Interviews

Sean Harmanis - Make Them Suffer 'Through The Looking Glass'

Will Oakeshott

Jun 7, 2025

8 min read

“People not only gain understanding through reflection, they evaluate and alter their own thinking.” - Albert Bandura.

A remarkable five full-length albums all of which have acquired high positions on the ARIA charts, an AIR award nomination in 2021 for How To Survive A Funeral, an APRA award victory for the category Most Performed Hard Rock / Heavy Metal Work for the single ‘Epitaph’, literally millions of streams accumulated, sold-out shows and tours in Australia, Europe and the USA including international festival appearances (as well as in their home nation). All of these achievements and more, have been attained by melodic death metalcore quintet Make Them Suffer since their inception in Perth 17 years ago. Unquestionably, their ‘Midnight Train’ is still gaining momentum with no planned stopovers, as the quintet have announced one of their largest and most ambitious regional tours of Australia yet.

Catching up with frontman Sean Harmanis while venturing through Europe on Make Them Suffer’s illustrious headline tour, the vocalist was assuredly gleaming at what the five-piece had encountered thus far on their travels in Canada, the US and now Europe, as well as their successes they had collected on their astonishing journey.

"It's absolutely incredible! I feel like we've been building up to this point, and the success of the tour is really just the result of years and years of really hard work.” Sean exclaims with prideful glee almost losing his breath, then presses on- “Pushing ourselves to get songwriting done while at home and also while on the road. We pretty much haven't stopped touring since COVID really, since lockdown. It has just been all systems go."

With your return to Europe, has this hard work paid off in audience attendances? What are the differences from a cultural perspective in terms of venues, crowd participation and receptions?

“We've kind of had both sides of the coin with this tour already. I mean, we played Warsaw in Poland, that was a standout for me, just because of how small the room was; it was the closest thing you could get to a floor show. I'd say the stage was probably only about 20 centimetres off the ground. We were playing in the corner of a room in a densely packed club with no barricades, sweat dripping from the ceiling. We don't get to play those shows every day, and shows like that are super important.”

What was the other side of the coin?

“On the flip side of that, we played Leipzig, and that was what I anticipate to be one of the biggest shows of the tour. It was a nice, a big hall with beautiful chandeliers hanging from these high ceilings, and probably over 1,000 people there.

(Honestly) it doesn't really matter the room, but those shows are the standouts for me, just because they are the polar opposites of one another, and they do kind of show the two sides of touring so far. I mean, the crowds have been way crazier than any Europe tour we've done.

People have just been more receptive in general, and we're having a blast.”

Referring back to the initial quotation scripted in this article from the National Medal of Science award winning Professor in Psychology Albert Bandura (presented by President Barack Obama in 2016), what Mr. Harmanis is undertaking with his insights into the triumphs with Make Them Suffer, is reflection. Nearing 20 years of commitment to his artistic integrity and thought-provoking lyricism, Sean has not only helped elevate MTS to heights possibly never thought to be reached, but he has also matured as a person throughout the quintet’s career. The teenage “Sean Harmanis” who wrote the compelling phrases and thoughts on Make Them Suffer’s demo released in 2009 would understandably be a different person compared to the man Sean Harmanis has become at 34-years old. A songwriter who now has a wealth of worldwide experience through travelling, friendship and perhaps most significantly, musicianship.

“People not only gain understanding through reflection, they evaluate and alter their own thinking.”

If Sean was to reflect upon MTS’ discography, what would he discover with his understanding of the full-lengths released in their specific timeframes?

“I think I'll start with Neverbloom. I think, the headspace that I was in, I really wanted to push the boundaries; I didn't want to write just normal lyrics. Basically, I wanted to write something within the realm of deathcore and metalcore that I hadn't seen accomplished yet. I think that concepts with lyrics were something that would happen a lot in like black metal and folk metal and things like that, but very rarely in metalcore or deathcore.”

