made a name for itself in 2024 - hosting a myriad of live shows from heavy hitters. I couldn't think of a better location to witness all the glory of one of the world's biggest deathcore bands. After warming up in Perth and Adelaide, the New Jersey group were truly primed and triumphant from jetlag to bring the heat in Melbourne (literally; there was a lot of pyro).

After what felt like the entire heavy music community pouring into the venue, Aussies To The Grave kicked off the evening's deathcore extravaganza. The Sydney-siders have got to be one of the hardest working heavy bands and biggest in deathcore; in our country. After purging more EP and LP releases than anyone else in the scene, To The Grave had more than enough material to showcase some of their best. Vocalist Dane Evans rocked up with a gnarly pig mask on and the rest of the band were primed for some decimating blastbeats. With unmatched energy, the NSW group stormed through bangers off LPs like Director’s Cuts and Everyone’s a Murderer, as well as delivering new single ‘Forced Diet Reassignment’. As always, the Forum was nothing but complementary to the band's live stage production, accentuating every drum-kick, bass-drop and breakdown. The locals brought a visceral energy and levelled aggression that suitably kicked off the night's proceedings. As Evans constantly engaged the crowd, these vegans were in their element; and that's the thing about their brutal titles and lyrics - it's all an opportunity to portray and expose their strong views relating to the horrors of the meat industry. The majority of the sold out crowd were present for To The Grave, which was no mistake and no regret. Circle pits got some practice!

‍To The Grave presented a remarkable kick-off for a salivating audience, and they were just getting things started. Reigning from Melbourne, (no, the other one in Florida), Bodysnatcher were the guts of this evening's sandwich. Playing in Australia for the very first time, the four piece blistered through tracks off their fresh EP Vile Conduct as well as some of the big hits from their fast-growing back catalogue like 2022's Bleed-Abide. So yes, To The Grave deserved a mention of bass-drops, but you haven't felt a live show until you've watched Bodysnatcher. Every move was powered with an instrumental crash of bass that landed in all corners of the venue. Vocalist Kyle Medina grooved with the eruptive soundscape, banging his head in time between lyrics and encouraging the crowd before him to do the same. The crowd was starting to really feel the energy now. Crowdsurfing in droves, punters marched with fists and headbanged to the effortless crush that the U.S. band delivered. Ahead of a headline show at Stay Gold the following night, Bodysnatcher were here to remind Australia what they've been missing all this time.

Finally, it was time to witness arguably the single most iconic deathcore band of the century. With the biggest backdrop logo you ever did so, the houselights fell in anticipation for the immediate instrumentals from 'Welcome Back, O’ Sleeping Dreamer' - matching your first sonic experience of Pain Remains on album release day. The crowd went totally bonkers when a) knowing the time and come, and b) hearing the all-so familiar orchestral introduction. Lorna Shore didn't make the theatrical entrance they could have, but rather picked humility as they quickly entered the stage to take over the backtrack with some live riffs. Punters were screaming, phone cameras were in overdrive, and the energy was truly palpable - a rare sight for a band of this niche sub-genre. There were smiles all round as a celebrity-stricken Will Ramos landed himself at the centre of the stage with signature curly blonde locks hellbent over his eye, dressed in all black. Fans screamed along as he wasted no time swinging into his guttural trance. Lorna Shore had truly arrived and they had a big job ahead of them.

In the sold-out shoulder-to-shoulder room, the moshpit continually grew, with a massive circle-pit ebbing and flowing in the middle of the room. Ramos' bandmates entered a level of virtuosic focus that was unbreakable, and despite the energy in front of them - nothing was going to disrupt that focus, with the act of replicating the gifted sounds we've heard on their releases of the last half-decade. As punters adjusted to the calibre of the evening with the opening track, Lorna Shore changed gears ever so slightly and whipped back to ...And I Return To Nothingness, bursting into 'Of The Abyss', a symphonic deathcore delight that we heard not long after we were first entranced by Ramos with his aforementioned premiere welcoming tune. The live mixing was getting perfectly calibrated and each instrument was showing up delightfully across the venue, with fans still in awe. Ramos leant into his persona and the intensity by holding his hand into a stretch and looking up into the sky as he purged inhumane squeals and belches to the instrumentation behind him. Engaging the crowd intermittently, Ramos doubled-down on his humanistic sweetheart personality and won everyone over immediately (not that he ever needed to).

Moving into the thick of the live set, pyro enflamed the stage as Lorna Shore got into a groove in the Pain Remains component of their set, which the diehard fans appreciated most. The international visionaries delivered every note of 'Sun//Eater', 'Cursed To Die' and 'Into The Earth' without even the slightest hesitation. The band completely replayed the symphonic sounds from the record and kissed the venue's acoustics throughout. As Ramos maintained focus of the entire crowd, he stripped down to a crisp white tee and showed us his casual side, while he was probably sweating up a storm. Punters were already so satisfied with the incredible performance so far that the unmissable intro into 'To The Hellfire' almost came as a surprise. After the phone cameras had a little rest, they were now expected to do everything that Apple and Samsung promised they were capable of, and capture the moment. This is the song that redefined Lorna Shore, this is the song that illuminated Will Ramos to the world, and now we got to hear it live. The unforgettable intro struck our ears and screams echoed from all directions and the crowd started expanding from the mosh epicentre in preparation. Watch our clip here.

The band maintained sheer focus as they progressed through the technicalities of this track with Ramos embodying the intensity that he knew came with this song. His vocals didn't skip a beat and his reputation held strong. The closing minutes of the song eclipsed the entire room as Ramos pig-squealed through the sequence of breakdowns that quickly appeared. Bodies were flying everywhere, bass was reverberating internally and Australia became one with Lorna Shore. The track performance was everything, and whilst everyone could leave satisfied, the band wanted to show us what an encore really looked like.

After an incredibly brief disappearance, Lorna Shore returned to get stuck into the concluding Pain Remains trio. Without hesitation, they dove straight into 'Pain Remains I: Dancing Like Flames' where the drama of this record really lives, and the emotion ran deep into the crowd, soaking up every second. Without batting an eyelid, we morphed into 'Pain Remains II: After All I’ve Done, I’ll Disappear' with symphonies that hit you right in the feels. As everyone shook their heads at the immensity, Lorna Shore closed with 'Pain Remains III: In a Sea of Fire' in front of a fully satisfied crowd. Ramos sung happy birthday to drummer Austin Archey, which of course was echoed by the entire room; and then there was an amusing "it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas' from one of the band members before they left the stage; sophomore tour anyone?

Review by Ricky Aarons @rickysaul90

Photo Gallery by Clinton Hatfield. Insta: @ampd.agency.
Please credit Wall of Sound and Clinton Hatfield if you repost photos.