Make Them Suffer – ‘How To Survive A Funeral’ [Album Review]

Staying in Australia following the death metal onslaught unleashed by Aversions Crown on their brutal Hell Will Come For Us All album (read our review here), we now shift our attention to Perth, the home of deathcore favourites Make Them Suffer. Back with their fourth album, How To Survive A Funeral, and, judging by the way the album hurtles from the “Step One” intro into opener proper, “Falling Ashes,” it’s business as usual for the Aussie group.

Frontman Sean Harmanis screams and howls his way through the 100mph opener, a track bathed in electronics and the kind of haunting atmospherics that wouldn’t look out of place in BMTH’s pre-Amo, post-MySpace material. Elsewhere, his use of a more skittish kind of delivery lends itself well to the bounce and chug of songs like “Bones” while the cleaner sections utilized on “Drown With Me” are a nice break amidst the full-throttle nu-metalcore/deathcore brutality the band build their sound around.

Recent single “Erase Me” is a perfect example of how the band combines melodies, cleans, thunderous metal and Harmanis’ vicious vocals to devastating effect. Keyboardist Booka Nile’s clean vocals punch their way through the ferocity of the sound, adding extra depth to proceedings. With an even balance of samples, electronics and stompy, bouncy metal, there are plenty of opportunities throughout How To Survive A Funeral for you to nod your head like on the energetic, vicious “Fake Your A Death.” Skittish and catchy as hell, this is destined to become a live favourite, if not for the jittery, pit-friendly sound then surely to allow a room full of kids to join in the lung-wrecking finale to the song as Harmanis roars “you’re a spineless fucking worm.”

How To Survive A Funeral is another solid effort from the Perth outfit who, again, plays to their strengths. It doesn’t do anything to stretch the imagination but, if you’re needing a session of scream-until-your-throat-bleeds-and-your-eyes-sting frustration venting, tracks like “Fake Your Own Death” make How To Survive A Funeral the perfect musical accompaniment.

How To Survive A Funeral Track Listing:

1. Step One
2. Falling Ashes
3. Bones
4. Drown With Me
5. Erase Me
6. Soul Decay
7. Fake Your Own Death
8. How To Survive A Funeral
9. The Attendant
10. That’s Just Life

Run Time: 35:09
Release Date: June 19, 2020
Record Label: Rise Records