Rating: 6/10

Paleface Swiss’s Cursed explores raw, personal themes with a mix of deathcore, hardcore, and nu-metal, but struggles to fully deliver on its heavy potential.

Paleface Swiss takes a bold step forward with Cursed, their first release under this new moniker and their first concept album centered around mental health. The band fuses an aggressive mix of beatdown hardcore, metalcore, and death metal, offering something fresh with each track. However, while their compositions are well-crafted, the album ultimately falls short in some places.

Key Tracks

The real standout is “Love Burns”—a fast and aggressive number that delivers exactly what fans of deathcore crave. “Youth Decay” follows suit, offering a good balance of breakdowns and grooves.

The mix of rap and nu-metal-style vocals on tracks like “Enough?” provides an interesting angle, but not quite my cup of ale. The rapped vocals, though energetic, feel slightly out of place alongside the band’s heavier elements.

Paleface Swiss’s Signature Sound on Cursed

With Cursed, the band’s instrumental performance shines brightly. The guitars are heavy, the bass solid, and the drumming—courtesy of their new drummer, Cassiano “Cassi” Toma—offers excellent dynamics throughout the album. Despite the chaotic nature of the compositions, the technical execution is impressive. Still, there are moments where the album’s flow feels disrupted by the mix of genres and vocal styles, which makes it difficult to maintain full engagement from start to finish.

Why Cursed Hits Hard (and Misses)

What Cursed succeeds at is showing a new, more diverse side of Paleface Swiss. The incorporation of rap, spoken word, and hardcore breakdowns makes this album a unique venture into personal and sonic experimentation. However, it’s still lacking some of the heaviness that could make this album a true standout. The guttural growls and death metal screams fans expect would elevate the energy and intensity, but without them, the album occasionally feels like it’s holding back.

Verdict

The concept album structure works for the most part, but the lyrics sometimes come across as overly edgy or unsubstantial. While the themes are clear, they don’t evoke the emotional response that may be expected.

For Fans Of: Whitechapel, Suicide Silence and Thy Art is Murder

Must-Hear Tracks: “Hatred,” “Love Burns,” “Youth Decay.”

Own It

Cursed

View on Amazon

Some of the links on this site are affiliate links. This means that if you click on one of these links and make a purchase, I may receive a small commission at no additional cost to you. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. This helps support the site and allows me to continue providing metal reviews and content. Rest assured, I only recommend products that I believe in or have personally reviewed.