‘Puerto Ricans — We Don't Crack, Baby’: Will Ramos of Lorna Shore on Creative Integrity, Heritage, and Screaming
Emotional sensitivity might not be the first thing that comes to mind for most when considering extreme metal, but for Will Ramos, vocalist of metal band Lorna Shore, it is paramount.
The New Jersey natives have been on a stratospheric rise in recent years, headlining tours and festivals worldwide, largely due to their creative ability to innovate, destroy, and reinvent genre boundaries. Formed in 2009, the band’s sound has constantly undergone reinvention, incorporating orchestral symphonies and ballad-like emotional outpourings — something that skyrocketed once Ramos joined decades later.
Ramos, after being recruited as a stand-in vocalist for the band’s tour in support of their 2020 album “Immortal” in 2020, was officially announced as a member in 2021.
‘When Your Eyes Are Shut’ EP Review: An Eye-Opener
As of late, deathcore — arguably metal and hardcore’s most brutal and versatile subgenre — has been undergoing a revival, with a wealth of new bands taking inspiration from some of the music that encapsulated the era of one of the most influential and widely-used social media platforms of the 2000s, Myspace. At the forefront of this revival is Mauled, an Indianapolis outfit that has been making waves in the scene since they released their self-titled EP in April 2025. Embarking on their biggest headlining tour yet this March and April, 2026 is already a big year for the band.
On March 12, they released another EP titled “When Your Eyes Are Shut.” Laden with dark tremolo-picked riffs and bone-breaking breakdowns — slowed sections with heavy bass drops that create a heavier, as opposed to aggressive, feel — this new songlist proves itself to be a cathartic and brutal assault on the senses. One thing is clear: Mauled has breakdowns so we don’t have to.
The six-track, 15-minute long release is brief, but certainly not rushed. Building on the sonic ultraviolence set by their self-titled EP, “When Your Eyes Are Shut” cements Mauled’s place as one of the heaviest hitters of the Myspace deathcore revival and sets them apart by taking them to a new plane of sonic violent devastation. They balance loyalty to their genre’s techniques with a sample and background ambience-driven originality that promises further exploitation in releases to come.