Nowadays, it isn’t often that a metal band does something so groundbreaking that it becomes relevant in the eye of the general public – but with last year’s EP, “…And I Return to Nothingness,” New Jersey death metal group, Lorna Shore, finally hit it big after a career spanning more than an entire decade.

The song “To the Hellfire” became a viral hit, amassing over 11 million views on YouTube and 20 million listens on Spotify. Since the addition of new vocalist (and demon noisemaker) Will Ramos to the lineup, the deathcore group has shown no signs of slowing down with their extreme and intense songwriting. Following the release of their first new album featuring Ramos, “Pain Remains,” Lorna Shore began a completely sold-out tour across the United States. Last week, I was able to experience one of their shows front and center.

The show was held at the local Tampa venue The Orpheum and featured a total of five bands: Ov Sulfur, Angelmaker, Ingested, Aborted and finally, Lorna Shore. Ov Sulfur kicked it off with an electrifying performance, followed by Angelmaker, who was arguably the most energetic of the openers, having their two vocalists standing up on the barricade for their last and most popular song, “Leech.” Britain’s Ingested followed up with some fantastic riff-work, and Germany’s Aborted finished off the openers with some technically marvelous musicianship and fantastic physical set pieces akin to corpses in coffins. After nearly three and a half hours of openers, the crowd was riled up and ready for the headliner.

Finally, Lorna Shore took the stage, opening with the first four songs from their new album. Four songs which, notably, are extremely difficult to play – but every member of the five-piece pulled each song off consecutively with studio-like precision. It was a lot to take in at first: flashing lights, smoke machines, face-melting drums – it certainly was not for the faint of heart – but after the four opening bands, the crowd was ready.

Not even halfway through the first song, moshers were having chicken fights in the pit, people were crowd surfing (I got kicked in the head twice (worth it)) and the performers had everyone banging their heads. After the first four songs, the band played through the entirety of their fame-inducing EP “…And I Return to Nothingness,” which was certainly a spectacle to see live. Regardless of whether or not you knew the group beforehand, the energy of the band and the crowd was high enough to get anyone at the show headbanging. Finishing off the title track from their previous album “Immortal,” Lorna Shore exited the stage, but as always, they had a little more for us.

After a few minutes of the crowd chanting their demands for one more song, they heard the foreboding sound of rain fading in. To the uninitiated, this might seem like a sign to grab your things and get to cover, but to Lorna Shore fans, this sound meant the beginning of a three-part, 20-minute-long suite of an encore, titled “Pain Remains I: Dancing Like Flames,” II: After All I’ve Done, I’ll Disappear” and “III: In a Sea of Fire.” These songs had all gained notoriety for their emotional lyrics, intense sound and dramatic instrumentals and to say that the band delivered live would be an understatement. The suite takes listeners through a journey of loss, grief and anger, culminating in possibly the hardest title drop of all time, as Ramos delivers the lines “Dancing like flames, after all that I’ve done, I’ll salt the earth and disappear in a sea of fire,” before the band exited the stage for the last time that night.

While their extreme nature may not be for everyone, there is no doubt Lorna Shore knows how to put on a wild, captivating and flat-out fantastic show. It is always a privilege to go to a concert and be able to enjoy an artist’s craft alongside hundreds of fans, and with the incredible talents of all the bands that played, this show was all of that and more.