If you did a ‘Big 4’ of symphonic deathcore, who ya got? For me, the first 3 are easy shoo-ins; Lorna Shore, Mental Cruelty, and Shadow of Intent. But who is the 4th band when you take into account things like productivity, quality, longevity, and consistency? Worm Shepherd? Maybe.Immortal Disfugurement? Only one album.

But I’m going with A Wake in Providence. I toyed with it after Eternity, but I Write To You, My Darling Decay absolutely fucking cements it.

On 2022’s Eternity, they showed they were not just ‘the band Lorna Shore’s Will Ramos used to be in’, as it was just a notch below Pain Remains for the best album of the year in my opinion. And now, moving pretty quickly to the follow-up, the deeply dramatic I Write To You, My Darling Decay, the band has shown Eternity wasn’t a fluke with an album that is just a cripplingly epic example of the blackened deathcore genre, and probably the bar to beat in 2024 and maybe beyond.

Everything has been turned to 11 here and I mean really cranked up. Especially the choral and orchestral arrangements which rival Fleshgod Apocalypse with the use of soprano opera vocalists to enhance the deeply personal story. Founder and guitarist D’Andre Tyre also has increased the use of clean vocals to complement Adam Mercer’s growls. But the clean vocals work here and complement all the emotional gravitas throughout the album. Downfall of Mankind could learn something here about clean vocals.

I Write To You, My Darling Decay is a special album, one that’s going to be hard to top in 2024, both in the genre or in any metal. And frankly, I’m not sure how the band even tops it as this is clearly their Master of Puppets or Reign in Blood, and comes close to matching Pain Remains as far as being a true, new genre classic.

Where do I even start? I already mentioned the increased Fleshgod levels of bombastic cinema-quality orchestral and choral arrangements that are emotional, dramatic, and truly breathtaking fitting the album’s story of pain and loss. The huge, brass and string Hans Zimmer moments and soprano vocal moments hit so hard it hurts. The songs are better written and more engaging than Eternity (which was brilliant in itself) and you can tell this is a deeply personal album for Tyre. The somber crooning choruses complement the blasting riffs and huge breakdowns (It is still deathcore after all), but it’s through a classical music lens the whole time (I mean listen to the interlude “Agony, My Familiar”). 

Single tracks are hard to break down here as, like movements of a symphony, the songs sort of blend and meld into each other seamlessly. In truth, the album plays better as one single hour-long movement rather than 10 songs. But certainly “Mournful Benediction” (with Shadow in Intent‘s Ben Duer helping out) “Agonofinis”, “In Whispers”, and the closer “I, the Mournful” standout and serve relisten to truly absorb everything that’s happening. Even the album’s almost 8-minute more moody title track delivers a deathcore gut punch with wilting emotional heft and depth

While Lorna Shore appears content to continue milking the momentum of 2022’s Pain Remains, the band that is forever tied to Lorna Shore due to vocalist Will Ramos, and who released the second-best album in the genre that same year in Eternity, is not content to sit on their 2022 album.  Instead, they have arguably released one of the best albums of 2024 and maneuvered into the conversation as the best band in the genre.

[Visit the band's website]

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