REVIEW ROUND-UP: Make Them Suffer, Zebrahead, Thank

Make Them Suffer

Make Them Suffer

You’d half expect Make Them Suffer to slip into the modern metalcore miasma with no resistance. When their most recent efforts have been defined by enormous, exhilarating scale as a foil to their heaviness, it’s really only a couple of steps down the road to smothering all of that in production and taking your identity with it. Granted, hindsight has deemed their last couple of albums a smidge less good than they seemed at the time, though still far enough away from the genre’s blandest impulses. It’s not a good metric to judge things on, but it is a necessary one, if only to find pockets of good stuff among a wave of recentralisation hell-bent on making the style as mid as possible. So, sure, Make Them Suffer aren’t particularly special anymore, but they could also be much, much worse.

The best thing to note is how this self-titled album isn’t all that beholden to trends, rather using the components one might associate with metalcore’s prime selection of dishwater for its own means. The Pavlovian response to snap at prominent synths doesn’t really hold up when they’re a key element of the mix, not just slathered on for contemporaneity’s sake. Even if new key-player Alex Reade fits the role of her predecessor Booka Nile basically one-to-one (minus, y’know, the allegations against her), the atmosphere and frequent clean vocals she provides keep her role important. She feels more than just an add-on like so many in her position tend to. And when there’s that degree of prominence, more can be done around it. Starting from Mana God, there’s a noticeable uptick in how heavy the album gets, obviously casting some glances back to Make Them Suffer’s deathcore days. But, again, there’s flexibility shown, in glances towards Deftones on Venusian Blues or meaty alt-metal grooves on Small Town Syndrome.

It’s worth keeping in mind that none of that specifically negates the possibility of stumbling or falling through the cracks. It’s seemingly a given that the production on releases like that this will always have a hint of sterility to it, no matter how valiant the effort to cover that up. Also, this isn’t the most memorable clutch of songs in the world; you could earmark this as a reel for Sean Harmanis’ impressive screaming range and technique and it’d be just as correct. But in the current metalcore climate, something that doesn’t sound AI-generated can rise to the top regardless. And yes, that is vastly underselling Make Them Suffer. They’re still good, and end up impressing more than a lot of their peers. At multiple junctures, you can tell they aren’t just coasting or settling, or churning out the absolute most perfunctory, degradable nothingness.

Plenty might argue against that, but the effort just feels plain to see. So does the pushback to getting dragged into the mediocre soup, to be honest. You don’t have to be a game-changer to stand among the genre’s better stuff; it’s not some basic binary at play. And if there’s a band who could put in the work to show that off, Make Them Suffer could be it. Here’s a fairly standard metalcore release, approachable to scene patrons at large, with a feel that’s more authentic than your average game-player. Even if wading through the metalcore sludge seems like more effort than it’s worth (because, often, it is), bands like Make Them Suffer are proof that there can still be some purpose to it.

For fans of: Polaris, Fit For A King, Imminence

‘Make Them Suffer’ by Make Them Suffer is released on 8th November on Sharptone Records.

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Zebrahead

I

When bands do the whole ‘multiple EPs in a row as a single project’ thing, it sort of defeats the purpose when they’re so far apart that you can barely remember anything about them. This is the final installment of Zebrahead’s trilogy, following on an EP in February of last year, which itself came after one at the end of 2021. Safe to say that, between such a borked schedule and their own natural Zebraheadiness, this whole induction of Adrian Estrella into the fold hasn’t been the smoothest. Like, did anyone remember that that’s the purpose of this whole thing? Probably not when there’s been no momentum at all afforded to it.

A brief gander back at the other two EPs would suggest that this is a fittingly standard closing chapter, though maybe also the best of the three. In keeping to the harder, 2000s punk side of Zebrahead’s sound, it’s the most consistent, both with what’s most prominent in this endeavour as a whole, and with itself. Dips into pop-punk or ska-punk could feel like Zebrahead contorting themselves to reach every corner of their ‘established’ style; here, the direction is way more natural. Hell, Pulling Teeth and Doomsday On The Radio are even marginally catchy, despite Estrella still not fully coming to his own as a hook vehicle. His most memorable moments yet are on this EP, for sure, but he’s not quite eclipsed the 16-year-long shadow that Matty Lewis left before him.

