Make Them Suffer's Sean Harmanis Reveals Story Behind 'Worlds Apart'

Make Them Suffer's Sean Harmanis reveals the story and intricacies behind the band's most recent record, 'Worlds Apart'.

In what was news to me today, there's an abundance of fan theories out there dedicated to unravelling the grand designs behind the narratives in Make Them Suffer's three records and their 'Lord Of Woe' EP. After all, as far as metalcore and deathcore music goes these days, the Perth metal band have some of the deepest and most poetic lyrics of the whole lot. As such, there's quite the popular demand online from the band's large fanbase to have the lyrics and themes spoon fed out to them in order to confirm their own theories on the band's works. And vocalist Sean Harmanis has recently answered the wet theoretical dreams of die-hard listeners with a candid Reddit post detailing the story of their latest record, 2017's 'Worlds Apart'.

Despite stating that he wasn't super keen on outlining the entire story and that he wanted to let the creative work be interpreted however the listener saw fit, Sean does get right into the thick of it with this post. In it, he talks about how he sequences the LP's tracklisting into a fictional "wrong" phone number to spell out the narrative other than how the record original chronological order; how he personally understands the concept world his band's music plays host too; the often blurred lines between himself and the main character(s) experiences; how this story may relate to their other releases in one way or another; and so on. It's all quite interesting actually and he goes really in-depth at times, though I'd expect nothing less from the guy. And judging by the replies and comments on the thread itself, many fans are greatly appreciative of this story outline from the frontman.

You can check out the full post over here but for the sake of brevity, I've copied in the vocalist's TL;DR version below for those of you who have got places to be and people to see. Read on for the abridged version of 'Worlds Apart' below:

"TL;DR

There is a phone number in "Contact" (track 6). 1803-642-795. by rearranging the tracks in this order (1, 8, 10, 3) a story will unfold through the lyrics. This is just one of many orders that can be done, but this was the order that was relevant to me, your order may be different.

Here's a brief summary of my order:

-1. boy meets girl -8. conflict -10. It's over -3. Receive call to action -6. Accept call to action -4. It's dark down here -2. Actually it's not so bad! -7. I'm really happy, i think? -9. Fuck it i lied, I'm miserable, wbu? "yeah me too" -5. let's get back together fuck the haters

Here's a more conceptual way of looking at it:

-1. boy meets girl -8. conflict -10. It's over -3. continues to receive phone calls from another dimension -6. finally answers calls from another dimension -4. gets sucked through the phone line and spat out in other dimension. It's dark and scary -2. it's actually not so bad, maybe I could stay in this other dimension for a while. -7. Yeah, I'm really starting to get the hang of this. Oh wait, this is a false sense of security. I'm now finding that this was never another dimension at all and I've never been in control. I was simply living out fantasies, through girls imagination as a toy on her shelf. -9. shit, now she's self aware and this dimension/world is crashing down with me in it! I need to get out of here before her sadness kills us both. But the more she kills me, the sadder she gets! ARGH!!! -5. Well, I think we can both admit it's time to say goodbye to the toys. Let's grow up and try move on together.

Here's a random alternate order that might make sense:

-3. Receive call to action -1. boy meets girl (she's a bit wild) -5. It's all fireworks in the beginning -6. they talk all the time on the phone -7. boy going crazy "you don't call me like u used to bae!" (fred durst voice) -4. boy starting to spiral out of control -8. conflict -10. It's over -9. fuck, I'm still emotionally trapped in her web. -2. ah maybe i just need to change my outlook.

THANKS FOR READING, DIDN'T MEAN TO RAMBLE SO MUCH. PS. HAVEN'T SPELL CHECKED, DEAL WITH IT.

PS. HAPPY NEW YEAR! <3 <3 <3"

'Worlds Apart' is out now via Rise Records. Read our initial review of the album here.