Lorna Shore Bring 'Cinematic' Deathcore to Birmingham

The days are finally starting to get a little longer, and winter is beginning to hopefully fade with spring on the horizon. Although it is still very much bucketing it down, it was novel to still see some remnants of daylight in the sky as the masses queued for the completely sold-out O2 Academy in Birmingham. Snaking down the side of the building and up the neighbouring streets is anticipation of a night filled with pig squeal-infused, guttural breakdown goodness as the arguable kings of deathcore, Lorna Shore, put on a show, joined by Whitechapel, Shadow Of Intent, and Humanity's Last Breath.

First out and into an already jam-packed room, before the smorgasbord of the best deathcore America has to offer, is the Swedish deathcore entrée, Humanity's Last Breath.

Fog fills the stage and is bathed in blue and red lights as both guitar and bass are given a brief moment of their own before vocalist Filip Danielsson emerges, hooded and cloaked, to kick the night off with the titular track from the 2021 album, Välde.

"Abyssal Mouth" from 2019's Abyssal, is next, followed by (the barely a month old at this point), newest single "Godhood". The new track is face-meltingly heavy with bass drops aplenty that rattle through your body in the best way possible.

"Tide" from Välde, "Labyrinthian" from the 2023 release Ashen, "Bellua Pt. 1" from Humanity's Last Breath, released in 2013, and "Instill" from Ashen round out the rest of the set.

At times veering into melodic doom/death territories, the strobes, the bass, and the overall aggression, tied together with a technical prowess and an almost futuristic/otherworldly vibe, are an assault on the senses that is over all too soon. At just 30 minutes, the set comes to an end as the night keeps on rolling into the next act.

Where Humanity's Last Breath provided a set that was technical, melodic, and almost futuristic at points, the second band of the night, Shadow Of Intent, is a sledgehammer, a full-force, full-gas slap to the face, right from the get-go with "They Murdered Sleep" from their 2025 release, Imperium Delirium.

The set heavily favours Imperium Delirium, with all but the final track of the set coming from this release; "Flying the Black Flag" leads into "Mechanical Chaos."

"Vehement Draconian Vengeance" shortly follows. "Infinity of Horrors" is dedicated to the parents in the crowd, with frontman Ben Duerr telling the crowd that he "fucking loves" his kids. "Feeding the Meatgrinder" was our last listen from Imperium Delirium.

The set closes out with a dip further back into the discography for "The Heretic Prevails" from their 2017 release, Reclaimer.

Gears are significantly shifted with the arrival of deathcore legends, Whitechapel, who are greeted by the Birmingham crowd with the reverence befitting a band of their stature.

There are absolutely no prisoners (pun intended) spared as we are catapulted straight into "Prisoner 666," a track from Hymns in Dissonance, released in 2025.

The set, understandably, showcases the best there is from the current album, Hymns in Dissonance, and it is the title track that we are treated to next. With "A Visceral Retch," "Bedlam," and "Hate Cult Ritual" also getting a metaphorical spin.

Pivoting away from the new release, Phil Bozeman lets the crowd know that the band is going to play "some old shit" and that "these songs might be older than some of the people in the room." The crowd is then transported all the way back to their debut full-length album in 2007, Somatic Defilement, kicking things off with that pseudo-titular track, "The Somatic Defilement."

"Devirgination Studies" is up next, followed by "Prostatic Fluid Asphyxiation," before the set comes to a close with the title track from the 2008 album, This Is Exile. Nearing the end of the set, we are in 'breakdown city,' but as far as warm-up acts go, you will not get much better than this set.

Nothing says deathcore more than... (checks notes)... Bonnie Tyler? In complete contrast to what is to come, but totally fitting for a Lorna Shore show, "Total Eclipse Of The Heart" is blasted out over the venue's PA (cue the karaoke from the capacity crowd) before the main event takes the stage.

As the husky tones of Neath's favourite daughter were behind us, there was still business to be done. The music begins to swell as the kabuki curtain drops to an enormous pop from the crowd, Lorna Shore introducing themselves to England's second city with "Oblivion." If the bass drops witnessed so far tonight rattled your bones, the one we experienced at the end of this opening number had us worried, both for our souls and also for the structural integrity of the building we were all stood in.

This tour was put in place predominantly to support the newest album, I Feel The Everblack Festering Within Me, which came out in the back half of 2025. Most of the album gets a play tonight; after the opening track, "Unbreakable," and "War Machine" follow.

The new material is received well, and by this point, the pit has been in full flow since the opening notes, and crowd surfers from the very back row of the building are in full overdrive at a near constant stream to the barrier.

Vocalist, and arguably the nicest guy in metal, Will Ramos, apologizes to the crowd, saying that he has been suffering from the flu on this tour and that his voice isn't doing what he wants it to do. He then proceeds to summon literal demons, producing sounds that no other person on earth can; I wish I was able to be so on top of my game even on an off day. That aside, he then asks for some assistance from the crowd as we break into "Sun//Eater," which is our first dip into 2022's breakout album, Pain Remains. The song sees an enormous front-to-back crowd split. "Cursed to Die" comes next.

We dip back into the current release for a trio of bangers, including "In Darkness," which just had a music video released for it. "Glenwood" and "Prison of Flesh" finish with the most face-melting breakdown of the entire evening.

Saving the heaviest of heavy hitters for last, the set finishes up with a "love song"... all three parts of the twenty-plus-minute goliath that is "Pain Remains": "I: Dancing Like Flames; II: After All I've Done, I'll Disappear; III: In A Sea Of Fire. " It's enormous, it's anthemic, and if it's possible for something that exists primarily in an audio format, it's utterly cinematic. There is not a single person in the packed-out O2 Academy who is not screaming back the lyrics at the end of part one.... The face behind the silhouette; In this world I made to be infinite; But within the expanse, I finally see; A world without you isn't meant for me."

The band hadn't even fully left the stage before the raucous chorus of "one more song" rang out from the audience. Everybody knew that we couldn't leave without hearing the band's biggest hit to date from the 2021 EP ... And I Return To Nothingness. "To the Hellfire" serenades us with Ramos's otherworldly vocals before we are cast back out into the February drizzle.

For Lorna Shore, the tour continues with this same line-up of Whitechapel, Shadows Of Intent, and Humanity's Last Breath back across mainland Europe through to the end of February, before a massive run alongside Paleface Swiss and Signs Of The Swarm throughout April and May.