And that’s kind of where the mask slips for good, revealing that Zebrahead’s extended career and bounty of releases is trucking on through being simply good enough. It’s been true for years, as their role among the elder statesmen of this corner of the scene has given them longevity without the need for innovation or real excitement. Credit for Ali Tabatabaee for putting in some work with his rapping force and even competent screams, but the briefest glimmers of mid-period Linkin Park do not a creative resurgence make. I remains deep in the Zebrahead wheelhouse almost to the point of escape being hopeless. There’s not a single second that feels like anything less than a band with the utmost certainty of what they’re capable of, which means the swings they’re taking aren’t all that big. The extent of proper impressiveness begins and ends within the confines of this three-EP run.

But if we’re being perfectly honest, that’s probably enough, isn’t it? It’s a dead cert that Zebrahead know they’re playing exclusively to a crowd who’ve been converted for decades, and who aren’t going to grumble at anything new. And when said crowd will likely find a release strategy like this to be bold and experimental, all the better. It’s not, to be clear, but whatever. That’s the perspective from outside of the bubble, where Zebrahead hold no more weight than the other punk bands of this exact vintage. From inside…well, more can only be a good thing, right? There are whole scenes and genres where that mindset is far more objectionable, so after a triplet of moderate-to-solid EPs that are basically harmless, you’d be inclined to live and let live in this case.

For fans of: Sum 41, Yellowcard, Linkin Park

‘I’ by Zebrahead is released on 13th November on MFZB Records.

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Thank

I Have A Physical Body That Can Be Harmed

Do you know how rare it is to find a sarky, deadpan post-punk band that actually manages to stand out these days? To be fair, we’re now a bit removed from the time when they were sprouting like weeds at any possible convenience, but Thank do end up on the better side of things. It’s through no top-secret means, either; they’re just even sarkier and more deadpan than the others. The noise-rock brainworms they’re afflicted by only push on that notion further, and luckily, not to the degree of fodder for the terminally-online irony junkies à la black midi. No, it’s a happy medium that Thank embody, which might be the only truly happy thing about them.

Yeah, believe it or not, but emotionality is not this band’s staff of life. Just take Woke Frasier, for example, where Freddy Vinehill-Cliffe’s merciless piss-take of grifting bullshitters makes him sound as bored of the whole concept as anyone reasonably should be. It also contains the album’s first reference to The Simpsons; a couple of tracks later, amid the seven-minute lurch of The Spores, a droned-out, eyes-half-closed reading of “Lisa needs braces, dental plan” becomes easily the album’s most memorable line. If there’s a significant criticism to be had with Thank, it’s that they’ll often become so snowed under their own sarcasm that it can depower its wit and bite, especially as it goes on. Even so, they’re looking to make deeper cuts than the usual cavalcade of Middle English ennui, and the work shows overall.

On top of that, there’s the matter of Thank not being on the leash of the 6 Music A-list and actually trying for a more unfriendly, abrasive sound. The majority of opener Control is synth squelches flanked by assorted noises, which gets reshaped into its own equivalent of a hardcore song on Dead Dog In A Ditch. As for Do It Badly or Down With The Sickness (which, sadly, isn’t a Disurbed cover), they’re a bit more structured, likely to give the impression that Thank can be pruned and restrained to anyone not paying attention to how erratic they are in spite of that. There are multitudes to Thank that your cleanest-cut post-punk proprietors wouldn’t dream of embracing themselves. Kowtowing to get closer to the mainstream might be easier, but Thanks unwillingness to even entertain the idea is more impressive.

Even in the realms of the names who’ve remained sizable by stepping away from the formula—IDLES; Fontaines D.C.; a third one, perhaps—Thank seem to operate in a different ballpark entirely. The ‘punk’ in post-punk isn’t treated a just a formality; they’re actually out here, doing their own thing. And sure, the end product can be a bit inconsistent and wonky, but that’s immeasurably preferable to the umpteenth iteration of Sports Team or Courting. Imagine that—post-punk that’s actually interesting and weighty and comfortable with doing its own thing as has always been this genre’s purpose. What an insane development!

For fans of: US Nails, Naked Lungs, Yard Act

‘I Have A Physical Body That Can Be Harmed’ by Thank is released on 8th November on Big Scary Monsters.

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Words by Luke Nuttall