Live Review: Make Them Suffer - Islington Academy, London
17th May 2025
Support: If Not For Me, Resolve, Conjurer
Words & Photos: Tom Atkin
It's been a while since I have been in Islington, I'm not gonna lie, it's not a favourite venue of mine. But for Make Them Suffer. I can put that aside.
Opening up tonight is If Not For Me. Five guys from Harrisburg, PA, bring over some beautiful metalcore with a pinch of American flavour. From the moment they take the stage it is all out energy, with some really catchy, chuggy riffs. The mixture of vocals is spot on, with vocalist Patrick Glover handling majority of both clean and distorted vocals.
The performance of the rest of the band carries the same energy, both guitarists consistently moving but keeping the music the focus of their performance. As a warm up band, they were one of the best I have seen.
Up next we have Conjurer, what can I say about these fine gents? Well, they are bloody heavy for a start. As soon as they take to the stage there is no let up from the absolutely brutal noise that they are creating. Literally from the word go it is an onslaught of guttural vocals and guitar that goes straight through your soul. I'm fairly certain this could be heard the other side of Islington.
It's evident already that the theme for tonight is absolute energy. The bassist, Conor Marshall, must have a neck of steel as the amount of windmilling he did was impressive. Whilst Conjurer are a different type of metal to our openers, they have been received with just as much love as If Not For Me. It adds a different dynamic to the night and it works extremely well.
So far. This is an incredible line up.
Third up, Resolve are here to put their mark on the evening. The French metalcore greats have been on the rise for a while now. Recently announcing that they'll be heading stateside with Landmvrks. These guys are absolutely incredible and so very humble, they look just so happy to be on stage doing what they do, laughing between each other. It's nice to see bands show a somewhat human side whilst performing.
It feels as though every amp has been cranked up, you can feel every beat in your chest. Yet it is all still so clear and distinct. The instruments don't bleed into each other. A large amount of the crowd here are people that are already following Resolve any one that wasn't a fan before, surely is now. Myself included in that, and I am very much looking forward to listening to them on the drive home and seeing what they do in the future!
Any American readers, make sure you make these guys feel welcome, because they give everything.
And now for the reason we are all here; Make Them Suffer.
Holy. Shit.
I could leave it at that. But the editor would not be happy with me. So. Here's more.
I've been a fan of these guys since around 2022. Caught them briefly at Download last year. Then again when they were on tour with Bury Tomorrow. The amount of progress they have made in that time as a band is crazy.
Tonight's the smallest venue I have caught them at, and yet they perform with the same energy as they have at every other show. There is a reason they are headlining this tour. Exploding on to the stage with “Epitaph” is definitely the way to start your headline set. The intro is made up of some simple yet captivating synths. Straight in to their signature toned chugging riffs.
After transcending a few genres over the years, they have blended aspects from all of their history to make the incredible symphonic metalcore that we are being treated to tonight.
The set shows this existence of their older style as well, pulling songs from every single album that they have put out in to the wild. Majority which though has been from their self titled latest release. Which I personally am very glad about, “Ghost of Me”, “Mana God” and “Weaponized” are absolutely of being worthy of being played tonight.
Trying to move about the venue is near on impossible, it is absolutely packed, and only around the last 4 rows of the crowd were not in full on pit mode. Hearing “Erase Me” played again is always a somewhat bittersweet moment for me, but hearing pretty much every voice in Islington Academy is absolutely beautiful.
Then we have the song that started it all for myself, “Doomswitch” the riff from this gets me every damn time. It sounds just so good. The tone, the pace, everything about it is just spot on.
Closing the night on a throw back to their roots with Widower, was a nice lil treat for the fans that have been with them from the start. Still performing it as well as the rest of their more recent music.
Sean Harmanis and his band mates should be bloody proud not only of their performance tonight but everything they are doing as a band, Alex Reade being the latest member to join feels like the final piece of the puzzle.
Sadly they are now heading back to Europe to finish off their tour. However, when they are back, I urge you to move heaven and hell to get to see them.
Photo Credit: Tom Atkin
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