Greyscale Records/SharpTone Records
Out Now
This is usually where I’d come up with a completely unrelated story to kick off the review in some kind of piss-poor attempt at humour. A bit like Alice Cooper does on his radio show, where he thinks he is way funnier than he actually is. I’m no legend like him though, and I just realised that I’ve missed the deadline for this review which now means that it’s late and that I fucked up. I guess that makes me a fuck-up, so I should probably shut the fuck up and get around to reviewing this brand-new album by Make Them Suffer.
What’s not a fuck up is the riff that kicks into Weaponised after a short intro track which sounds like something out of Terminator 2 but with more of a modern industrial electronica edge and the addition of gospel harmonies. Terminator in a church, maybe?
The track that follows is a banging heavy good time that switches between grooving heavy riffs in the verses and melodic choruses that are backed with brutally heavy screams. The riff in the bridge is banging, but I won’t call what follows a breakdown because it is more of just a solid end to a massive track.
Oscillator continues the heavy groove but adds a bit of extra bounce that forces you to jolt your body along with the heavy riffs and thumping drums. Another massive multi-layered melodic chorus follows, and the riffs just keep getting bigger and stronger. Oh, and this one does have a breakdown, a heavy as fuck one, but it’s not your standard chugger, this one actually has another banging riff through it. The shift between verses and choruses is a well played periodic fluctuation between two things based on changes in energy. The breakdown that pops in a couple of times is just an added bonus. So far, so good!
The riffs just keep coming as Doomswitch grabs my attention as what is probably the heaviest and most technical tune so far. The melodic vocals which again appear in the choruses are a well-placed break in the intense ferocity. Not as well-placed as another killer breakdown, which leads the track into a bridge that winds the tune back a little and then twists it into a melody bending outro.
A short electronica intro awakens the ears before Mana God erupts into another riff fest. This actually doesn’t last long, as the song instantly pulls back and dooms. Holy shit, this is heavy, and the guitar tones are driving right through me. The clean vocals don’t get as much of an appearance in this song, but what does push through a little more are the screams from that melodic voice. And not that gender matters, but that voice which is so prominent in this album belongs to their trademark “fifth member” Alex Reade who I’m going to say is the band’s female vocalist, keyboardist, keytarist and pianist. Apologies if I assumed genders and got it wrong, Gen Z will have me for that one.
So, I’ve missed half of this next one Epitaph, but what I’ve caught is fucking banging. And it’s got a real catchy chorus, which I already know the words to after only picking up on it once. That’s when you know you’ve written a killer hook. And what better way to back that up than with another killer breakdown?
The tribal rhythms and rolling grinding guitars at the start of No Hard Feelings grab my attention more than any other track so far, but the song doesn’t go where I expected as melodic vocals open the lyrical proceedings. Oh, and then the big screams kick in, and the song takes a heavier twist with some massive tom fills holding everything together. The broken hits of the snare keep the tribal style bounce flowing through the spine of the song, even though the song structure is a little out of the ordinary. It still fucking bangs though!
I wasn’t expecting this next one, it sounds like it could be a heavy Birds of Tokyo song with its melodic chord progression in the intro. It soon proves me wrong after a short electronic drum fill breaks the song’s flow and then explodes into a fast, heavy verse. It’s far from the blues, but maybe that’s what blue sounds like on Venus? I mean, the song is called Venusian Blues after all. It’s a weird song, and I’m not sure I like it. I definitely don’t dislike it, and I reckon it’ll grow on me once I get used to the weird format and its unusual twists and turns.
Oh, this next one is so god damn heavy. Just let me take this in for a little while. Ooft, that breakdown. The track is called Ghost Of Me, but that doesn’t even matter. What matters is the continuous assault of brutally huge, detuned riffs. The song softens a little, well a lot, at the end of the song but the band brings it back to a massive chorus before a thumping outro.
I feel like this album so far has tied me down to my speakers like I’m on some kind of Tether. It’s hard to lose interest in these tunes because they just keep banging on relentlessly. I love the use of harmonics on the guitars throughout the riffs, as a casual guitarist myself, they really grab your attention.
One to go, and it’s called Small Town Syndrome. I don’t know which small town they are referring to, but it must be a pretty bloody hectic one if the intro to this track is anything to go by. Without getting into every riff and every change in the song like I already have for every other song, I’ll just say that this is another banging track to end the album on. Maybe a more diverse one again than all of the other diverse tracks on the album.
This album bangs, and this band bangs! Keep an eye out for em!
