Thursday, September 26th, 2024 – Switzerland’s titans of brutality, Paleface Swiss, are back with a vengeance! Today, the band unveils their brutal new single, “HATRED”, alongside the official announcement of their highly anticipated third full-length album, ‘Cursed’, set to drop January 3rd, 2025. Fans can experience the full, savage force of the new single and its accompanying music video by streaming the track HERE and watching the music video HERE or by clicking the thumbnail below. Pre-order your copy of ‘Cursed‘ HERE.
“HATRED“, the album’s ferocious lead single, delivers everything fans have come to love from Paleface Swiss: relentlessly visceral intensity, Zelli’s instantly recognizable, rapid fire rap-style vocals, Yannick Lehmann‘s insane thrash-inspired solos and ten-ton heavy nu-metal-esque riffs and the pummeling rhythmic backbone of Tommy Lee‘s basslines and Cassiano “Cassi'” Toma‘s drumming, providing lightening fast blast beats and brutal beatdowns. 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. For the music video, we wanted to keep it simple and raw—a no-nonsense, old-school performance video with us going as hard as we can in a room. There are, however, a few easter eggs hidden in there that will make more sense as we release more videos from this album.”
“Hatred” also begins with album intro track, “Un Pobre Niño Murió“, a reimagining of a song the band heard for the first time when they decamped to Tenerife, where their close friend and tour manager, Ron Steven Deris, lives, to write their new record. Elaborating on the story, “Zelli” continues “We went to Ron’s place in Tenerife, and every morning and every evening we had breakfast and dinner together. We always listened to vinyl while eating, and one evening he pulled out a Canary Islands folklore vinyl with very old songs—like all of the artists on these songs had been dead for many years—and this song came on with just one woman singing by herself. It’s supposed to be a children’s lullaby, but it was actually scary. The lyrics are the complete opposite of a lullaby.”
‘Cursed’ is a masterclass in modern brutality and encapsulates two years of creative exploration and raw personal experiences for the Paleface Swiss members. The band retreated to the seclusion of the Canary Islands to craft this sonic juggernaut. Collaborating with Ron Steven Deris at Misueno Studios andwith long-time collaborator Florent Salfati (Landmvrks) helping to add the finishing touches, their work culminated in an album that marries the band’s signature heaviness with intricate conceptual storytelling Zelli goes on to share:
“This time we wanted to keep it simple and follow the lead of the big guys, taking the necessary time for it. However, it was still an exhausting process. I’m overjoyed with the result and can’t wait to unleash our first concept album upon the world.”
The album features nine tracks, each paired with a specific flower on the album artwork that represents a different struggle, forming a bouquet of beauty and darkness that mirrors the band’s tumultuous experiences. 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.”
Paleface Swiss
Cursed
Album Tracklist
1. Un Pobre Niño Murió
2. Hatred
3. …and with hope you’ll be damned
4. Don’t You Ever Stop
5. Enough
6. Youth Decay
7. My Blood On Your Hands
8. Love Burns
9. River of Sorrows
To celebrate the release of ‘Cursed’ at the top of 2025, Paleface Swiss is gearing up to take their monstrous sound across North America with their biggest US Headline Tour to date. The tour kicks off on March 20th, 2025, in Detroit, MI, and will cover 30 cities, including Los Angeles, New York, and Toronto. Fans can expect blistering performances packed with the band’s signature groove-laden riffs, unrelenting energy, and Zelli’s insane vocal acrobatics. Full tour dates and tickets are available HERE. Speaking on the upcoming tour, Zelli enthuses
“We can’t wait to return for a bigger US headlining tour… I would love to be sitting on the tour bus tomorrow. But like the cheese Switzerland is famous for, this also has to mature well first”
PALEFACE SWISS
NORTH AMERICA 2025 HEADLINE TOUR
3/20 Detroit, MI, St. Andrews Hall
3/21 Toronto, ON, Lees Palace
3/22 Montreal, QC, Club Soda
3/23 Worcester, MA Palladium (Upstairs)
3/26 Albany, NY, Empire Live
3/27 Baltimore, MD, Soundstage
3/28 Pittsburgh, PA , Roxian Theatre
3/29 Greensboro, NC, Hangar 1819
3/30 Tampa, FL, Orpheum
04/01 Orlando, FL, The Abbey
04/02 Atlanta, GA, Masquerade (Hell)
04/03 Nashville, TN, Eastside Bowl
04/04 Louisville, KY, Mercury Ballroom
04/05 St. Louis, MO, Red Flag
04/06 Wichita, KS, Wave (Indoors)
04/08 San Antonio, TX, Vibes Underground
04/09 Dallas, TX, Southside Music Hall
4/10 Albuquerque, NM, Sunshine Theater
4/11 Mesa, AZ, Nile
4/12 Los Angeles, CA, The Regent
4/13 Roseville, CA, Goldfields
4/15 Portland, OR, Dante’s
4/16 Vancouver, BC, Rickshaw Theatre
4/17 Seattle, WA, El Corazon
4/18 Spokane, WA, The Knitting Factory
4/19 Salt Lake City, UT, Metro Music Hall
4/20 Denver, CO, Summit
4/22 Omaha, NE, The Waiting Room
4/23 Iowa City, IA, Wildwood
4/24 Minneapolis, MN, Varsity Theater
4/25 Milwaukee, WI, The Rave II
4/26 Chicago, IL, Thalia Hall
Armed with a brand new album, an ever-growing army of devoted fans, critical acclaim, sold-out headline shows and stellar festival performances garnering new fans wherever they go, Paleface Swiss have their sights firmly set total, global domination. Stay tuned, buckle up and kick back for the ride.