Hermanis explains in deep rumination before pausing, as if trying to rediscover his poetic adventures in 2012, then elaborates further: “I was very inspired by a lot of black metal lyrics, so I just kind of wanted to translate that to a metalcore space. I think it was that it came out of a desire to want to stand out and do something unique.

Doing something original and unique has always been one of the fundamental pillars of Make Them Suffer songwriting, and an aspect of songwriting that we hold in the highest regard.

We've never wanted to blend in or be a be generic in any way or follow the formula, so to speak. We've just always wanted to do something that pushes the boundaries a little bit of what is considered normal within the genre.”

What about the following chapter entitled Old Souls?

“I think Old Souls really was a reflection of the headspace I was in. Old Souls, to me, felt like a reflection of my sentimentality. You know, when you're in your early-to-mid 20s, it's possibly the most turbulent time in someone's life. There are so many questions that are unanswered when you're in your mid-20s; especially if you haven't got things figured out, you don't quite know where you're going. And also, you're just faced with, the existential questions of life. You feel like you're always having to prove yourself to others - it's a tough time. I think it was probably meant in terms of my mental well-being. Definitely the toughest headspace that I've ever had to get out of was around that time.” Sean describes with a tone of awareness that is above engaging – “So, I think Old Souls is a reflection of that. It's kind of just taking the desire to do something unique and that stands out lyrically, like on Neverbloom and then it is more sentimental, it's more emotional.”

Was the headspace or artistic drive quite separated from this for say How To Survive A Funeral?

“How to Survive A Funeral, I think, well, okay, how do I put this? I would say, How To Survive A Funeral for us; we had a desire to bring a marriage between the worlds of the old and new Make Them Suffer. I once saw that someone commented on the track one (‘Step One’) of the album and it said: ‘Neverbloom Two: Electric Boogaloo’.” He discloses in hysterics – “And I honestly don't think that I could ever describe How To Survive A Funeral more accurately than that; that's perfectly, succinctly put. How To Survive A Funeral to me is not just Neverbloom, but also Old Souls and ‘Electric Boogaloo’.”

Where does this most recent self-titled record sit in reflection after being out for over six months?

“It's definitely our most refined album in terms of the headspace we're in. There was a real focus on quality in our songwriting and wanting to put out the best quality album that we possibly could. We have been writing music together, Nick [McLernon, guitarist and fellow original member] and I for long enough now that we knew we know our capabilities, we know our strengths and weaknesses, we know what we have done and areas of songwriting that are fresh to us.”

He continues – “But I think more than anything, is we felt so comfortable with writing that we just wanted to take our skill-set and really push it just as far as it would go in terms of just quality. The sound that's on the self-titled album is a sound that we've honed and refined over for 16 years, and it does, whether people see it or not. It has huge influence from our early sound on the demo and EP (Lord Of Woe) and Neverbloom as well as, incorporating quite a lot of the elements that you hear on albums like Worlds Apart. It's an all-encompassing album, and I think it's probably been the album where we've been in the healthiest headspace during the writing process.”

Considering the essence of this entire interview had revolved around reflection, the correlation of returning to regional Australia for a memorable tour of this nature would have certainly provoked some marvellous memories for the five-piece. Traversing through these areas in support of the earlier eras of Make Them Suffer, it felt more than necessary to ask what Sean Harmanis was most excited about for this next voyage?

“For me, I'm excited because we've got a bus. It's our first time in a touring bus in Australia, and it's not very typical of Australian touring. Because typically you just play headliner sets in the capital cities, and then you're flying between shows; at least that's what it's like these days.

So, for us, I view this experience as like a road trip. We're all just hanging out together on a bus, playing local pubs, and I can't wait!

Honestly, this is the tour that I'm looking forward to the most of any of the tours.”

Without reflection, it appears this regional jaunt will unquestionably be ‘Timeless’.

Interview by Will Oakeshott @teenwolfwill

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