Lorna Shore Guitarist Issues Plea to Listen to Band’s New Album Despite Ex-Vocalist Drama
Lorna Shore guitarist Adam De Micco has penned a lengthy statement asking fans to give the band’s new record, Immortal, a fair shot despite the drama surrounding the band in recent weeks. The album comes out tomorrow, January 31.
In case you missed it, Lorna Shore’s former vocalist, CJ McCreery, was ousted from the band in December amidst several allegations of sexual and emotional abuse. After deliberating for quite some time, Lorna Shore decided to go ahead with the release of their new album as-is anyway, its release date long since announced and physical media already pressed, despite some fans calling for vocals to be re-recorded by someone else.
De Micco posted the following statement on Instagram yesterday:
“Immortal comes out on Friday and I have a ton to say regarding the release of this record.
“I’ve been doing my best to be as positive and calm in the midst of all of the noise around this album. The more I attempt to be quiet the harder it gets.
“Lorna Shore has been something I have been fighting for for the past 10 years. It wasn’t an established band I joined, it wasn’t some well off band on the way up. I came in at the bottom. The bottom as in VFW shows that 20 people were at.
“Since that point in time I have fought for it day in and day out. From when members come and go, when a record needs to be written, from when anything goes south, I’m always there to pick up the pieces.
“Point I’m getting at is I fight tirelessly for this. I put everything on the table and there isn’t a soul who has been involved with me can deny this.
@austinarchey_ and I worked to the bone to make this record happen. It was him and I working on these songs by ourselves. It was only him and I in the studio making this record happen. We came up with the title “Immortal” before any note was written because it’s how we felt about the band. Both came to each other with that out of no where. Wasn’t anything to do with the song. The song came from the image we created.
“The symbol you get tattooed, the artwork you see before you, the fact that this is coming out on a label (or even coming out at all). All of which was done by him and I.
“This has always been our album. This has always been our band. This is us putting out something for the world to hear. Nothing more than putting our stamp on the metal world. We’ve never done this for nothing other than our artistic expression.
“What we ask is listen to this from a neutral standpoint. Not from the drama around the vocalist, or how it wasn’t put on when you wanted it, or re-recorded vocals, to instrumentally. Listen to it as is. Listen to it from a place of art and a place of this is music. Period. This record is so much bigger than the noise that is surrounding it in our eyes. It would be a shame that the work we put into goes to waste. I love you all. Thanks for reading.”
I’m of two minds about this issue. On one hand, it seems very unfair that the remaining non-abusive, non-shithead members of Lorna Shore should be punished for one member’s wrongdoing, their hard work of the past few years held hostage. McCreery only recently joined the band (this is his first time recording with Lorna Shore) and there’s no reason their past work should be tarnished because he ended up being a manipulative asshole.
On the other hand, the whole thing just feels… icky. Even if no financial proceeds from the sale / streams of this album end up in McCreery’s pockets, it’s woefully disrespectful to the women he abused to celebrate its release as if everything is A-OK. I, for one, won’t be able to hear any tracks from this album without thinking about those women and the pain and anguish they expressed via social media. I get why the band and label decided to release the album anyway, but doing so comes with consequences.
It’s a shitty situation anyway you slice it. The only thing that’s going to help is time, allowing the band distance from the incident and a chance to establish a new identity with a different vocalist up on stage. Then, and only then, do I believe fans will fully be able to embrace the work on Immortal.
[via The PRP]
