Fresh from supporting The Amity Affliction on their Australian tour, Perth metal outfit Make Them Suffer are embarking on a world tour in support of their new album ‘Worlds Apart’.
A statement of intent from a band not satisfied with repeating themselves in a scene renowned for shirking change, ‘Worlds Apart’ continues Make Them Suffer’s metamorphosis in sound. “It’s definitely an album that we’re very proud of,” frontman Sean Harmanis explains.
“There’s going to be quite a few people that might not take to it, particularly the older fans of our first couple of releases just because it’s different once again. But that’s kind of what we wanted to do and I’m pretty proud of the final product.
“Previously [our music] was more of a black-metal sound and this time we’re going for kind of a spacey theme. There’s a lot of lyrics that hint towards connection, the network, phones and things like that. I was kind of picturing ‘The Matrix’ quite a bit when I was writing a lot of the lyrics, but then at the same time it sort of opens up and talks about the cosmos and stars and things like that.”
When discussing the response to the album’s first single ‘Fireworks’, Sean says he's been pleasantly surprised. “It’s scary when you’re trying to do something different and always a leap of faith, but generally it’s been a pretty positive response I’d say.
“I’ve seen a lot of comments that are like almost proud of us that we’re managing to progress our sound and they think that that’s a good direction for us to progress in, so I think that’s cool.”
The 'Worlds Apart World' tour will see the band headline in the US for the first time, before bringing the tour home to Australia in September. “It is quite sentimental playing home shows because a lot of people that go to those shows have been long-time friends of ours and have seen us grind for the nine years that we have been going.
“There’s not really a place in Australia that I don’t feel at home when we play now which is great. You see a lot of familiar faces at a lot of the shows and it’s cool that they’ve stuck around for the ride.”
Make Them Suffer will be supported on the Australian leg of the tour by American metalcore band Wage War and Melbourne heavy metallers Alpha Wolf. “Wage War put up this single called ‘Stitch’ a couple of months ago and I just thought it was one of the coolest songs I’ve heard, so I was absolutely stoked about having them come on the tour as a support.
“I really enjoyed Alpha Wolf’s song ‘#104’ when that came out and landing them as a support seems like a no-brainer.”
After the European leg of the tour, which kicks off in October, Sean hopes to spend Christmas at home before getting back out on the road. “I’d like to take some time and really tour this album quite a bit and see where that takes us. We’ll be seeing what other support tours come up and maybe jump on some festivals.”
'Worlds Apart’ is released 28 July.
Make Them Suffer Tour Dates
Fri 15 Sep - Enigma Bar (Adelaide)Sat 16 Sep - Max Watts (Melbourne )
Wed 20 Sep - The Basement (Canberra)
Thu 21 Sep - Cambridge Hotel (Newcastle)
Fri 22 Sep - The Brightside (Brisbane)
Sat 23 Sep - Oxford Art Factory (Sydney)
Sun 24 Sep - Rosemount Hotel (Perth)
