Make Them Suffer - How to Survive a Funeral (2020)^{Release ID: 21384}

Before I start this review, I would like to preface it with a little-known fact you might find hard to believe. Even though this album was delayed from its original June 5 release date due to the virus, the album was still released on that day on some online platforms where I got the album. My rebel side has paid off because it's another superb album from Australian progressive metalcore band Make Them Suffer that has suited my high hype! The actual worldwide digital release for How to Survive a Funeral was on June 19, 2020, and its physical release was on July 10. It is their 4th album, but their second release with Rise Records and new members Jordan Mather (drums), Jaya Jeffery (bass), and Booka Nile (keyboards, clean vocals) alongside the two founding members vocalist Sean Harmanis and guitarist Nick McLernon.

How To Survive A Funeral is a nice gift to conclude the strange first half of 2020. It is one of the most unique diverse metalcore albums of 2020 so far (still behind Trivium's What the Dead Men Say). Literally every element of the band is compiled into this album; brutal growls, emotional cleans, blistering solos, crushing drums, and well-crafted lyrics travelling from a notepad into listeners' minds. Make Them Suffer may sound as if they're going in a less heavy direction of sound, and while that's not true at all, Make Them Suffer's mesmerizing blend of female cleans and crushing screams might be different from when Neverbloom had mostly growling.

The first step of this "funeral survival" guide is "Step One", which unlike the intros in previous albums, is actually forgettable. It sounds an A Day to Remember-copied intro switched into a heavy djent riff that starts when Harmanis screams "SPEAK FROM THE HEART!!!". Then he yells "GO!!" to switch to another more djenty riff. There are so many riffs in this album, but those two riffs in the intro felt a bit unnecessary. But the intro is swiped aside into oblivion with "Falling Ashes", where the real djent-core action starts. This real song is fast and heavy like a motherf***er with melody of malevolence blended together throughout these two and a half minutes. The first one and a half minutes show what to really expect; keyboards over blast beats, pounding drum kicks, speedy guitars, and searing grooves. However, after all that heaviness, there's a surprising bridge to spice things up, with strings, piano, pulsed kicks, distant screams, and what sounds like Booka Nile doing modulating speaking for the first time in a song. After the hypnotizing bridge, the song reprises the wicked throat-twisting aggression for a brief section. "Bones" starts with Sean shouting "I CAN'T BREATHE!!", which in the wake of protests against George Floyd and Eric Garner getting choked to death by policemen, might make you think that's what the song is about, but most likely not. Anyway, that song is one of the grooviest tunes by the band and my personal favorite of this album. The punchy guitar tones and jumpy drums sounds like the song might've been inspired by Issues. It is greatly memorable for its catchy chorus, where the instrumentation gets brighter and Sean sings cleanly for the first time, sounding like August Burns Red's Jake Luhrs' attempts in clean singing, in contrast to the darker djent-core passages. The final chorus especially would be worth singing along to once the band can go on gigs again. Speaking of August Burns Red, I love both MTS' "Bones" and ABR's "Bones", they're both equally great!

"Drown With Me" is a song I don't mind, a straight heavy song released as one of this album's in-advance singles. When I first heard it, I thought it was one of the most radical recent songs by the band, but now that I've heard the other wilder tracks in the album, it's now my d*mn least favorite song in the album. It just doesn't hold up! Booka Nile's chorus in that song is the weakest here. However, "Erase Me" has the exact opposite, the album's strongest chorus, though it surprising sounds like Alicia Keys' melody in the chorus of Jay-Z's "Empire State of Mind". A funny uncanny comparison, but nonetheless the track lets rip a lot of their epic heaviness. I LOVE IT!!! The ultimate song of the album; flow, structure, layers, build-up...everything! This anthem as put Make Them Suffer at its highest tier. You might never hear another emotional powerful medley of blast beats, bright melody, and black-ish tones, except maybe from a band like Oathbreaker. Their absolute best song in the band's Rise era and a perfect choice for the album's first single! One of the more externally written tracks, "Soul Decay" is a solid metalcore song about a vision of someone falling from grace. The song is loaded with regret and venom, but I think it could've done without its last minute, right after the crushing breakdown ("burn it to the f***ing ground"!) At that point, the cleanly sung chorus could've been done without. "Fake Your Own Death" is a much better song, a short but heavily angry brutal metalcore piece as jarringly killer as a couple songs from their second album Old Souls. This is way more rage than a milk-lover noticing their cup of milk emptied and is one of the sickest songs ever by the band. Sean performs chaotic growls over killer guitar harmonics, and tight breakdowns, all in an urgent sense that other bands never dare to capture.

The title track begins with more of those killer guitar harmonics, all played in screaming metal riff-wrath, adding dissonance to the composition. After all that wild riffing, Booka sings one of her smoothest choruses with the band. That whole contrasting chemistry works well, leading up to a final bridge of vocal layering, similar to that hypnotic bridge in "Falling Ashes" but heavier. The title track's drum beats, piano melodies, and soft vocals show a different side of Make Them Suffer, as if it's something new yet something old. I'm OK with that! All those dynamic changes integrated sound greatly thought-out to the point where the next album should have deeper experimentation, just as long as stand by the sound they're known for. "The Attendant" is one of the most well-written songs in the album, and surprisingly it's more a metalcore power ballad with slower melodic rock dynamics. After all those hints of Sean singing from earlier in this album, he fully reveals his clean side, unlocking a great achievement for the band. He has lovely singing, especially in his chorus duet with Booka. I enjoy that song, despite sounding closer to one of Loathe's ballads. I have a feeling that the ending "That’s Just Life" was meant to be a bonus track out of the Worlds Apart sessions, but it's included in this album anyway to so it doesn't come out as an EP. I guessed that because it's so different! The guitars in the verses are overpowered by ethereal melody crossing over with djenty moments of gritty bass. After a brief soft moment of rising percussion, the vengeful heaviness comes back. The overused electronics don't matter anyway because this is still quite a strong conclusion to this album.

Yes, I did say how short this album is. How to Survive a Funeral is only over 35 minutes long, but I still love it besides a few small parts worth skipping. This entire album shows what bands should try and do; add fresh new elements while staying in their heavy roots. I was fortunate enough to defy that slight album delay (F*** COVID), and what's even more fortunate is what a great year it has been when it comes to metal releases. Metalcore fans should really get this album and learn How to Survive a Funeral!

Favorites: "Falling Ashes", "Bones", "Erase Me", "Fake Your Own Death", "The Attendant"