WITNESSING THE HELLFIRE
Virginia Beach was immersed in symphonic chaos on May 18th at The Dome. The room was filled with heavy smoke, dark ambient lighting and a crowd ready to forget their troubles for 90 minutes.
There was no intro needed before Lorna Shore hit the stage as the crowd was already screaming and cheering in anticipation. Everyone knew exactly why they were there that night. The show opened with “Oblivion” which honestly felt like the perfect way to begin. It immediately established the atmosphere of the set and helped to build the tension throughout the room before the heaviness erupted all at once. It bled perfectly into “Unbreakable” and kept the energy level high.
Will mentioned that Sun//Eater was one of his favorites to perform and the band absolutely slayed it. They invited Nick Chance out to perform a guest spot at the end of the song and the crowd was nothing but supportive of the moment. If you thought there would be an energy break after back to back high intensity songs, you would have been sorely mistaken. The crowd welcomed the next song of the set, “Cursed to Die,” with a MASSIVE wall of death. While the song describes elements that connect to human mortality, Will’s vocals were anything but human. The security team of The Dome deserves recognition as well for the brutal wave of crowd surfers they had to endure over the course of the song as well as later on in the set. The surfers came like a tidal wave that showed no mercy of slowing down.
After such an intense first half of the show, the room was given space to breathe with a hauntingly beautiful orchestral interlude before diving into the pits of “In Darkness.” After facing the depths of the darkness, the band seamlessly led into “Glenwood” where the crowd was encouraged to join in and sing along. The song has significant importance to Will and you could feel that so strongly through the entire band’s performance. The visualizer really added to the whole vibe of the song. There was no time wasted from the transition to “Prison of Flesh” where fans were given some of the heaviest and more brutal moments of the night.
The band gave so much for the show and exited with a fade to black moment that didn’t last long before they came back out to encore with what everyone had been waiting for, “Into the Hellfire.” If you want to talk about impressive vocals, that ending is not only impressive to hear through stereo but live, HOLY HELL! How one man can create such insane noises vocally is something I can never understand but will always admire. Overall, the performance was everything one could want and expect from Lorna Shore. The band played tight and stayed intense. I have no idea how they weren’t dying after even just two songs, but they had yet again proven why they remain one of the top brutal forces of modern deathcore.
GALLERY
