Only weeks ago, Make Them Suffer were forced to cancel their first show in over ten years of touring. While performing in Cincinnati, Ohio, keyboardist/vocalist Alex Reade had begun experiencing illness that led to her body shutting down onstage.
A scary occurrence in any environment, but for something like this to happen to anyone who is far away from home, something as destabilising as this must have been extremely worrisome.
Still, the metalcore band were able to complete their North American tour and return home to Australia with some time to regroup and, importantly for Reade, recover, before tackling their last run of shows for the year.
Since the release of Make Them Suffer’s self-titled album in November 2024, the band have barely had a chance to reflect on what this project has meant for them as a unit. The album marked Reade’s debut as a member of Make Them Suffer and signalled new elements of experimentation in sound.
“Being in the band, you’re only focused on what you’re doing at the moment, between your band members,” guitarist/vocalist Nick McLernon says backstage at Good Things 2025 in Melbourne.
“As artists, we just want to push ourselves every day. It’s not for any other purpose than to express the artistic spirit. If other people want to say we’re pushing boundaries of the genre, that’s cool, that’s a bonus! As to what we’re trying to go for, I don’t think there’s a predetermined goal, we just want to write music that we are continuously happy with and have fun playing. Music that keeps us together as a band.”
For Reade, who joined Make Them Suffer in 2022, her level of comfort within the band has only strengthened, simply due to the way she has been able to observe their dynamic and have her own input and individuality embraced in return.
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“I was such a fan and I had so much respect for the initial sound; my initial goal was that I wanted to fill shoes that I respected,” she explains. “[L]ike with anything, time passes naturally and it now feels like a slightly different band. It feels like a different vibe and I belong a little more.”
Reade’s arrival came at a time when Make Them Suffer were in a period of flux, or in McLernon’s words, “a state of emergency.” In an ideal world, the introduction of a new band member would have undergone more consideration than Make Them Suffer were afforded; in a way, the swift energy which drove the change of lineup was just what the band needed to kick into another gear.
“The spirit is strong, the spirit is great,” Reade smiles. “You don’t have time to think about it when you’re doing it so much. It takes the pressure off… when you’re locked into something that has a slow and steady trajectory, you don’t really notice the growth. It’s only when you look back, you can see how incredible the jump has been.”
“The one thing that really sticks out is that when Alex joined, she already had MTS DNA!” McLernon says. “The dialogue and the vibes were just already there. We had to do a music video the next day and it was the first time the band, in this form, was together for a video shoot. In retrospect, having everything click there and then, we didn’t realise it at the time but that was something very rare. Creatively, it’s something that’s always at the back of my mind.”
Moving forward, both admit that whatever comes next stands to have more input from all members of the band, expanding further from the traditional songwriting dynamic of McLernon and vocalist Sean Harmanis.
The foundations of this evolved band dynamic can be heard throughout the self-titled record, but having redefined themselves through this process, Make Them Suffer are keen to flesh out each member’s unique perspective on sound and progression.
“Coming into the band three years ago, what I’ve observed from being a fan and hearing Make Them Suffer in one way and then coming in and seeing how the writing dynamic works… I’m seeing what influences are coming from where,” Reade says.
“There are so many options for the band, in terms of the sound. You’ve got the things that Sean loves and what he brings; then you’ve got Nick and what he’s capable of; then you’ve got all the other members… Everyone is inspired after being on tour, writing together, sitting in hotel rooms on a day off and feeling so inspired by our own energy. Everyone’s writing and excited about the process.”
Find out more about Good Things 2025 here.
