PALEFACE SWISS

With a plethora of deathcore bands emerging in the past 5 years, this band from Switzerland is among the best

I really like deathcore.   It’s been around since the early 2000’s with bands like Suicide Silence, Despised Icon and All Shall Perish.   Thy Art is Murder really got me turned on to it a few years ago and since then, we have seen the genre flourish in popularity.   Characterized by a quagmire of different influences like Death metal, black metal, hardcore, industrial, rap and metalcore with lots screaming, simple chord structured guitar, and drums that usually pronounced in the mix.    Not to mention, its not happiest music either.

Tonight at the Rickshaw theatre in Vancouver we have one of the fleshiest Deathcore outfits by the name of Paleface Swiss, from you guessed it, Switzerland.   They also brought along a couple great hardcore bands along as tour support with Nasty and Stick to Your Guns.

But Switzerland?  Should they have some traditional Alpine folk music?   Well, we all seem to forget the Swiss have produced some great metal like Celtic Frost, Samael, Zeal & Ardor, Burning Witches and my old favourites, Krokus.   So, yes, lots of metal there that’s for sure and definitely different.

Paleface Swiss are on a rapid rise in the metal world, they have have only been around since 2017 and tonight they have nearly sold-out the Rickshaw Theatre. In saying that, this is also their first visit here to Vancouver, so deathcore is definitely alive and well in this area of the world.    They have produced 3 albums in the last 5 years, with the latest with Cursed which has received many accolades in the deathcore community.    The album is 90% super heavy, kick you in the face, which too me is reminiscent of vintage Slipknot.   How much of this new album to we hear tonight?  Paleface Swiss are a 4 piece, with Tommy Lee (bass), Yannick Lehmann (guitar)  Cassiano “Cassi” Toma (drums) and Marc “Zelli” Zellweger (vocals).

They hit the stage at 9pm and blitz the well warmed up crowd with “Hatred” from Cursed that gets the crowd surfing motivated and slam pit crushing.   Thereafter, it’s on to “Suppressing Times” from the Fear & Dagger album which is characterized by hyper fast rap style vocals by Zelli.   It was quite the start to the show, as “My Blood On Your Hands” continues the sonic onslaught with Yannick’s crushing palm mutes on his 6 stringed axe.

Zelli,  is quite the charismatic frontman, hustling around the stage and giving an energetic performance.   Yannick as well, on guitar wailing away and with some robust solo work on “Youth Decay”.   All of the band do the rockstar thing quite well, dressing the part and appear pretty happy to be playing here in Vancouver.    Zelli is not shy either, he likes to make that connection with audience between songs.   No, nothing overly political but understands the world disorder going on these days.

The band also sounds great through the Rickshaw sound system, as the backline from Cassi’s drumming and Tommy Lee on bone shaking bass.   Not a muddy sound at all, and sound much like they are on the albums.   Lighting was decent, not a spectacular laser show, but just right in my opinion.   At least you can see the band, as there was minimal fog if any, which can get out of control at the Rickshaw in a hurry.

Midway through the set, Yannick does a guitar solo.  Was I impressed? Not really, it was just ok to me as it didn’t really bring anything new to the table.    Don’t get me wrong though, the dude can definitely rip on the guitar on all the songs, but the solo here was not a highlight for me.    I think he needs to re-work that piece.

They can definitely mix it up in their songs though, and you see that with “Enough?” and “River of Sorrows”.   With a “Enough? we get some gangsta style rap which shows another angle of  Zelli’s talents.  Not only that, “River of Sorrows” up thereafter which Zelli has the cell phones held high for this slow, almost ballad-like.    I am sure he could do a Bush song as he has a little bit of a Gavin Rossdale flavor in his voice when he is not shredding his vocal chords.

No worries, thats it for the soft songs, as they erase that rather quickly with “Please End Me”, which is another slapper that has Yannick grinding out the guitar chugs along with Zelli’s rapid fire raps.   They end the with a couple more head crushers with “Pain” from Fear & Dagger, and “Love Burns” from Cursed about the pitfalls of being in Love.

This show was announced almost a year ago and I was pretty excited that Paleface was coming to town for the first time.   They certainly didn’t disappoint at all, they come across as a exciting live band and to me they are one of the best Deathcore bands out right now.   I am not even sure if that Deathcore label will stick with them in the future as they have a slightly different style than most that makes them a little more memorable than some others.   That is how we will decide on who survives in Deathcore I believe, the ones that are different and can stand out above the rest.    Its a great time for Deathcore right now, and if you are a fan of this style or not , I suggest you  take this one in.  All in all, a definite thumbs up!