Lorna Shore are back with their fifth album, I Feel the Everblack Festering Within Me, out September 12th via Century Media Records. Metal Insider spoke with guitarist Adam De Micco to further discuss the new record.

First of all, thank you for giving me the enormous privilege of listening to your album before anyone else. It was altering in more ways than one; my brain is still actively mutating. I want to start out just with the music itself, it feels like you guys almost use breakdowns like leitmotifs. They are their own characters, almost, or maybe emotional recurrence. How do you organize that? How do you choose to organize that aspect of your music? 

Thank you for listening to it!! I would say how we use breakdowns is for what it is intended for. To simply be a break in the music and to switch gears musically. For me, I feel there is so much  information going on during the entire song that it allows the listener to get a break. Also, to be fair, we could also use the break, so it is used as a reprieve in the song, since most of our music is quite dense, or that’s what I’ve been told, at least.  

New Jersey is a place where music always feels like it’s trying to escape itself, Springsteen, Misfits, Gaslight Anthem, and now you. Do you think Lorna Shore could have happened anywhere else, or is New Jersey part of your DNA as a band? 

I think it could, but I think it wouldn’t be the Lorna Shore that everyone is familiar with today. I  think our music is shaped by how we grew up as well as the music scene that we were in. The music scene is like a small town where everyone knows everyone, and had we lived in a different place, we may not have known each other. We also are not shameful in saying that had we  not existed as a local band in New Jersey we wouldn’t sound like the band we are at all.  

New Jersey is also where Friday the 13th was filmed. Do you think your music strikes as much weird suburban dread as those horror landscapes? 

That is one way to look at it, honestly. I think the crossover to horror movies is that we lean into the shock and over-the-top nature of it. Horror movies sometimes are quite ridiculous, and there is something entertaining about that. That’s what I loved about the Friday the 13th films is how  unnecessary it was, but again that’s what made it entertaining. There is probably a piece of that in our music. Being ridiculous for the sake of it, or maybe there is something in the water, either way gives us a good bar to reach for.  

I know you’ve said more than once that this new album, I Feel The Everblack Festering  Within Me, is an entirely new anatomical chapter in your display. You said that you are basically opening yourself up and ripping out your internal structure in a way that is real and authentic, and deeply emotional, as it’s based on reality. Now that you’ve completed the task, how do you feel? How do you hope it will be received? 

You always hope your music is received, but because it is rooted in authenticity, there is a vulnerability to it. I just think we are grateful that people have connected to us in the past and hope that it carries forward on this record, but so far it has been received well, and that’s a good sign. I really think, on this record, we leaned into our honesty and authenticity. We didn’t write songs that we felt like we had to. Everything that is on this record was exactly what we felt like at that time. Which makes creativity feel like herding cats, but it lends itself to creating  something honest.  

What is your favorite Horror Movie soundtrack, and why? And what motivated the horror movie you made out of the video for “Prison of Flesh”? What’s the story here?

I don’t know if I have a favorite horror movie soundtrack. They normally don’t create themes, if you will, but more sounds that create an environment. It’s not like other movies where the score has a motif and a theme that is memorable. I do think I enjoy the soundscapes that are created in those films, and they really keep me on edge, especially when used really well. As far as what motivated us, I would say it was a few things. When we first thought of the idea of doing a video for that song, I just wanted to do an over-the-top video with a lot of gore and blood. I feel a song like that lends itself to have that in a video. I think this time around, we were very intentional with making everything cohesive from top to bottom. With “Prison of Flesh,” that song was specifically meant to evoke a horror movie feel, characterized by a lot of tension and hardly any release. I feel that’s what makes a good horror film in my eye where you feel  tension throughout and you are kept on your feet. As far as the concept, it was rooted in family history with dementia, and I think that you can see those themes throughout the video. Just  losing your grips with reality and unaware as to what is going on. I feel that’s how the song  sounds, and that’s the lyrical theme throughout the song.  

If Will Ramos’s vocals were a horror monster, would they be more like The Exorcist demon, parasitic and ancient—or The Thing—something alien that imitates humanity in the coolest way possible? 

Being in a band with Will, it’s hard to see him as anything other than Will. I think he expresses himself and is himself. He couldn’t be anyone else, and I don’t think he should be anyone else.  We wouldn’t want him to be any other way, so I guess that rules out The Thing.  

You guys have actually come a very long way, I think, probably the halfway point to becoming the 21st-century Liszt (with blast beats, obviously). What do you think about the standard of music as of late? Do you think it’s important for music to be a product of your brain and your brilliance instead of something taken from another place? How do you feel about the AI  direction of everything? 

I think we are always pushing our standard of music. I think we have come a long way from where we were years ago, and that is something to be proud of. I don’t think we could write music from the place of anywhere but from the perspective of ourselves. What fuels our music  is our experiences and how life has shaped us. There are times that I have written songs that don’t feel like I wrote them, but at the end of the day it still all comes from within. AI is interesting, I won’t lie. It is wild what it can come up with, but it all is missing the human  element to me. I do feel music is an expression of self and that is what makes everything unique included AI.  

Do you feel like you were ever misrepresented? In your discography across the board, did you ever find yourselves feeling like you weren’t being received correctly? 

I think we are always misrepresented. Throughout our entire history as a band, we have been misunderstood. I always felt like we were cast aside and ignored. I think in the past we have fought to be accepted, but these days we simply lean into ourselves. I’m sure there is a lesson there for someone, and maybe that’s why people connect to our music. We found this world because we weren’t really accepted, so we might as well keep that philosophy going.  

What were some of your most fundamental musical influences? And what live performances set the standard for the way you wish to carry yourselves on stage? 

