metal

Make Them Suffer

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Perth deathcore act that has folded symphonic keyboards and clean vocals into its brutality since 2009 — melody used as pressure, not relief.

Make Them Suffer formed in Perth, Western Australia, in 2008, self-releasing the EP Lord of Woe in 2010 before signing to Roadrunner Records. Fronted by vocalist Sean Harmanis, the band built its early identity around a mix of metalcore, blackened death metal and symphonic metal.

Their early records, including Neverbloom (2012) and Old Souls (2015), paired blastbeats and low, guttural vocals with orchestral keyboard writing, a combination that helped define symphonic deathcore in Australia. Neverbloom reached number 56 on the ARIA chart, and Old Souls, marking a shift toward progressive metalcore, entered at number 30.

Ahead of the 2017 album Worlds Apart, bassist Louisa Burton and other members departed, with Jaya Jeffery and keyboardist Booka Nile joining. Worlds Apart and 2020's How to Survive a Funeral pushed further toward melody, with clean vocals and keyboards taking a larger share of the arrangements and the songs tightening up considerably.

The keyboard-and-clean-vocal chair has changed hands more than once: Nile stepped away in 2021, returned, then left the band for good in 2022, replaced by Alex Reade the following October. A 2021 single, 'Contraband,' featured guest vocals from Courtney LaPlante of Spiritbox.

In 2023 the band marked Neverbloom's tenth anniversary with a remastered reissue and an Australian tour alongside Fit for an Autopsy and Ocean Sleeper, then signed with SharpTone Records that May. Across the lineup changes, the contrast between harsh and melodic parts has remained the band's central idea.

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