“I know that this song’s gonna make you real mad.”
Swiss cheese specialists Paleface Swiss just don’t seem to quit. As rising stars of deathcore and beatdown they’ve ensured that all ears in a set radius know they’re the angriest band in town, refusing to be dethroned by anyone or anything. Whilst 2022’s Fear & Dagger proved to be a launching point for the band, bringing razor sharp bars as part of their deranged brand of devastating ditties to a larger audience, CURSED strives to turn their trademark rage inwards to see what deep-rooted mental unrest they can uproot in their most personal yet ambitious effort to date.
Diligently preserving the band’s history of disturbing introductions and interludes, “un pobre niño murió” sets the tone of the record through a reinterpretation of a rather morbid Canarian lullaby that the band stumbled across during the CURSED writing sessions. Directly translating to “a poor child died”, our first peek into Pandora’s box features an unnamed singer serenading the void whilst it closes in around her. Impenetrable noise and ambience oozes through the cracks and slowly corrupts the atmosphere. With this nightmare fuel finally reaching its peak, “Hatred” uses the opportunity to introduce itself in quite possibly the most Paleface Swiss manner conceivable – with as many expletives as can possibly fit in a short time, before letting loose and lamenting an unfair and broken world at break-neck speeds. It’s about here where I’d jest something along the lines of ‘take a shot every time that vocalist Marc ‘Zelli’ Zellweger directly uses the word “hate” and / or “hatred” during this song’ but quite frankly we’d prefer to remain unaccountable for any alcohol related fatalities. The track’s adoration of the sound of its own title is fully justified however, as “Hatred” wholly embodies this namesake through its scathingly bleak and contemptuous lyricism. The whirlwind of pace changes leaving you scrambling to keep up.
A candle-extinguishing breath forewarns us “…and with hope you’ll be damned” – blowing the album’s doors straight off via some of the finest, most addicting songwriting that Paleface Swiss have ever displayed. Over the scrumptious groove of the main riff, a nihilistic rhyme condemns the very presence of hope as if spoken directly from the lips of the Joker himself. The landscape of the song ceaselessly swells like a purulent wound, fit to burst under the weight of its own hook (once again simply consisting of its title, a fairly persistent theme throughout the record). With as many stops and starts as a vintage lawnmower, “Don’t You Ever Stop” continues to tickle the brain with its own selection of satisfying hallmarks. Vocal vigor and percussive prowess are part of an ever-tensening battle between Zelli’s flow and Cassiano Toma’s battery. It would be a safe bet to assume that these two will end up being the fan favourites of the record – their highly digestible, moreish structure combined with a fistful of giddying highlights make for an explosive first act to the album.
If you’ve been a follower of the Swiss Squad for a good while now, you’ll most likely already loosely know the story behind our next track – the year is 2023, and Zelli and crew found themselves releasing three standalone singles, the last of which “The Gallow” found itself promptly under fire. It broke their clean vocal abstinence, and naturally, this resulted in purists condemning the creative liberty – an event that members of the band have been justly vocal about. Taking on the form of a trappy hip-hop song, “Enough?” feels like an attempt to completely and utterly salt that wound, whilst also using it as a vessel to tackle themes surrounding homophobia and toxic-masculinity. As we approach the half-way point, however, Zelli calls out to guitarist Yannick Lehmann to “bring back that old school shit” – prompting a total genre-shift into a rapidly dismantling reprise of “Judgement Day” from previous album Fear & Dagger, with altered lyrics that mock those guilty of elitism for begging the band to repeatedly retread common ground. Even if on the nose and a bit jarring to start with, it can be argued that this blunt nature is a key component of what Paleface Swiss do on a fundamental level: remaining staggeringly true to the core values of the band, and leaving us with an impressively bold finished product despite the initial departure in sound (it should also be noted that this is not the first time we’ve seen Paleface lean into a more rap inspired sound, see “My Grave / Lay With Me”).
Wild and thrashy at heart, “Youth Decay” sets off swinging with divebombs and powerchord riffage firmly in hand. It’s a bold stylistic choice for a song preaching a ‘loss of innocence’ subject matter, shedding the skin of a bygone era to reinforce that the growth fought for in “Enough?” isn’t going away anytime soon. The implementation of relatively untrodden elements like melodic choruses and a more prominent lead feel right at home. “Youth Decay” is an accurate precedent for what Paleface Swiss are aiming for whilst also proving that they haven’t lost their edge, leaving plenty of room for punishment in the form of good ol’ fashioned beatdown amidst flashy new components.
Moving onwards to our next set of singles, the steady ticking of a lonesome beat on “My Blood On Your Hands” draws us in closer to the briefest expedition in the history of Paleface Swiss (excluding interlude tracks featured on “Chapter 3: The Last Selection” and “Chapter 2: Witch King”). The track chooses its few words carefully – its repetitive incantation chronicles the everyday psychological horror of getting inside your own head, along with the cycle of cognitive unrest that comes with such overthinking. A dizzying flurry of sliding strings closes the song out, but not before Zelli can unleash a few inhuman noises to keep the listener in a perturbed state. The recurrent, trance-like nature of this track means it is all the sweeter by being kept short.
There are parts of “Love Burns” that if you were to tell me were scrapped takes from Slipknot’s “Iowa” album, I might just believe you – and that’s probably about the best compliment you can possibly get within this genre. There’s something similarly evocative about the vitriol on display: the nihilistic rage oozing from Zelli’s throat shredding sing-along, in conjunction with Yannick, Tommy Lee and Cassi laying down the red carpet of smackdown, groove and noise. Much like a good majority of this album the song prefers to not stay in one spot for too long, bouncing through guitar solos and chug sections, finally landing us gasping for air in the pool of melancholy that is its closing moments. It fades out for just a short while in order to properly reflect upon the carnage; a heavy hearted hymn, begging for release in the upcoming finale.
An album defined by rage-filled defiance must close in the most defiant way accomplishable – and for Paleface Swiss that’s “River Of Sorrows”. Instead of the incomprehensible brutality that we’ve come to expect, we experience the shellshock of hearing the opposite. It feels almost bitterly retrospective of the unbridled fury that has encompassed the band’s entire career, questioning whether or not it was all worth it in the end. A grungy, wavy guitar tone works alongside a melancholic and frustrated Marc Zelli, aiming to loosen up those tear ducts for the big finish, exclusively through clean singing. The audience should realise just how convincing of an emotive singer Zelli can be if given the right space. Soldiering on through to the climax, a short burst of anger and confusion once again begin to seep through and lead us to the heaviest section. From a reserved breakdown through gritted teeth to the weeps of Yannick’s guitar as he chaperones us out of the albums doors via solo, his lead singer reduced to tears in the process. Ultimately it is the long-term deprivation of such emotions that make “River Of Sorrows” as effective as it is.
Undoubtedly a divisive release, Paleface Swiss’ newest beast pays close attention to shortcomings of the past whilst spitefully leaning into elitist nitpicks. CURSED always remains true to the carnage that makes Paleface Swiss who they are, but also makes a conscious effort to broaden that definition in the interest of the band themselves. Sitting at well under half the runtime of their previous album, CURSED is by definition an evolution of an already iconic identity filled to the brim with blood, sweat and tears like no other, making for one of the most rewarding examples of musical growth in recent memory. Depending on how attached you are to the unrelenting and feral past of this band, CURSED may either prove itself an early album of the year contender, or prove the band right in saying “I know that this song’s gonna make you real mad”.
9/10
CURSED will be released via Kingstar GmbH on January 3rd, 2025. You can pre-order / pre-save the album here.