Honestly, there are so many musical influences. If you ask a different member of the band, there are so many bands and so many different eras of music, and genres outside of metal. I  think it will do a disservice if I just mention some bands that I am influenced by but that rest of the band aren’t. We all come from a similar place and have a lot of crossover with the bands we like, so there is a good understanding of each other. As far as bands that set the standard there are plenty. A band like Meshuggah is an incredible live band, and I feel we all love watching them. I think aside from being captivating live, they also have been themselves on every record, and it sounds like Meshuggah every time, which I think is amazing. I think we love all the bands that came before us, like Metallica, Korn, Slipknot, Lamb of God, Killswitch  Engage, etc. At least that’s what we play before we go on stage some nights. They paved the way for us to exist and we hope we can do the same. We also have toured with Parkway Drive  and Gojira during our last album cycle, and I think that it for sure shaped us a lot. We got to experience seeing metal in a massive arena or amphitheater and we wanted to be able to create music that can fill up those spaces.  

What’s the most interesting wrong note or “accident” that ever made its way into a finished track? 

I don’t think anything in the studio happens on accident. We are a very intentional band and I  think things that are there have gone through the ringer to make sure it is there. There are  plenty of things that we had in the demo stage that made it’s way on the record, but I don’t  think there was any happy accidents.  

You guys are about to begin an amazing tour with The Black Dahlia Murder, Shadow of  Intent, and Peeling Flesh; what do you look forward to? What are some of your favorite tracks from the other bands? 

I think we are all looking forward to playing new songs off the new record. We toured really extensively on Pain Remains, and it is just nice to give that album a rest and bring in some new material. I feel it is the natural order of things, and it’s nice to shine light on our past record and do it justice, but with that, we need to do this current record as well. So I would say just playing new material. Aside from that, we haven’t really toured much in the US this year, so I am looking forward to playing throughout the US. As much as it is nice to play everywhere else, there is no place like home. I mean, we could spend an eternity on favorite tracks by all these bands since we love going on tour with bands we actually listen to. I grew up loving The Black  Dahlia Murder, so hearing anything from Miasma and/or Nocturnal would be amazing, but they are a well-oiled machine, and hearing anything from any era would be great. Shadow of Intent is a band we all love as musicians and as people, so picking a song is hard since they are incredible at what they do. Their new record is great and we all listen to it a bunch but last year  “The Migrant” was one of my most listened to songs so if I had to pick one it would be that.  Peeling Flesh is a band that I’ve been a fan of since their early EPs. If I had to pick, it would be all three songs off their “Winter Mixtape Promo”.  

A lot of deathcore is like a fist through drywall; immediate, blunt. You layer that with orchestration that feels more like Berlios or Wagner. How intentional is that, and do you think of yourselves as actual composers in a classical sense?

It is very intentional. I do see that we are composers, but definitely not in the classical sense.  We use the tools that exist from that world, but in our own application. Classical music has plenty of rules that we probably break religiously. I think your original description of what deathcore is is  

a huge reason as to why we sound the way we do. I always felt that there could be more to this sound other than being a first through someone’s face. Why not add a shiny gauntlet with a  family crest embedded in it. Makes a more elegant punch. Aside from that, we just wanted to  create music that is massive. Instead of just 5 band members, we can have a whole orchestra,  choir, piano, and 5 synths from the 80s playing our music. More is more factually.  

What tools, guitars/brands/signatures, were used to create this album? Is there any new equipment you tried out? Are there any brands you are obsessed with? 

I would say we used all the gear that we use live and all year round. I think in the past we have used gear that was in the studio. This time around, we used gear that is part of our sound and what we use on a regular basis. We play Ibanez guitars and Austin plays Tama drums along with  Meinl Cymbals. Those instruments are part of our sound, and we made sure we used them in the studio as we do every night. 

Will Ramos’s voice sounds like an exorcism happening in reverse. Do you think of your vocals as an extension of the human body—or something parasitic that hijacked it? 

To be honest, an exorcism forward sounds horrible, but maybe one in reverse could be pleasant. Thankfully, I play guitar because neither sounds fun. I also think it would be quite hard to do anything if a parasite has hijacked your body; you are not in control. At the core of this record is authenticity and honesty, which you would have to be in control of. Being around Will, I know that he is very much himself. The biggest value at the core of this record is honesty and authenticity, and I think we all kept the integrity of that. There are times on this record where he sounds crazy, but it is in a song that calls for that. There are other times on this record that he is vulnerable and intimate and that is on songs where it makes sense to be that. I think his biggest strength is being able to emotionally vocalize what is happening musically, so we are all in sync and speaking the same language, whether it be our native tongue or an exorcised demon.  

When you’re writing about grief, despair, or annihilation, do you feel like you’re processing real personal pain, or are you creating a mythology bigger than yourselves? 

This record, we leaned into what actually has happened to us. All the songs are shaped by what we have experienced over the past few years. The good, the bad, and the ugly are all there. What we felt during that time is what you hopefully get to experience. Historically, we have written more metaphorically, and I think this time around, we leaned into our own experience. What better story than the one you know firsthand.  

Final question: do you ever worry that you’re not just making extreme music, but accidentally redefining what “extreme” even means—and if so, where do you go from there? 

I don’t think so. Music decades ago that would have been considered “extreme” by today’s standards isn’t that “extreme”. We may be considered “dad rock” by future standards and that’s truly ok. We are simply trying to move that needle forward a little bit, or at the very least, to be able to keep up. There is amazing company right now in the world of heavy music, so it’s keeping us on our toes and quite inspiring. It’s awesome to be a part of it, and I look forward to what this world can become. 

Feature Image Photo Credit: Mike Elliott

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