By Jase Walker
It’s Friday in Amsterdam and it’s the end of the stomp around the ÜK and Europe for Make Them Suffer on their triumphant return following their support slot of Bury Tomorrow last year. Melkweg’s OZ room isn’t going to know what fucking hit it.Even more so because of the outrageous package that is rolling with them for this in the form of French synthy metalcore outfit, Resolve, the lovely lot in British tech-death heavyweights, Conjurer and ÜS metalcore group If Not For Me. A veritable mixture of metal from around the world and here to finish off the tour in the incredible city of Amsterdam.
If Not For Me kick things off and make a brave move to get the early birds waving along to their start, people are already showing they’re here for a good time and join in. It’s immediately apparent that these remind me a lot of Kingdom Of Giants with the way they hit hard during the verses and go for euphoric choruses with high pitch singing.
I’m already invested because this style of metalcore is everything I love right now, no doubt I’ll be adding them to my listening rotation. There’s also some strong Bad Omens influences in their sound too but I’m really not complaining.
I will tirelessly repeat the notion that people shouldn’t miss support acts for any show they’re going to because you don’t know when one of them will really surprise you and this is exactly what If Not For Me are doing right now, I’ve already got them added to my gym setlist. Even getting the crowd to hold up their phone lights as an opener is a strong move and the crowd gladly obliges. Admittedly their demand for a circle pit to open up falls a bit flat which is a shame considering the earlier energy but I really can’t fault their performance on anything. Genuinely great start to tonight’s show, I’ll be remembering them for future. I certainly enjoyed the many cymbals moment at the end of the set!
And now it’s time for Conjurer, about whom I’ve spent the last week educating my friends in the Netherlands. It’s time for some heavy god damn shit. Bit of a weird start because I couldn’t hear the bass player but it didn’t take long for this to get fixed and the full force of Conjurer is brought to bear against an unsuspecting Dutch crowd.
The might of their riffs and lumbering fury is fully opening up and the friends surrounding me headbang in unison with gurned expressions on their faces. I really cannot overstate just how much I’ve missed Conjurer since departing the ÜK so getting to see them absolutely devastate Amsterdam is a treat that I would never pass up.
Conjurer stand out as a bit of an odd one for this lineup as they’re not really metalcore aligned, probably easily the heaviest band on the tour. I get the impression the crowd is a bit more perplexed with them following If Not For Me but their performance at the end of such an extended tour is legitimately flawless.
I get the impression that they know they’re the odd ones out as they’ve not spent much time trying to do crowd interaction and opting instead for just laying down riff after riff of disgusting shit and I’m absolutely here for it. Their bass player at one point jumps off stage and demands audience interaction and he fucking gets it, little room for subtlety here, conjurer wants their pound of flesh. To finish the other bands suddenly flood the stage to mess about and this wraps up my yearly dose of Conjurer. Hopefully see these lads again soon!
Following more speedy changeovers, it’s time for Resolve!
Opening up with fierce riffs and beautiful vocal melodies, I feel very at home being stuffed into the middle of the crowd throwing my head around like I don’t have another chance. Resolve are one of the premier bands out of France right now representing the fact that they can go as hard as anyone else. Even when the other bands invade the stage and do sword fights with baguettes because it’s the last night of the tour, there’d be no other way to wrap up such an epic tour. It didn’t take long for them to ask for a circle pit going and one of my group gladly opts to shove his way down to the middle to join in!
Admittedly I do miss how massive they sounded with While She Sleeps last year but I cannot complain about the barely contained fury of Resolve in a smaller room, it’s so much more in your face and this is something you can’t take for granted.
It’s barely taken a few songs for the crowd to devolve into a sea of people smashing into each other under the crowd of flashing lights and furious movement. Admittedly I’m still not fully familiar with their new album material but I can say without any doubt that the newer era of Resolve is truly about them finding themselves and it really shows.
It’s been a fantastic set and I feel compelled to get that much more into the latest album just going off how much it resonated with the crowd tonight. Resolve continue to be one of the bands leading the charge for French metalcore alongside the likes of Landmvrks and Novelists get striking out on their own sound and vibe. Truly a fantastic band that I look forward to seeing again many times in the future.
And finally, it’s time for the headline act, Make Them Suffer. One of the premier bands of Australian metalcore right now that’s switched from a more hardcore sound to a much more melodic sound and I cannot wait to get more of them in my ears. So early into the set they’re already rolling with ‘Bones’ with its unmistakable intro of “I can’t breathe” that is already getting crowd surfers going nuts over the front of the stage which their singer dutifully grabs people’s hands to help them up. Even better, they follow up with ‘Uncharted’, probably the one song that got me into them.
Their singer is clearly not a stranger to people getting up on stage for a bit of a jump around as instead of ushering them off the stage, he opts to grab them by the shoulder and headbang with them until they decide it’s time to depart.
‘Mana God’ is finally in their setlist, this is easily my favourite song off the new album and the response to it is every bit as much as I expected. Crowd surfers, mosh pit, people jumping up on stage, exactly the sort of response I wanted to such a ridiculous banger. Running through some of the big songs from their latest album with ‘Ghost Of Me’ and ‘Oscillator’, it’s clear that the new album material has landed well with the crowd here tonight.
It is truly phenomenal how Make Them Suffer deliver their headline show, it’s not my first rodeo but it is one of the most consistent headline performances that I’ve seen over the years. ‘Erase Me’ is almost as if I’ve been waiting for this song all night and I’m fully prepared to blow my voice out singing to it.
Because it’s the end of the tour the other bands aren’t taking it as just another show, they invade the stage with signs like “Make Them Suffer daddy” and jump onto the crowd because fuck it, why not eh? This is why end of tour shows are so often the best, there’s little fucks given for anything after so all bets are off. And finally with ‘Widower’, Make Them Suffer wraps up an incredible set on an expansive set that I’ve watched through friends stomp through Europe and finally experienced for myself on the final date in Amsterdam.
This has been an incredible show that I have waited to see with building anticipation since it was announced and ending on a Friday night in one of Europe’s premier cities is probably the best way to do it. Flawless show on all counts, Amsterdam is metal as fuck.