• PICTURES: SANDRA STEH
Perth is one of the most isolated major cities on the planet. Located on Australia’s west coast, it’s closer to Jakarta in Indonesia than it is to Sydney. The closest place with a population of more than 100,000 is Adelaide, which is more than 1,300 miles away.
Much like Seattle in the early 90s, the sense of isolation has turned Perth into a place of great artistic creativity. The late Oscar-winning actor Heath Ledger was born here, the likes of Hugh Jackman, Isla Fisher and Tim Minchin also trained in the city, AC/DC’s legendary frontman Bon Scott settled here after his family relocated from Scotland back in the early 1950s, and it’s where cult prog metallers Karnivool formed. It’s also where Make Them Suffer call home.
“Coming from Perth made things even more difficult for us,” says vocalist and founding member Sean Harmanis. “There are really only five other cities that you can play in, and it’s expensive for us to do that. Just to tour Australia we had either a four-day drive or we had to book flights. There are two schools of thought in our town; you either accept that you’re stuck there, or you want to get out and see the world, and to do that you have to push harder than everyone else. I think that’s why the ones that do make it out go on to achieve so much.”
Make Them Suffer aren’t quite on the level of The Joker and Wolverine just yet, but they’re certainly making headway. Since their formation in 2008, Sean has led his band from playing rudimentary deathcore in back rooms of pubs for “less than 40 people” to the Top 30 of the Australian charts (2017’s Worlds Apart entered at No.29). They’ve toured the world with scene heavyweights such as Architects, Whitechapel and August Burns Red.