10th January 2019

Review: “Suffer” by Immerse

Released on 7th December via We Are Triumphant, “Suffer” is the debut full length offering from Bristol Post-Hardcore quartet Immerse. That being said, they’re a band with something of a split personality. Bands like A Day To Remember are well known for having a softer side and a heavier side and splitting those songs around the same album. Well this is a trait that Immerse have taken into their own songs on “Suffer” as they cross genres on multiple occasions throughout their debut album. Whether that is something they maintain in their career and within their sound, only time will tell, but is sure as hell makes for an interesting listen.

“Glass House” gets things underway with a straight up song that may actually serve to put some listeners off the album straight out of the gate. It’s not the usual pace setting affair, but instead something of a mid-set live show crowd pleaser with a big sing-a-long element and some tasteful melodic vocals with something of an American styling. The Mix is bass heavy in places which gives a Pop-Punk feel and ties in with the driven pace of the melodic guitars. There is a heavier guitar bridge towards the back end of the song that gives an insight as to what maybe coming ahead. “Bury Your Friends” starts off melodically before some unclean vocals enter the fray for the first time on the album. As soon as they do the guitars are amped up and the first verse plays out with something of a style shift into more of a Melodic Metalcore direction. When the chorus kicks in, it’s clean and sing-a-long friendly with an anthemic clean cut quality that is very much from the A Day To Remember playbook. “Fake” then makes another style shift leap for the opening third of the song, with a Funk-Metal set of bouncy riffage and accompanying rap-screams. The band return to the familiar melodic Post-Hardcore passages for the choruses but throw in a tasteful “Bleigh!” during one of the heavier bridges.

“Fracture” drives into the Melodic Metalcore territory with unclean vocals intertwined with cleans to create some nice layering and contrast and at this point, if it wasn’t obvious already, the “Post-Hardcore” tag is about as loose fitting as it gets. Each song on the album seamlessly flows through Metal subgenres without so much as skipping a beat. The musicianship to be able to create such a varied piece of work without juddering the pieces of each song against each other is nothing short of phenomenal. “All is Lost” is a palette cleansing 58 second introduction to distant “Distant”, a track that again flatters to deceive in it’s stylings. Starting in Pop-Punk fashion and building quickly into some unclean vocals and throwing in some breakdowns. The production is spot on, the bass and drum sound are clean and crisp while the vocals sit well in the mix.

“Blacked Out” is your 91 second burst of Post-Hardcore and perhaps shows some Cancer Bats influence in its free flowing attitude until the third “Bleigh!” of the album and an almost Melodic Deathcore breakdown to close. Its a tune to get the pit going at the live shows for sure and will catch you off guard over the first few spins. “Lacuna” is a 2 minute instrumental affair that might point in the direction of some more progressive material to come from the band in the future. It’s ambient textures have a beauty to them that bands playing in this genre don’t often produce. Oh, wait. Immerse don’t play by any rules! “Business Secrets of the Pharaohs” is a heavier, bouncier tune that incorporates some of the dissonant work of “Lacuna” in it’s atmosphere building as it plays with tempo changes in flowing breakdown sections that once again touch on Melodic Deathcore. There is both a heavy band and a melodic band within Immerse and with “Suffer”, they manage to find the balance between the opposing styles that older bands struggle to [7.5/10]