Why should you give Contraband a chance? It’s hard to stay impartial when I write about Make Them Suffer because they grew to be one of my favourite band throughout the years. The last step to the throne was their 4th album which debuted last summer, How to Survive a Funeral is a perfect masterpiece, probably their best work yet. Some of you may disagree with me due to the band’s first album Neverbloom has a pretty huge fan base around it and became a cult classic. On their first EP and on Neverbloom the band had a completely different style. It was like a melodic deathcore stuff, which was really fresh and new back then. The endlessly dark and brutal sound was flavoured with delicate piano and with a bit of female vocal in the title track’s chorus. In addition Make Them Suffer is famous for that their albums’ have their own stories which either continuing one another or has their self contained story. These stories unfold before us by listening to the songs in the right order, by watching the clips and understanding the lyrics. They developed their mythology with characters like the „Lord of Woe” or the „Morrow”.
After this it’s understandable that many felt betrayed by the band’s second album Old Souls in which they changed their style. The narrative of Neverbloom continues on the record but the melodic deathcore genre was replaced by a more consumable metalcore sound. Some of the hardcore Neverbloom fans still haven’t recovered from this change. Although I don’t think that there is anything to be imposed about this, ont he contrary! With this turn came wide possibility to experiment for the band. It’s true that they wrote in a more popular style and tend to lean more ont he female vocals but they tried to keep the melodic style also which was highly praised in their previous work and the guitar themes’ complexity and creativity didn’t fade. As we can see they still keep a lot of elements from their first record, basically they molded metalcore and deathcore together with the piano’s and sometimes the violin’s melodic sound. This created an unique and iconic style which was perfected in their 4th album last summer. They found the harmony between Sean’s screaming, Booka’s angelic clean vocal and the stamping turning into a deathcore like rumbling and the bitter atmospheric melodies.
This style is carried on to their new single Contraband. The first half minute is more than a jaw dropping experience which gives us goosebumps. The violin intro slowly changes into a pleasant grinding then the piano keys start to rush like crazy in the instrumental. Then follows the first verse which is incredibly rich and one can only keep up with the many things happening in this section but we don’t have time to rest because immediately comes a shivering tsunami feeling thanks to the chorus. In this part Booka’s vocal and her keyboard instrument comes forward again, giving us a hypnotic like feeling as she dominate the whole choir while Sean becomes a sort of backup singer, dimly screaming the refrain’s lines like an echo. This role change between them worked really well in their previous album and stood fantasticly in this too.
In the second verse comes their feature singer Courtney LaPlante (Spiritbox) who is widely acclaimed nowadays. She is the first person who collaborated in an MTS song since the band has formed. This is not that suprising since the two band are in close friendship (for example Sean is seen in a Spiritbox t-shirt in the Onslow: Let Me Rust music video). Courtney uses dirty vocal in her parts which is understandable due to that Booka’s voice is quite characteristic and the band stands for a more heavy sound, so it was logical to choose the screaming.
Besides their style’s familiarities, we can also notice elements from the neverbloom era. We just have to listen to the breakdown at the end of the song to see the shamelessly deep guttural and the endlessly dark atmosphere. Slamming and beating at the same time.
Though it seems their story about „The Lord of Woe” ends with the second album (the third one is a self contained story and the fourth one has no story as far as we know) in their last record and in Contraband they constantly refer to the first two albums. The best example is the ending frame (which is the single’s official cover art too) that is refering to their debut EP’s cover in which the „Lord of Woe” sits on its throne.
Genre: Symphonic metalcore
Band: Make Them Suffer
Song: Contraband
Album: (Single)
Lyrics:
They want you dead
They want you finished
They want you signed, sealed and delivered
Sent to the grave
A flame extinguished
Another crooked soul to be relinquished
Repressed
Another patient admitted
Depressed
Another lie contradicted
Regress
Go figure, no fucking answers
Except to save yourself at the expense of another
Contraband won't protect you
When there's a contract on your head (on your head)
So tell me why you're killing all your friends
(Where do you go from the end?)
Contraband won't protect you
Not when the war's inside your head (on your head)
So tell me why you're killing all your friends
Why do you pray for the end?
Ghost, lifeline
Will you come save me?
They want you dead
They want you finished
They want you signed, sealed and delivered
Sent to your grave
The flames extinguished
Another crooked soul to be relinquished, go
You keep telling us to die for something
And yet you fight for nothing
Ghost, lifeline
Getting help from you is a fine line
Ghost, lifeline
You could build a home with all your lies
Contraband won't protect you
When there's a contract on your head (on your head)
So tell me why you're killing all your friends
Contraband won't protect you
Not when the war's inside your head (on your head)
So tell me why you're killing all your friends
Why won't you pray for the end?
Ghost, lifeline
Will you come save me?
Pick me, pick me
Pick me, pick me, pick me
They want you dead (want you dead)
Pray for the end (pick me, pick me)
Make Them Suffer: Make Them Suffer is one of the best metalcore band in our age which plays with our feelings like a puppetmaster (it’s not a coincidence that their fans sometimes calls them “Make Them Feel”). They can renew themselves album after album and song after song but they still remain true to themeselves. Contraband is an incredibly powerful and a spot on showcase of what can we expect from MTS, It would be a shame to miss this track because it is one of the best song of 2021.
by: Traidusk & Shadow
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