Switzerland’s Paleface Swiss are back with their third full-length album, ‘Cursed’. ‘Cursed’ marks a change for the four-piece. It’s their first album to be released under the new name (they added ‘Swiss’ in 2023), but also the first to feature Cassiano Toma on drums.
Coming in at just under half an hour, ‘Cursed’ mixes a wide range of styles and influences, from nu-metal vocals on ‘Enough’ to the spoken word elements on ‘My Blood on Your Hands’.
Describing ‘Cursed’ as their ‘first concept album’, frontman Marc Zellweger explains that the album is mostly based on the band’s personal struggles with mental health over the past two years. While on previous albums they’ve looked outside the band for inspiration, this time it came from their own experiences.
Opening track, Un Pobre Niño Murió, samples a sinister Spanish lullaby the band heard for the first time when they decamped to Tenerife to write the album, slowly building before exploding into the first track proper, ‘Hatred’. From there it’s onwards and upwards, the rest of the album is a consistently heavy modern deathcore album.
I enjoyed the album, and there are unexpected style twists that set it apart a bit, and keep you listening. But it’s still just another deathcore album. It’s definitely a good deathcore album, but it doesn’t have enough to stand out from the (very big) crowd. Will it be on any ‘best of 2025’ lists come December? Probably, because there are a lot of lists. Will it be on mine? No, in all honesty, I’ll probably have forgotten I ever heard it. Slightly damned by faint praise, but it’s not personal, not everything can be monumental. However it’s fun, it’s energetic and it’ll be great live.
You can catch Paleface Swiss on tour across Europe, with six dates in the UK from the 25th of February, with support from the Acacia Strain and Desolated. They’ll then head to the United States for their biggest headline tour yet.
30.01.25 Switzerland Zürich X-Tra – LOW TICKETS
31.01.25 Germany Nürnberg Z-Bau- SOLD OUT
01.02.25 Germany Köln Essigfabrik – SOLD OUT
02.02.25 France Paris La Maroquinerie – SOLD OUT
04.02.25 France Lyon Marché Gare – SOLD OUT
05.02.25 Spain Bilbao Stage Live
06.02.25 Portugal Lisboa LAV
07.02.25 Spain Madrid Nazca – LOW TICKETS
08.02.25 Spain Barcelona Razzmatazz 3 – SOLD OUT
09.02.25 France Toulouse Le Rex
11.02.25 Germany Karlsruhe Substage
12.02.25 Germany München Backstage Werk
13.02.25 Austria Wien Flex – SOLD OUT
14.02.25 Germany Leipzig Felsenkeller – LOW TICKETS
15.02.25 Czech Republic Prague Futurum – LOW TICKETS
16.02.25 Germany Berlin Festsaal Kreuzberg
18.02.25 Denmark Copenhagen Pumpehuset – LOW TICKETS
19.02.25 Germany Hamburg Gruenspan – LOW TICKETS
20.02.25 Germany Frankfurt Batschkapp – LOW TICKETS
21.02.25 Netherlands Tilburg O13 – SOLD OUT
22.02.25 Germany Hannover Faust – SOLD OUT
23.02.25 Belgium Antwerp Trix – LOW TICKETS
25.02.25 UK Birmingham Xoyo – LOW TICKETS
26.02.25 UK Leeds Project House – LOW TICKETS
27.02.25 UK Glasgow SWG 3 TV Studio – LOW TICKETS
28.02.25 UK Manchester New Century Hall – LOW TICKETS
01.03.25 UK Bristol SWX – LOW TICKETS
02.03.25 UK London Electric Brixton – LOW TICKETS
The album is available now, on streaming services, and through the band’s website, HERE.
PALEFACE SWISS Are:
Vox: Marc “Zelli” Zellweger
Guitar: Yannick Lehmann
Bass: Tommy-Lee Abt
Drums: Cassiano ‘Cassi’ Toma
Find Paleface Swiss Online
www.palefaceswiss.com
Review – Morven
Photo credit – Kriss Jakob