Review Summary: Are you not entertained?
Based on their discography so far, you would not expect to see 'Make Them Suffer' and 'mass appeal' in the same sentence. Deathcore and the masses are as far apart from each other as the Hawk Tuah girl and common decency. But one EP and five albums later, here we have the Australian metal band's sixth effort and mass appeal (or as far towards that as they can feasibly go) is the order of the day. However the results are decidedly mixed.
A self titled album should make a statement about who you are as a band. It should tell the world what you are all about and scream it loudly. The latter is definitely achieved with flying colours, but the former not so much if you look past the bells and whistles. There are many positives to this album. Vocalist Sean Harman is is one of the most unique, energetic and capable voices in metal; and one of the most well spoken if you see him being interviewed. He can and he does go from decently high screams to guttural growls and back again, keeping you entertained from start to finish. Couple this with the impressive clean vocals of Alex Reade and you have a winning formula and some powerful performances throughout the album. Alex is a beyond solid replacement for Booka Nile, the previous clean vocalist who left in 2022. Alex in fact uses both clean vocals and also screamed vocals sparingly which works to mix it up and this contrasts well with Sean. The vocals are definitely the high point in this album.
The main problem here, however, is the music itself. The instrumentation is solid. It's very catchy and it definitely keeps your attention. There are no slow songs at all, except during the introduction and in the 2 tracks at the end where it slows down slightly. But that's just it. It feels like the whole album was designed to keep your attention at the expense of crafting something deep and meaningful. The heavier parts never go on for long enough to keep the metal fans happy and the clean sections (despite these being incredibly catchy soaring choruses) are used liberally, as if they are scared to stray away from them for too long in case they alienate a potentially new fanbase. This all leads to the music being very catchy and almost addictive but frustrating. Take Epitaph, for example, which starts off strong and builds up to what could have been an interesting heavy breakdown or even a quick solo in the 2nd verse, but instead jumps straight back into the chorus.This happens again on Venusian Blues which features an interesting electronic almost-breakdown before the final section but it doesn’t seem to go anywhere before it jumps right back into that catchy chorus. The apparent desire to not go too far one way or the other is a common theme here.
The lyrics follow this similar theme, being comprised of mainly the chorus and some clever enough soundbites but they never go into really profound territory, which is a shame because I know they are capable of it. Electronic effects are thrown in also, in some places, like in Oscillator where the random pew pew laser effects are there to make it slightly more interesting than it really is. The riffs are also recycled often; seriously, if you take out the vocals and just play the guitar riffs, you would be hard pressed to tell the difference on some of the songs here. You cannot convince me that Oscillator and Doomswitch are not essentially the same song, even to the way the song title is screamed (which seems to be a theme throughout for Sean to scream the song title at some point, just in case you forget which song you are listening to).
It's not all the same though. Sometimes they do make an effort to switch it up. Mana God has no clean vocals and is still a solid song. Venusian Blues has an electronic almost-breakdown. No Hard Feelings has clean vocals at the start. The final 2 tracks are slightly slower, acting as an exit ramp for the relentless energy throughout. There are generally enough differences between the tracks that you can tell which one is which. The quick-tapping style features in a lot of songs here which might be a signature of theirs at this point, but they could do with using it more sparingly.
When it comes down to it, this is the musical equivalent of fast food. It's very fun but it's not very filling. Despite all of its drawbacks, this really works as a piece of entertainment. As art? Not so much. Maybe that's not what they are going for, and if that's the case, mission accomplished. I was not bored for one second listening to this album. But at this point, it feels like they are trying to please everyone and that's not viable as a long term strategy in the metal scene, which proudly prides itself on being outside of the concept of appealing to anybody, never mind everybody.
Ultimately, Make Them Suffer need to decide who they want to be and where they want to go. This album is very solid and very fun, but it creates a bizarre paradox where the energy and musical capability make the music feel very focused when actually it is slightly all over the place. They are stuck between metal and mass appeal, which can become a rock and a hard place if they're not careful. More variety in riffs, more fully engaging their metal capabilities, a couple of slow songs, and maybe bringing back the piano (which really isn't used enough in metal, let's be honest) will go some way towards bringing them back to the heights they are definitely capable of. That, and not releasing 75% of the songs as singles before the album comes out, but maybe that's wishful thinking.
For now, we can enjoy it for what it is. A solid piece of entertainment. A carnival ride with bells and whistles included. And maybe that is enough for most casual listeners. Will it be enough for current and future fans? Only time and hopefully a more focused direction will tell.