Make are a four-piece from North Carolina, who issued their debut LP as far back as 2011. They went quiet for a decade after 2016’s Pilgrimage of Loathing, but now they’re ready to pick up the pace again. Album number four is a thoughtful record of deep introspection for those that can tolerate solitude.
An oscillating drone circles around the mix like the rays of a lighthouse as backwards sound effects zig-zag through the bass notes in opener, ‘The End of the Night’. It’ll remind you of the mystical intro to ‘Warped’ by the Red Hot Chili Peppers (when they were a relevant rock band), or maybe even the early Verve records. But this is a band anchored in progressive sludge metal, even if it takes five minutes and forty seconds to ram the force of the distortion pedal onto this canvas with stabbing staccato chords. It’s a brief spasm of violence, and they stay away from it for most of the first six minutes until screeching feedback and out-of-key intervals take over. We don’t know if Scott Endres or Spencer Lee has the microphone when the grisly vocals enter, but you can feel the anguish like an invisible mist. Listen how the riffs become crunchier as they get into gear. The repeat button is your natural friend here.
By contrast, its successor, ‘The Judge’, is easier to comprehend if you like death-doom with a hardcore DNA. Though less than five minutes, they cram a lot in here at a slow but agitated tempo. You can hear the origins of this sound in Black Flag’s infamous 1984 sludge metal opus, My War. ‘Forking Paths’ take the blueprint of the punk heroes, but the use of a monotone subdued voice in the clean verses has an atonality that could be mistaken for a slacker drowning his sorrows alone. Yet this is not music for slackers. Listen how a droning synth hides in the background before they make their amps bleed, and the vocalists open their lungs.
The pacing of this record is its strongest feature. Make follow every progressive piece of cinematic rock with a grungy number that brings out the awesome force of John Crouch’s stick work (see ‘Chimera’ as an example). Fortunately, there’s no yarling vocal technique here. Instead, the barking lies somewhere between Page Hamilton (Helmet) and Henry Rollins. You don’t need to see the lyrics to understand the mood or tone of these songs.
The only number that needs no second analysis is the distorted rasp of ‘The Spectacle’. It’s as close to simple as this group can get, yet the busy drumbeats must be a challenge to perform live. When you think of doom metal, you often imagine it to be a slog. That’s not the case here. There’s an urgency to this music that gets inside you even when your mind wanders. And that even applies to the disenchanted tempo and subdued build-up of clean arpeggios in closing track, ‘The Augur’. A panic-stricken combination of guitar notes helps to keep things intense. The agonising vocal projections will leave you in no doubt that Make mean every word. Perhaps the only surprise is their limited appetite for experimentation when there’s so much room in these songs.
Kirk Houghton
Verdict
Release Date: 12/06/2026
Record Label: Self-released
Standout tracks: The End of the Night; Forking Paths; Chimera
Suggested Further Listening: Everest Queen – Murmurations (2022), Beneath A Steel Sky – Cleave (2025), De l’Abîme Naît l’Aube – Rituel : Initiation (2026)