ABOUT PALEFACE SWISS
Since the release of their third album, ‘Chapter 3: The Last Selection‘, independent outfit, PALEFACE SWISS have gained international recognition throughout the Deathcore and Beatdown Community. Known for their huge, aggressive riffs, brutally bombastic rhythm section, frontman, Zelli’s outstanding vocals and a pinch of humor. This is Switzerland’s finest heavy music. Across their catalog, the band have gained 40 million streams and 6.7 million YouTube views.
PALEFACE SWISS was formed in Zurich, Switzerland in 2017 by vocalist Marc Zellweger (Zelli) and drummer Colin Hammond (CJ) having met through a mutual friend in 2016. After bonding over a shared love of beatdowns and hardcore, Zelli and CJ shook hands at a concert in 2017 and promised they would create the craziest beatdown band ever together. They released their debut ‘Chapter 1: From The Gallows’ in 2018 and played their first show in October 2018 and quickly grew in popularity with the song “Deprivation Method”.
In early 2019, Paleface started writing ‘Chapter 2: Witch King’ and started working on the final installment of the dark story they’d created with Chapters 1 & 2. ‘Chapter 3: The Last Selection’ was released on October 30th 2020, spawning four music huge tracks “Curse Us”, “The Rats”, “Lights Out” and “Skalpell” which quickly ranked high in the beatdown/hardcore charts and saw the band become cover stars on Spotify’s Heavy Beatdown playlist.
In 2022 the band released their most ambitious and brutal album yet, ‘Fear & Dagger‘. The album was widely considered a huge step up for the band as plaudits began to roll in for frontman Zelli’s vocal ability, Metal Injection accurately summed it up in their review by saying, “It’s fun to get caught up in Paleface’s unrelenting instrumentals, but Zelli’s really the star of Paleface. This is largely because he treats his screams like rap bars.” The album shot the band into the upper echelons of the “deathcore renaissance” and spawned singles “The Orphan“, “Deathtouch“, “Dead Man’s Diary” feat. LANDMVRKS frontman Florent Salfati and most recently, fan favourite and stylistic curveball, “My Grave / Lay with Me“. The album focuses on more mature and critical topics related to the fears and struggles young people have to contend with in the 21st century, most importantly, the topic of mental health.
The album’s technical proficiency and no-holds barred brutality, coupled with Zelli’s unique delivery and highly emotional lyrics struck a chord with fans worldwide, racking up 15 million cross-platform streams, nearly 1 million YouTube views and saw the band’s monthly Spotify users increase by over 300%, currently at 320k. It was released to much acclaim with New Transcendence stating “Paleface have created one of the most emotionally relevant and intriguing beatdown releases to date” andWall of Sound calling it “an unashamedly brutal and angry album” and calling the band As Metal Injection so astutely put it in their review of ‘Fear & Dagger’ – “Stop pretending to be cultured, and get down with the beatdown.”.
PALEFACE SWISS Are:
Vox: Marc “Zelli” Zellweger
Guitar: Yannick Lehmann
Bass: Tommy-Lee Abt
Drums: Cassiano Toma
Follow Paleface Swiss