Make Them Suffer

I've always considered Make Them Suffer one of my favorite bands since I heard "Maelstrom", "Neverbloom" and the entire E.P. "Lord of Woe". Their evolution got them from crude deathcore with some symphonic elements to a generic metalcore/deathcore band with the now typical djent influences (or progressive metal influences, whoever you wanna call them). I think it's pretty unavoidable that a band from this new scene of extreme music could have make a turn from such an innovative genre (deathcore with few black metal influences...Lord of Woe) to get into what it is right now (Old Souls, symphonic metalcore/deathcore).

For all the demos I've ever listened, this one seems well produced. The synths look like a really important part of the release, since they are pretty much always freaking there, and doing nothing interesting but giving a creepy and haunting generic atmosphere. And comparing these keyboards to Winds of Plague's one, WoP wins. We also have some crude death metal riffs and just a few breakdowns, which, at least for me is good, since most deathcore bands these days all they do is put a one minute breakdown slower than a fucking turtle for me. Even though I find the initials breakdowns of "For the Wretched and Ruined" pretty boring being so metalcorish and then sluggish as hell. After that, we hear the presence of some cool slams that makes things pretty better for me.

The lyrics are ok; they're like most deathcore bands nowadays, even though I like their lyrical content, it's just nothing really original. Sean Harmanis could do a nice book with this kind of writing, but I don't find him as a lyricist. His gutturals are pretty deep and crushing, but his screams sound weak on this release.

The bass's still hidden like in most metal and -core bands these days. The drums... What can I say about the drumming? Just the typical blast beating drummer till death with the splash cymbal crushing breakdowns; not bad, neither great.

The logo is a typical deathcore/death metal one. The cover art is nothing great, but what can you expect from a band barely emerging into the scene? All the atmosphere and emotions they show are depressing, but also full of anger; something to shout out and finally release your soul from all that torment. The final combination between the guitars, drums, vocals and keyboards make up a symphonic deathcore band with a lot of talent that they could exploit and polish that crude sound they had in this demo, but they prefer to just be another overly produced progressive metalcore band for the bottomless sack.

Subjectively talking, I like this release and what it makes me feel. But when it comes to the instrumental composing that metalheads care about (including myself when what I'm looking is actual metal and not just chugcore), it ain't the big deal.