LIVE REVIEW: Make Them Suffer @ Asylum Venue 2, Birmingham

Upstairs in Birmingham’s Asylum 2 is the kind of hot, tiny, claustrophobic space that just seems perfect for what MAKE THEM SUFFER will bring with it. Three bands of abrupt intensity mixed in with a room you might struggle to hold your family Christmas meal in – what could go wrong?

Local band OVERTHRONE snap their heads through a ravenous set. Possessing all the bite of EMMURE while chiming in melodic hardcore lines that would make THE GHOST INSIDE grin from ear to ear. Songs like Chokehold and Into The Abyss show off the bands dexterity and ability to work a crowd. It’s intense, quick, and punishing – and it’s not too difficult to envisage OVERTHRONE soon climbing up the ranks of independent melodic hardcore acts.

Rating: 7/10

Glasgow’s LOTUS EATER are an entirely different proposition – yet still one that moulds into the atmosphere of tonight with aplomb. Their blend of MALEVOLENCE style attitude with NASTY heavy riffs is at times breathtaking, as is their all round violent demeanour. The Scot’s ethos of: turn up, cause havoc, leave – is a riot waiting to happen, but you can’t help but feel hooked.

The Glaswegian’s aren’t just a collection of musical bruisers though. The textualities of Yuck and Mother add new shimmers of paint to the act with their grinding yet slick guitar lines. It all adds extra charisma to a band that have quite clearly turned up in the hope of starting a storm. The pits are free flowing and the ante of violence is upped – if LOTUS EATER‘s mission was to light a fire in a hot crowd – they can consider this mission accomplished.

Rating: 8/10

MAKE THEM SUFFER are one of several bands whose quality much outweighs their popularity. But what remains charming about the Aussies throughout their performance is that after over a decade as an outfit – they still look just happy to be here. Sean Harmanis burns through the low vocals of Vortex like some form of incendiary demon, and the inclusion of fan favourites like Widower and Let Me In are nice touches from a band that have such a strong back catalogue – it wouldn’t really matter what set list they turned up with.

In case the band’s latest record Worlds Apart didn’t make it obvious enough – keyboards/piano aficionado Booka Nile is a vital part of the act. Her nuanced inclusions in Uncharted take the focus off the jaw battering metal for just a few seconds, but its enough to create a musical paradigm that MAKE THEM SUFFER evidently thrive in.

The Aussies set was sadly cut short by what they claimed were hard drive issues, but what we did have on show here was a band that when operating at this capacity can rival any of their peers. They finish with the ruthless Ether, which summed up their set aptly: manic from the first guitar line. While MAKE THEM SUFFER have never quite managed to achieve stardom across the seas, they’re a band that you can’t help but feel respect for. Their musical intelligence is matched only by their live intensity – and tonight was a perfect example of it.

Rating: 8/10