Lorna Shore (w/ Whitechapel, Shadow of Intent & Humanity’s Last Breath) – 10th February, Manchester O2 Victoria Warehouse

There were floods in more ways than one on a wet Tuesday night in Manchester, as a tidal wave of deathcore fanatics descended on the Trafford area for the Manchester instalment of Lorna Shore’s biggest UK shows to date. The 3.5k-cap Victoria Warehouse has its limits tested with this one. In years past, the venue has struggled with rain, notably getting a show cancelled due to weather affecting the roof, but tonight it has to contend with having the foundations shaken by a 4-band battering of heavy tunes 

Humanity’s Last Breath

Opening duties fell to Humanity’s Last Breath, who have had a semi-regular presence in the UK between Ghostfest and Radar Festival in recent years. Last time HLB played in Manchester, they played the “small room” of this same venue. But their ear-splitting, low-end everything set is tailor-made for the cavernous warehouse main room, with opening track ‘Valdet’ from 2021. The arrangement on stage is large LED columns, and while Humanity’s Last Breath has always had a blinding light show, this was like they were trying to flash bang Manchester during sparkling new track ‘Godhood’, which has been blooded for the first time on this tour. Much of the introductory duties are left to Tuomas Kurikka on guitar rather than iconically stoic frontman Filip Danielson, though they inspire an almighty push from the crowd for an opening band during the one-two of ‘Tide’ and ‘Labyrinthian’ from the Ashen album. In terms of personal experience, this is the earliest slot on a bill I’ve seen HLB, which speaks to the merit of their profile post-pandemic. As they rattle through a final trio of ‘Bellua Pt. 1’, ‘Instil’ and finally ‘Glutton’, (which dates on this tour is only the 3rd time they’ve played the track in the UK), everything is completely dialled in. Few bands are doing what HLB are doing, and even fewer that are doing it as well as they are.

Shadow of Intent

A quick spin around the globe for the remainder of the lineup first finds us in Connecticut with Shadow of Intent. The outfit has made good on their one trip a year ventures to the UK after last landing on these shores with Cattle Decapitation last year. With a much shorter set this time round, the setlist is entirely different, barring two songs, thanks to the latest album Imperium Delirium, which does the honours with opening tracks ‘They Murdered Sleep’ and ‘Flying the Black Flag’. The start to the set is rather calamitous, and yet warrants a thumbs down from vocalist Ben Duerr, as he wants more from the Manchester horde, and sees the back-to-back blasting of ‘Infinity of Horrors’ and ‘Mechanical Chaos’ as the way to get it. He gets it.

Likely due to the ferocious differences between the two openers, Shadow’s set felt like it flew by, as Duerr is almost immediately notifying the crowd they have 3 songs left. ‘Vehement Draconian Vengeance’ inspires an almost impenetrable darkness in the room while the crowd circle pits, which is shattered by flashes from the same columns of light at the back of the stage as HLB’s set as they move into ‘Feeding The Meatgrinder’. Final track honours went to the only song not off the latest album, but the iconic ‘The Heretic Prevails’ from 2017’s Reclaimer album. It feels almost an injustice to know Shadow of Intent formed in 2013, yet we didn’t experience them on these shores until 2023. They seem hard at work at making that time back.

Whitechapel

In the special guest slot, Whitechapel are a band that will never seem to fall flat in the UK. This being their first time in Manchester since 2023 made for a lot of anticipation leading up to this set. The set opened in an ominous ambience before quite expectedly kicking right off. The opening half of the set was composed entirely from the latest album, Hymns of Dissonance, starting with ‘Prisoner 666’ and the title track. This portion of the night was where productions seemed to have an uptick. Every facet of Whitechapel’s sound was pinpoint and audible, which worked a treat for the complexities of ‘A Visceral Retch’ and ‘Bedlam’. Bedlam is a very appropriate term for Whitechapel, given that even during the first-time-played-in-the-UK instrumental ‘Ex Furnis’, there was a hole in the middle of the floor for proceedings in the pit into the final track from the Hymns album with ‘Hate Cult Ritual’. They followed this, a throwback to their early material, with a selection from The Somatic Defilement, starting with another foreboding instrumental with ‘necrotising’. Phil Bozeman promises “Some old shit” to the joy of the crowd, carrying them into the title track, as well as ‘Devirgination Studies’. The opposite ends of their catalogue, between oldest and newest material, is cut down the centre by the iconic ‘This is Exile’, which in its own right is in its 18th year and the most played track in their arsenal. There’s a final demand for violence with a return to the first album with the set closer ‘Prostatic Fluid Asphyxiation’. Whitechapel seem fully aware of their tenure, and usually are the best name to bolster a solid tour. In the deathcore world there are special guests. Whitechapel are the special guest.

Lorna Shore

Now few bands require study quite like the reception of Lorna Shore on UK soil. The bands’ presence in Europe took time, this time, 4 years ago they were waiting until week of the sell-out Club Academy. Every single entry to England they have had since then, their presence seems to double. An extremely sold out Victoria Warehouse, just shy of 4000 bodies, a mass of humans that cracks down the middle as soon as the opening intro to ‘Oblivion’ shrieks from Adam De Micco hands on guitar.

Fire flies up to the ceiling, and there’s an immediate viciousness to Lorna Shore that shows why they get the top billing. The opening quarter is entirely based from I Feel the Everblack Festering Within Me, as they follow up with the pyroless but crowd surfer heavy ‘Unbreakable’ before getting right back to the hot stuff with ‘War Machine’ which vocalist Will Ramos explains is being recorded for a future video. ‘Sun//Eater’ followed in quick succession, with the room acting like a sea, there’s no still feet on the floor as they are joined by videographer come vocalist Nick Chance to do joint duties with Ramos, and is very well received by the Manchester crowd. It’s a quick two from the Pain Remains album as it’s followed by ‘Cursed to Die’. Ramos jokes to the crowd asking “Nobody got set on fire, right?”. When it’s the band themselves asking that, you have to wonder if it’s a bit excessive…

There is argument to say that the 2020’s will end with people still hailing the Everblack album. It’s amongst Lorna Shore’s best work, if not the genre as a whole in its current state, as ‘In Darkness’ and by far personal favourite ‘Glenwood’ maintain the set flying at high altitude. Given Will’s issues with flu during their time away from the states, the quality of a show the band still manage to out in is incredible as the final entry from last years album flies by in ‘Prison of Flesh’ with a steady stream of crowd-surfers moved over the barrier. Even in a room holding thousands, and it being a staple for a fair few years now, there was a moment of awe as the fans hear the opening notes of ‘Pain Remains I: Dancing Like Flames’ and realised the main set is ending on the full trilogy.  Phone lights appeared across the room, a rare moment of stillness in a set that could be largely defined by destruction. The transition into heavier material felt crushing into ‘Pain Remains II: After All I’ve Done, I’ll Disappear’ and downright Armageddon-like for the final chapter ‘Pain Remains III: In a Sea of Fire’ as the “final” song.

The brief jaunt offstage was only that. The fans are desperate for more, but there’s only one thing in their catalogue to suit the moment. Drawing one of the biggest reactions of the night, ‘To the Hellfire’ opens with slow building foreboding, before pure anguish in the higher pitched vocals the kick off. While there’s a vast history to the New Jersey natives, this is the Lorna Shore song. It kicked off an odyssey when the world seemed to be over, and it brings the house down at the end of every night for them. Shows like this underline why spaces like the O2 Victoria Warehouse matter, why genres like deathcore can spar with the best of the mainstream, and why there’s a Lorna Shore shaped headline slot on many bills to come in the future… Bloodstock 2027 perhaps?

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