Sharptone Records
Release: 11/8/2024
Make Them Suffer (S/T)
My level of delight in writing this review can’t be overstated. Not just because I have lots of good things to say about this album (spoiler alert: I do), and not because of how excited I am simply because the album exists (spoiler alert:I am). I’m so elated to be writing this review because I can’t remember an album that made me feel as excited and optimistic about an artist’s future as the upcoming self-titled Make Them Suffer album.
I’m trying to cut back on telling my whole histories with bands when I write pieces of any kind about them. Please just know that these days, I only really write about bands and projects if I’m getting paid or if I am just truly, genuinely excited about them (another spoiler alert: I’m not getting paid for this).
The time that has elapsed since 2020’s How To Survive a Funeral has been decidedly shaky for Make Them Suffer. Imagine releasing an album just in time for lockdown and being unable to tour in support of it. Pile on some other challenges, including changes in both lineup and labels, and no one would have blamed Make Them Suffer if they had decided to hang it up. Fortunately, this resilient Perth quintet stands for nothing if not overcoming obstacles, and thanks to their superlative resolve, they are now giving us their most sincere and forthright offering of their decade-plus-long career.
Speaking from experience, I can tell you that, as an artist, it’s a rare and beautiful thing to record the exact album you set out to record. To see a vision through from the beginning to the end and craft it in precisely the manner you always saw it is something truly remarkable and special. Capturing not just a bunch of songs, but a moment – an identity – in a studio is something that countless artists, despite lifetimes of attempting, never accomplish. Make Them Suffer clearly set out to make this exact record, and their steadfast commitment to it makes it exceptional.
Okay, enough fluff. Brass tacks time. Make Them Suffer (the album) is a manual on modern metalcore. It makes genre-defining examples out of so many of the current trends in heavy music. It celebrates the band’s sweeping breadth of musical vocabulary, incorporating elements from every period in its history. Just the same, it also breathes, never shying away from a moment and paying no mind to whether or not the sonic territory is familiar. There are instances on the album that don’t necessarily sound like anything you’ve heard from the band before, but not one of them sounds out of place or out of character.
Make Them Suffer is produced by the band, with Jeff Dunne, who has too many impressive credits to name, at the helm for mixing and mastering. The strange and intriguingly inviting juxtaposition of polish and grit, refinement and rawness is something MTS has been throwing at us for years, but in these respects, the band is reaching new heights. Make Them Suffer likes to throw in just a pinch of bounce in their tracks as of late, Nick, Jaya, and Jordan are as reliable as ever in keeping you banging your head and tapping your toes throughout the full forty minutes.
Make Them Suffer have been setting the pace for modern heavy music for years, doing things that scores of other bands later imitate. This album would appear to continue that trend, embracing components from a wider range of influences and further broadening their emotive scope. Two of my favorite cuts from the album, “No Hard Feelings” and “Venusian Blues” seem to almost call back to some of the first alternative bands I ever loved, like Deftones and Smashing Pumpkins. Riffs on songs like “Weaponized” reference the melo-death inspired licks of metalcore’s emergent years. And although it might go without saying, all of it is executed with the passion and intensity that Make Them Suffer fans have come to expect from them.
I’ve said it before, but Sean Harmanis belongs in the conversation about the greatest heavy music vocalists of our time. I don’t argue with the mentioning of Will Ramos or Courtney LaPlante – both of whom (and many others) are obviously and undeniably talented. I’m just saying that we ought to consider including Sean when we build those tiers. He literally does it all – the screams, the growls, the squeals, the singing, the bleghs. The big difference on this album, though, is the irresistibly appealing vocal play with keyboardist Alex Reade, who adds both haunting, clean melodic vocals as well as brutally harsh ones. At times, it seems almost unfair that these two extraordinarily versatile vocalists are in the same band, but the creativity that they spur each other to is such a treat that it makes it okay.
As if sculpting, Make Them Suffer began with a mammoth block of inspiration, experiences, struggles, and circumstances, and expertly chipped away everything that wasn’t supposed to be part of this record. What we’re left with is all of the brilliant riffs, ferocious aggression, and moving melodicism that the band is known for, but with a notable step forward in the band’s sound and songwriting. Make Them Suffer is a record that will make a big footprint in the frontier of where heavy music is headed, and is an exceptionally special work from an exceptionally special band.
Our Score 9/10
– Reach James, the author of this review, at jamesunderfire@gmail.com.
Tracklist
- The Warning
- Weaponized
- Oscillator
- Doomswitch
- Mana God
- Epitaph
- No Hard Feelings
- Venusian Blues
- Ghost Of Me
- Tether
- Small Town Syndrome