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Make Them Suffer’s Sean Harmanis On His Favourite Aussie Acts, Hectic Touring Schedules, & The Power Of ‘Pissed-Core’

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Make Them Suffer’s Sean Harmanis talks his favourite homegrown acts and the band’s self-titled album as they make their mark across regional Australia.

Currently winding their way through regional Australia on a crushing run of shows with fellow heavyweights Justice For The Damned and The Gloom In The Corner (alongside other local friends including DieseCt and RUN), Make Them Suffer are in their element. 

But for frontman Sean Harmanis, the fire fueling the band runs deeper than the pit in front of him. It’s shaped by years in the Perth hardcore scene, countless hours on tour, and a steady diet of Australia’s most potent heavy exports.

Speaking on his favourite Aussie artists seems only fitting for Make Them Suffer’s celebration of homegrown talent across eighteen tour dates which kicks off this week, and Harmanis has plenty of love for the local acts from the scene, both past and present.

Aussie Heavy Hitters

“I actually listen to quite a lot of Polaris to be honest,” Harmanis says. “When I listen to my metalcore playlist, the algorithm sends me a lot of Polaris. They just do it for me – really catchy vocals, and I really quite like them. In terms of a favourite song, Hypermania is probably my favourite Polaris track. But I also love Masochist, Dissipate and Landmine, quite a few actually!”

That enthusiasm extends beyond his current playlists. “I’m also really enjoying the new Parkway Drive song Sacred, and the new Thornhill album BODIES is really good too…it’s sick! I loved the first single that they put out for it.”

Perth Pride

While Harmanis is tapped into Australian modern metalcore, his roots are firmly planted in the local scenes that shaped him before Make Them Suffer. “All of the old school up-and-coming Aussie bands that I used to listen to were part of my local scene, the Perth metal and hardcore scene,” he says. “Voyager was definitely alive back then and they’re still going now, so that’s been really cool to see, and they’ve also just put out some new music recently.”

And then there were the underground staples, bands that never quite cracked the national radar, but helped light the way. “There was a local band called Empire, they were a deathcore/death metal band. They were sick, they used to be called Buried At The Crossroads. This is going way back, this is like YMCA HQ mosh era.”

Ailment, Algorithms, & ‘Pissed-Core’

Among the favourites, Harmanis also name-checks a deep-cut influence from Make Them Suffer’s early days: “The Ailment were a band that we toured with on our first ever Australian tour. They were a sick band, but they were also one of the first bands I ever heard who were doing… what would you call it… a ‘pissed-core’ kind of thing. Like a very angsty form of deathcore. I can’t think of a more professional term to describe that genre, but The Ailment were sick back then. I remember we took a bit of influence from them actually. We were quite inspired by what they were doing, and they were really good live.”

His listening habits now mostly come curated by the algorithm, though not always aligned with metalcore. “A lot of the time when I listen to music these days, it’s just the Spotify algorithm essentially. It has recommended Make Them Suffer to me before, but mostly all of the songs that I like are very crusty punk and hardcore bands, and weird sounding shit. It doesn’t always recommend metalcore unless I’m doing what I call research,” Harmanis says.

“When I’m preparing to write something, I’ll just listen to all of the metalcore bands and all of the metalcore playlists for a month straight. And that’s when it will recommend bands like Polaris and Make Them Suffer.”

Looking Back

After years of stop-start momentum during the pandemic, Harmanis says Make Them Suffer’s recent output has been both a challenge and a victory. “It’s almost tough to take in achievements from the last year and a half to two years for Make Them Suffer and squeeze it down into one specific moment,” he says. 

“As a lot of bands out there would resonate with, we’ve already got up until halfway through next year booked, and a lot of the time the most exciting times are when you’re finding out about these things that you’re doing like a year in advance. And then when you’re actually doing those things, you’re already two steps ahead, thinking about the next thing that you’re going to be doing.”

Amid the chaos, one milestone stands tall. He calls putting out Make Them Suffer’s self-titled album last year “a bit of a test,” calling it “an achievement after we had been a band that had slowed down so much, and been hit pretty hard by COVID and a number of external factors.”

“I’d say that album is probably my proudest moment in the last few years.”

After slowing down during the pandemic, things began to kick back into hyperspeed for Make Them Suffer with multiple back to back tours. “Amidst all of that we were trying to find the time to record the actual album,” he says. “Then we had to just put the album out saying: ‘yep, this is something that’s concrete and represents all of the hard work we’re doing.’”

“The album doesn’t just represent where we’re at creatively, but also that we managed to do all of that through this insane touring schedule which was unrelenting,” Harmanis adds. 

“I think Make Them Suffer [the self-titled album] is the proof. It’s like saying: this is it. We’re doing it. We can do this.”

While the touring schedule during recording was relentless, this run of shows is no different. With eighteen gigs spanning across regional areas of Australia, Make Them Suffer is truly bringing the homegrown pride to crowds nation-wise.

It’s clear the band can do just about anything they set their mind to – and for punters in areas where major tours rarely darken their doorsteps, it’s a chance to celebrate exactly what the band have achieved over the last few years. 

Whether that celebration includes ‘piss-core’ though isn’t clear – you’ll just have to head along to one of the many tour dates to find out.

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