I think we can all agree that at a certain age, the prospect of a 4 band bill on a Thursday night is not that appealing. When the gig in question is the first date on the first ever Make Them Suffer UK headline tour…well that changes things quite a bit.
Rolling into The Engine Rooms in Southampton tonight Make Them Suffer bring 3 completely bands in toe, for what should be a fun and potentially very bouncy evening. The show is also sold out and the atmosphere in the venue is palpable.
Up first is If Not For Me, a relatively new and admittedly not very original band. What they lack in innovation they more than make up for with passion and enough energy to put a warehouse full of Energizer bunnies into early retirement. That manage to wake up the growing crowd nice and early, they put in a spirited performance that earns them more than a few new fans early doors.
Conjurer are possibly the most devastating thing to be associated with Southampton since the Titanic left its shores. They stick out like a sore thumb tonight, but it works in their favour. Their brutally efficient progressive Death Metal provides a hefty shock to system for tonight’s as they peel off some of the most skull bludgeoningly heavy riffs I have heard in my life (tonight is my first time hearing them) they raise as many fists as they do eyebrows and by the end of their criminally short but utterly captivating set they prove wholeheartedly why they have been one of the most talked about bands in the UK for some time and why they will be for the foreseeable future.
French Nu Metalcore act Resolve are tonight’s main support. Having played their own headline show in Southampton less than a year ago, there seems to be a lot of people here to see them in the crowd. They get a very warm reception and manage to whip the crowd into a frenzy in no time, their set is plagued with mic issues which is the only real negative I can draw from their performance. They are a dynamic, tightly wound act that has a perfect handle on their stagecraft and judging by the amount of pits and singalongs they get during their short set, they know how to handle an audience, even one that isn’t their own. Still no idea why their Bass player was cosplaying as Ron Perlman’s character from Blade 2 though…
Despite the stellar undercard, tonight belongs to one band and one band only. As Make Them Suffer take the stage for their very first UK headline set, hell predictably breaks loose. Over the course of the hour, amongst all the pits, light stick, crowd surfers, circle pits and singular wall of death,Make Them Suffer play some of the most ferocious and meticulously written Metalcore anthems of the modern era.
The new songs from their stunning self titled album sound monstrous live with the stunning 4 song run of Mana God, Ghost of Me, Oscillator & Weaponized proving a particular highlight. Throwing in old classics like Ether, Soul Decay, Erase Me & the closer Widower showcase not only how great the new songs stand up against the older material but how timeless those older songs have already become.
The band themselves are in fine from with frontman Sean Harmanis is all over the stage like a man possessed, backed up by Keyboard player and co Vocalist Alex Reade who fits the band so perfectly with her intense presence she feels like she has always been in the band. Make Them Suffer have come out swinging tonight and have kicked off their first ever UK headline tour with an absolute blinder. Intense, cathartic, passionate and everything else you would expect from a band of their calibre. When a gig comes along like this with a band on the form that Make Them Suffer are tonight, it goes a long way to reaffirming just how amazing live music can be.
9/10
