Make Them Suffer - Neverbloom

I stumbled across Make Them Suffer last year when I was rummaging through Bandcamp. I was so taken with their Lord Of Woe EP and almost couldn't believe it was their first work. It was phenomenal and easily stands as one of my favorite EP's to date. I was incredibly excited to hear that they got signed to Roadrunner Records and were going to be releasing a full length album. Now their debut album Neverbloom is out and vying for your ear time. So how is it?

Stellar.

That's the first word that comes to mind. Along with their EP, you might assume these guys had been making music for a long time now. It's amazing how well they stand up against bands who've been in deathcore a lot longer.

What makes them stand out among the sea of other bands though is definitely their symphonic elements. Many deathcore bands play with synths and pianos to add atmosphere to their albums, but Make Them Suffer live and breath the symphonics and tie them in to their music all throughout. The album begins with this intense orchestral piece that sounds like it was inspired by Hans Zimmer's work on Inception and The Dark Knight. It's a great way to set the tone of the album and the brutality of the second track really benefits from the opening.

One of the best aspects about this album, and the band in general is Sean Harmanis' vocals which have quite a range. His lows and gutturals are very impressive, but I don't know if I have ever been so taken by high vocals. I think it because of the fact that he doesn't just use high vocals when he wants to, he uses them to drive home a point or finish off a sentence with added emotion. He is increasingly becoming one of my favorite metal vocalists.

There's plenty of breakdowns to be had here, this is deathcore after all, but I'm not complaining about them, primarily because they are incredibly heavy, work rather well with any song they are in, and usually they are accented by some of the great symphonic elements. They can feel a bit rehashed at times, so some may not enjoy that aspect, but it doesn't really bother me.

One of my complaints, about Lord Of Woe was that the guitar didn't really shine on the album because the symphonic elements tended to be at the forefront along with the vocals, and that doesn't change a whole lot on this album. But honestly, it doesn't really bother me much anymore, because the amalgamation of sound they have put together works so well and there are some catchy riffs all throughout.

This album, like many others this year, is going to make my top 15 albums list incredibly hard to make.

Unfortunately, and I'm not sure if it's just a regional thing or not, it would appear that the album is not on Spotify, or at least not yet. Their EP however is and it is definitely worth checking out. After which you'll likely be convinced to buy Neverbloom.