What a huge miss. Other bands must be thanking Paleface Swiss for setting the bar so low. 2025 can only get better from here.
To be honest, I didn’t get the hype when ‘Fear & Dagger’ came out in 2022 because it was an hour and six minutes long and every song sounded the same. Well it turns out that when they try to branch out and do something new (like incorporate rap or focus on an emotion other than anger), those songs suck even more.
We get it bro, you can scream fast. But there’s no style. No flair. Not like Attila (when they were good), Hunt The Dinosaur, or The Holy Guile. And if you want the same vocals barked at you over and over again, 156/Silence is significantly better. Paleface’s best attempt is probably on “Hatred” because it’s a rip off of Slipknot.
I just can’t take these guys seriously. Everything sounds so corny and forced. And Zelli’s cringe Joker laugh on every other song isn’t helping. They’re the definition of a performative band. Them and Slaughter To Prevail are the kings of making music for tough guys who think they listen to heavy shit.
The sad part is that Paleface started off as a pretty cool deathcore/slam hybrid and made some legitimately heavy songs. But now they’re on the same path that metalcore bands follow when becoming octane-core buttrock. Paleface started in a heavier place so it’s gonna take them longer to reach the destination, but make no mistake, they’re on their way.
The rap parts are especially rough because the whole “English as a second language” aspect is impossible to ignore. I’m genuinely shocked that “Enough?” was greenlit for the album. It’s supposed to be rap but it doesn’t rhyme. At all. So you basically have a two minute monologue of Zelli whining about the “toxic masculinity” in their fanbase.
My brother in Christ, you are the one that created a slam/deathcore band. You even use all the standards of the genre – gore, women being tortured on album covers, focusing on hate and anger – what kind of listeners did you think you were going to attract with that kind of music? Your last album and your band’s entire marketing scheme tries to appeal to macho, alpha, tough guys. Remember? That’s your whole gimmick – for the last six years you’ve made music for guys who think they listen to heavy shit. Now you want to whine and sing and share your deep emotions, but that’s not what anybody listens to Paleface for, so now you’re mad at your fans because they don’t like this new nonsense that you’re forcing on them. Great. Totally your fans’ fault.
Also, it should be illegal to release a 28-minute album that only has 9 songs, especially when three of them were singles we have already heard AND there’s an intro. So thanks for the 5 songs, I guess.
Now that I’ve spent two hours listening to this trash, I need to move onto something else. The fact that my Spotify wrapped would say this is my most listened to band of the year right now is killing me.
Paleface Swiss // Cursed
Categories: Reviews
