Lorna Shore brought their popular brand of deathcore to Glasgow’s famous Barrowland Ballroom for a night of raucous action. The show had been sold out for months in advance after originally upgrading to a room almost double the size. If that alone wasn’t a sign of Lorna Shore’s rapid growth in the UK, the last time they came to Glasgow they played the 500 capacity Classic Grand, four times smaller than the Barrowlands. It was a bitterly cold night in Glasgow’s East End but this didn’t stop the fans lining the streets as far as the eye could see before doors opened.
Dutch Deathcore outfit Distant were tasked with warming up the Glasgow crowd and they didn’t waste any time getting going, immediately bursting onto the stage with a huge energy and encouraging the fans filling the venue to step up and get involved. The band worked as a unit and had a great stage presence, easily filling the large Barrowlands stage. Musically, Distant were superb, chug-riffs and blast beats were a-plenty while Alan Grnja’s impeccable vocals perfectly accompanied them. As an opener, they did their job perfectly, getting circle pits going before the clock had even hit 7pm. Overall this was a really strong performance from Distant and I’m sure they gained some new fans in Glasgow.
Ingested’s live performance was something to behold, non-stop energy from the moment they stepped out in front of the crowd. The Manchester Death Metal band have been on the go since 2006 so they had a good group of fans in attendance. Ingested are as heavy as it comes and slap you right in the face with good, old fashioned death metal. They took the moshing for the evening to a whole new level, asking the crowd to split right down the middle and creating the most gnarly wall of death I have ever seen. This crowd was hot and ready to just have some fun, and that’s exactly what Ingested gave them.
We cross the pond with some American technical death metal, in the form of Rivers of Nihil. Over the last year the band have seen a reshuffle in their lineup with the previous frontman leaving the band and Adam Biggs picking up the lead vocal duties, alongside the bass. This band has been around for quite some time so it’s no surprise to see how comfortable they look up on stage together. They sounded fantastic and while they didn’t have the movement on stage of the previous bands, it was made up for with their massive sound. Plenty of pits and crowd surfers for this one. Safe to say everyone was warmed up for our main event.
After an incredibly quick changeover, the stage was set for Lorna Shore’s biggest production to take Glasgow by storm. The lights dimmed and the roar of the crowd was deafening. Will Ramos greeted the Glasgow crowd and let them know that they need 150 crowd surfers to break the venue record. As the first notes of Welcome Back, O’ Sleeping Dreamer dropped, there was already a sea of bodies heading towards the barrier. The whole way through the first song there was a huge amount of pyrotechnics on stage which made this show feel huge. Distant’s Alan Grnja joined Ramos on stage for Of the Abyss as more and more fans spilled over the barrier and pits opened up all over the venue. This was complete chaos and I loved every second of it.
Lorna Shore sound absolutely incredible live and you can see they’ve put a lot of effort into their production, something that takes them to the next level. The highlight of the set came from the encore of Pain Remains I, II, and III. Hearing these tracks live gave me a whole new appreciation of them. By the end of the set, the count of crowd surfers was over 500 according to the venue security, easily breaking the previous record. This was an incredible show from Lorna Shore and showed exactly why they belong in venues of this size, and even bigger. If you haven’t already, I would highly recommend catching any of the bands on the bill when they come to a town near you.
