‘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.

Since then, the band has continued to grow with the invaluable addition of the New Jersey native, and ever-endearing vocalist Ramos sat down with the Crimson to discuss everything from creative progression to cultural identity to Minecraft.

Harsh vocal techniques — as opposed to clean singing — such as low, guttural growls and high-pitched “pig-squeals” are a staple of extreme metal, but what Ramos has been doing is taking these techniques and imbuing them with an emotive passion that is often missing from the genre.

“I prefer to lean into the emotions. I think screaming is great for being angry, but it’s also great for just being sad, and it’s great for being happy,” Ramos said in an interview with The Crimson. “There’s so many different things that people think about screaming and it’s just like, it’s always got to be evil, angry music, and I’m like, ‘I don’t think it does.’ I think there’s other ways to do it.”

In a scene where much of the music is equally as heavy as it is attention-grabbing and often shocking, Ramos views the combination of emotional sensitivity and extreme music as more than just an innovative expression of creativity.

“The more you can get that [emotion] out, the more people can latch onto it. They will hold onto that one line and love that song for the rest of their lives,” Ramos said.

In talking to Ramos, there was a palpable sense of enthusiasm that ran through his answers, which continued when discussing his band’s ethos and how they view themselves as creatives, especially in their choice of “quality over quantity.”

However, even more important to Ramos in considering band identity is a commitment to authenticity. Metal is a genre with perhaps more subgenres than any other style of music, and for Ramos, being “pigeonhole[d]” is a creative death sentence.

“I think what we’re trying to do right now is just be Lorna Shore,” Ramos said. “We don’t want to be a deathcore band, we don’t want to be a death metal band — we just want to be a heavy metal band.”

Ramos mentioned the legendary metal band Gojira as a key influence in inspiring this ethos, noting the diversity of musical styles that Gojira encompasses. For Ramos, curating a unique and recognizable sound is far more important than subscribing to genre norms.

“Does it sound ‘Lorna Shore-y’ enough? — it doesn’t have to be exactly that, it can be an evolution of it, but does it sound like it’s our band? Yes,” said Ramos.

Ramos carries this sense of integrity into his personal creative endeavours, especially when it comes to writing lyrics, for which he draws from his childhood, various musical inspirations, Puerto Rican heritage, and more. He cites a time from a high school English class as being one of the most pivotal in his journey as an artist, when he submitted a poem he had written to his teacher.

“I remember sending it as a secret email to my teacher because I was so embarrassed about my writing,” Ramos said.

Despite the initial embarrassment, Ramos ultimately felt peace with the decision.

“But I was like, ‘You know what? My English teacher, she’ll understand,’” Ramos said.

Indeed, while filming the music video for “Glenwood” last year, a deeply personal and highly popular track from the band’s most recent, 2025 album “I Feel The Everblack Festering Within Me,” Ramos wrote her a letter to thank her.

“I hope that she got to read that,” Ramos said.

Ramos’ inspirations are as numerous as they are diverse, one of which being The Plot In You, a metalcore band that deftly mixes clean vocals with harsh vocals — particularly, pitched screams, which combine a clean, melodious sound with vocal distortion. Pitched screams feature more heavily on Lorna Shore’s latest album, as clean singing is yet to appear in their music.

While Ramos’ 2026 cover with bandmate Andrew O’Connor of Twenty One Pilots’ 2024 single “The Line” from the series Arcane of Legends showcases his talent for clean vocals, he adamantly values the bigger picture of a song over putting something in purely because he can.

“The song needs to be screaming, ‘I need [clean vocals]! Get me them now!’” Ramos said.

Ramos also considers the possibility of incorporating elements to represent his Puerto Rican heritage in future music as an “homage to the place that [he’s] from.”

“But that being said, I am a New Jerseyan — thick and thin, baby,” he added.

With regard to Lorna Shore’s 2025 album, Ramos expressed that he was “stoked” at the response from fans so far, citing a “feeling of unity.”

“In my mind I’m like, ‘Whenever we do the next album, we need more. We need more of this, bringing everyone together, Parkway Drive-style vibe’” Ramos said.

In spite of this success, Ramos recognizes the work that has to be put in to make it in music, acknowledging that “the struggle will always be there.” Ultimately, however, Ramos highlights one key factor as being essential to success.

“If you’re really serious about it, you should surround yourself with people that are also really serious about it. It’ll save you a lot of time,” Ramos said.

Given his enthusiasm, it is hardly surprising that Ramos took his own advice and found people who were just as serious about music as he is. His sense of humor may have also had something to do with it.

“There’ll be times where I get off stage and my knees are literally throbbing, that’s when I know the 30s are hitting real hard,” Ramos said. “I’m like, ‘Alright, it’s ice pack time. Get these ice packs for my knees right now, or it’s not going to be good.’”

In the end, Ramos considers the metal scene as a whole to be “bigger and better than it’s ever been,” highlighting the strong sense of community he feels among fans and peers alike.

“Now, the amount of people that are listening to [metal] is just so much more, and it’s awesome to see it, ‘cause the metal community, it’s one of the dopest communities that’s out there,” he said.

Ramos concluded with a heartfelt sentiment he has developed over the course of his career.

“I’m very grateful for the metal community. We wouldn’t be here without you guys.”

— In his column “The Breakdown,” Rowan A. G. Whitworth ’28 explores metal, hardcore, and their fusion subgenres, some of music’s most extreme and exciting scenes. He can be reached at [email protected].