Review by Rick Eaglestone for MPM
Swiss Savage purveyors Paleface Swiss return with third album Cursed.
Retreating to the seclusion of canary islands Paleface Swiss still manage to create a level on intensity even on seemingly serene opener Un Pobre Niño Murió before the raw, creative fireball Hatred fires through the speakers with tinges of the more manic elements of Korn’s life is peachy with Zelli’s instantly recognisable, rapid-fire rap-style vocals, accompanied by lightning-fast blast beats and brutal beatdowns. Undoubtably this set the tone for the album.
Speaking on the track, Marc “Zelli” Zellweger shares, “When you’re a kid growing up, you’re happy and you think everything is cool, but nowadays, every time you open your phone, it’s just a flood of negativity. We’re bombarded with so much bad news every day that finding anything positive feels nearly impossible. ‘Hatred’ is us venting our frustration about the things we can’t change. It may not be as deep as the other tracks on the album, but it’s for everyone who’s fed up with the constant negativity in the world.
The chugging and twisting elements of …and with hope you’ll be damned with its commanding narrative style really leans into the nostalgic nu-metal tones that accompany it which is followed up with Don’t You Ever Stop which is easily my highlight track with equal levels of foreboding and fury clearly demonstrating that the band have entered their first concept album with elements
A different soundscape enters with Enough – gritty hip hop tones delivered with the anger of Onyx mixed a skull twisting heaviness to create something that deserves to be played on repeat over and over!!
Youth Decay combines varying vocal tones with sprinkles of atmosphere and sludge and solos galore, there is a lot going on this track, it perfectly encapsulates the aesthetic of the album, and I am here for every single part.
Zelli elaborates,”This record is for sure our most personal one so far. We’ve always written about topics like mental health, but we’ve usually written about people who are really close to us. On this record there wasn’t really much space for stories from other people. Between the time when we released “Fear & Dagger “and writing this record, there were periods when this is how we all felt. I’d say 80% of these two years were filled with so much happiness and joy, which I’m really thankful for, but the few dark days that we had ARE this record.”
My Blood On Your Hands starts off raw and stripped back and would have easily worked like this in full but the elements that underpin it are well placed and serve as a great introduction the unapologetically bludgeoning Love Burns
Cursed concludes with the hauntingly razor laden outpouring River Of Shadows which forms a bouquet of beauty and darkness that mirrors the band’s tumultuous experiences and is an absolute perfect way to close this chapter which will no doubt be revisited for the entirety of 2025 and beyond.
Cursed Track listing:
- Un Pobre Niño Murió
- Hatred
- …and with hope you’ll be damned
- Don’t You Ever Stop
- Enough
- Youth Decay
- My Blood On Your Hands
- Love Burns
- River Of Sorrows
Line-up:
Vox: Marc “Zelli” Zellweger
Guitar: Yannick Lehmann
Bass: Tommy-Lee Abt
Drums: Cassiano ‘Cassi’ Toma
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8/10
