Sean Harmanis - Make Them Suffer 'Making Change with this World Apart'

They started off as a small local band in the isolated city of Perth and in the space of less than ten years, they’ve roared through several releases, brought some of the world’s best deathcore and metalcore bands; and well, they’re globetrotting for the best part of each year. Of course, we’re talking about the almighty Make Them Suffer, a well-picked horse for Roadrunner and Rise Records.

The five-piece band were packing venues back during their debut release Lord of Woe, an EP that defined their unique sound of belching muscle with eerie keyboards floating through. The West-Australians went onto release Neverbloom and Old Souls which, in combination rose the band to stardom and put them on the map.

Well, they’re not done yet, in fact they’re just getting started. The Aussies are back in bigger and better shape and set to release their biggest album yet. Worlds Apart is set for release on July 28 and has been teased to fans with several singles already released.

We grabbed beast vocalist Sean Harmanis to get the scoop on their massive upcoming Australian tour in September and to hear from the man himself just before the record is released.

“I’m feeling sort of quietly confident about how it will be received” he says with conviction. “I mean I’ve seen a couple of reviews that have gone up for the record and so far it’s had a pretty positive response thus far.” Harmanis is stoked on the feedback but had a gut-feeling that the band had truly nailed it this time. “I’m also really stoked to be playing these songs live.”

When going through the process of describing the album, the vocalist really channelled his creative view on music. “It definitely has super crunchy bits and really heavy sections for the older fans, and at [also] I think there’s a lot more emphasis that went into the melodies. I think we realised [that] our clean singer Booka (Nile; newly recruited keyboardist and clean vocals) could come through in a much better way.

“We’ve got soaring vocal passages that sit at the top of a few tracks, creating some cool dynamics and cool melodies - it’s a bit more of a sort of serial euphoric vibe compared to some of our previous work.”

Despite grains of consistency throughout the record, the front-man acknowledges some variation of style as well. “There’s also some quite sad and gritty songs, so it’s a mixed bag and gives everyone a bit of what they like.” He describes it as a bit of a throwback to the first EP in a sense as well, suggesting a flavour that old school fans will really dig.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJSBVYVqG50&w=640&h=360]

Of the handful of singles Make Them Suffer have released from the forthcoming album, Vortex (Interdimensional Spiral Hindering Inexplicable Euphoria definitely perked fans’ antlers upward with excitement. “I think we got really excited about the notion of writing a couple [of] more melodic tracks and we had to scrap a couple, but then after diving into that it was a really kind of a refreshing sound so we were like ‘you know what, let’s write a super heavy track’ and I think we all got really excited about that notion.” The spine-tingling track came together really naturally according to Harmanis – “almost too easily – it did not take long to write at all.”

Before writing Worlds Apart the band had to do some soul-searching and recruit two new members of the band after the departure of a few over the past twelve-months or so.

“It was initially quite tricky finding someone to fill Louisa’s (Burton; ex-keyboardist and clean vocalist) spot because we still wanted to keep it as a female and we were trying to do it under the radar.” The deathcore band didn’t make an announcement and weren’t after ‘try-outs’ so they did it off their own backs and kept things under the radar.

“Finding new band members was such a blessing for us - it was crazy how seamless it was in a way.” Booka and Jaya Jeffery (bass) were the 2017 recruits, both already good mates with the band. “Jaya used to play in metal band with Nick, our current guitarist - way back in the day and Booka was someone we knew for quite some time, particularly through Louisa who is really good friends with her.”

“I think Nick sort of happened to bump into Booka one night and he kind of jokingly mentioned to her that she should join, - ‘you’ve played a bit of piano?’ (Harmanis laughs when re-telling) not knowing that she had played piano her entire life - so it was definitely cool to be able to bring some long-time friends on board.”

As seriously as many bands take the recruitment of new band members, Make Them Suffer were more concerned about the more important things in life, like “the chemistry in the band and how everyone interacts with one another. We needed to spend 7-8 months of a year locked in a van (he chuckles). The vocalist could tell that both Booka and Jaya were both quite to fill the shoes of the previous members from the moment they joined the band.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM4D95ZRK5Y&w=640&h=360]

The Aussie outfit aren’t exaggerating as they are set to embark on a massive world tour upon the release of their new record, busting through Europe and the States. First up though, the band will give their home turf a demo of what they’re bringing to the table. Make Them Suffer are bringing Alphawolf as well as Wage War, a metalcore band reigning all the way from Florida.

Wage War will be making their debut on Aussie shores, and fans are dying to catch a glimpse of the band. “We haven’t toured with them before so  we’re pretty excited to be bringing them down.” Harmanis recollects his discovery of the American outfit and how he instantly knew they were a big deal. “I remember they popped up in my feed on Reddit when they dropped the music video for Stitch” - a single they released for their upcoming album. “I was just like ‘dude, we have to get this band with us’. It was just so sick with their nu-metal influences on that track, and just how heavy and big the production was as well.

“I discovered them further when we were touring the States with Architects and I saw a lot of people wearing their merch, so they’re clearly already making waves in a big way over there currently so we’re excited to get them over here.”

It seems like Aussie fans can expect a gigantic Aussie tour from the trio of bands that are heading down. The headliners will certainly be upping the ante by the sound of things. “We’re so proud of this album that I think we’re going to take some time to bring as many of those tracks as we can into the setlist” he says excitably. “We’re definitely trying to step up our game across the board in terms of a live show. We’ve upgraded our sound rig and everyone’s going to be bringing a lot of energy on stage.” Harmanis assures fans that the excitement and enthusiasm in the band is pretty infectious at the moment, and that this is definitely going to be clear throughout the tour.

Interview by @rickyaarons

You can Pre-Order Make Them Suffer’s second full-length album Worlds Apart at the Apple store here and on Google Play here.

Make Them Suffer -  ‘Worlds Apart’ National Tour
Supported by Wage War and Alpha Wolf

Fri 15th Sep – Enigma Bar – Adelaide, SA
Tickets available here

Sat 16th Sep – Max Watt’s – Melbourne, VIC
Tickets available here  

Wed 20th Sep – The Basement – Canberra, ACT
Tickets available here 

Thu 21st Sep – Cambridge Hotel – Newcastle, NSW
Tickets available here

Fri 22nd Sep – The Brightside – Brisbane, QLD
Tickets available here

Sat 23rd Sep – Oxford Art Factory – Sydney, NSW
Tickets available here

Sun 24th Sep – Rosemount Hotel – Perth, WA

Tickets available here