Intensity Redefined: Make Them Suffer’s Self-Titled Album Review – Spotlight Report
The Warning issued, MAKE THEM SUFFER flick the Doomswitch and unleash fury on their fifth and self-titled album.
This has been a monumental year for heavy music; 2024 has produced some of the best albums and delivered some of the most phenomenal tours in living memory. Unabating even in these last weeks, few bands know this to be truer than MAKE THEM SUFFER.
A relentless schedule of touring alongside some of the genres’ most revered heavyweights, at home and abroad, it seems impossible to consider that in the frenetic pace of ‘world domination’ there would have been time to stay still and “come together to create a special moment” just for themselves. Yet, this is precisely what MAKE THEM SUFFER has achieved.
Although not a common practice, there is an enchantment in choosing a mid-career, self-titled record. Whilst some, such as DEFTONE’s fourth record were named by accident, destined to become eponymous only after all had “lived a little more”, others, such as FLEETWOOD MAC’s tenth, encapsulate a more intentional choice – the recognition of coming “full-circle” and an embarkation upon the future.
This was the ethos embraced by MAKE THEM SUFFER in the creation of their titular record. A gradual process of evolution, beginning with the release of Doomswitch in October 2022, this “vision for the band” has remained at the forefront. Latent still in the latest single, Mana God, released almost two years to the day of the first in October 2024, this character permeates throughout the album as a whole, also.
A haunting representation of MAKE THEM SUFFER’s “authentic sound”, The Warning builds cinematically; electronica edged with doom crashes into the aptly named Weaponised. Founding vocalist SEAN HARMANIS’s growls the first heard against NICK MCLERNON’s churning guitar, ALEX READE’s angelic voice demonstrates the band’s ongoing commitment to ‘creative expansion’, incorporating symphonics into core-genres.
Released just prior and receiving its live debut during September’s Suffer Forever Australian tour, Oscillator pulsates malevolently, issuing the augural comment on the epidemic facing our technologically-reliant world. Commencing a four-track arc of previously released singles, Doomswitch is connected metaphorically through concept and title; “The Fifth Member” READE’s debut track epitomising the “new chapter” of ‘equally energetic and ethereal’ music.
Mana God’s a savage “call to action” against systems of control, Epitaph’s “perfect grafting of old and new” warns of the consequences of apathy. READE’S exquisite performance in No Hard Feelings reminiscent of COURTNEY LAPLANTE, HARMANIS contributes his clean vocals next in Venusian Blues. Uniquely building melody and frenzy, Ghost of Me follows mirroring themes of “betrayal and abandonment” against JORDAN MATHER’s blistering drumbeat.
Hanging on by a Tether, the remaining two tracks conclude with metalcore flair; unrelenting energy continuing to the final flourish of Small Town Syndrome, this is an encapsulation on record of the essence of this band. All moments leading to this very one, bringing the glory of the old with them into the new, MAKE THEM SUFFER may have reached their first “full-circle” but the next and the best is still yet to come.
