Review By Ian Walker
When Paleface Swiss released Cursed in January 2025, the modern metal landscape shook under its weight. A volatile, deeply emotional Nu-Core masterwork born in isolation and crafted with absolute precision, the album didn’t just connect—it detonated. Now, the band returns with Cursed: The Complete Edition, a towering 14-track expansion of their most successful and creatively fearless era to date. More than just a deluxe reissue, it’s a powerful final chapter in a story that continues to resonate across the globe.
From its opening breath to its final scream, Cursed: The Complete Edition is a relentless exploration of betrayal, trauma, inner darkness, and the hard-won rage that comes from surviving it. The concept behind the album—each track tied to a symbolic flower representing sorrow, rage, or resilience—still holds strong, but the expanded edition adds even greater narrative weight and sonic intensity.
Tracks like “Hatred,” “My Blood On Your Hands,” and “Youth Decay” remain the spine of this project. These songs are where Paleface Swiss showed they had evolved beyond their earlier work, elevating themselves above scene expectations. “Hatred” is as brutal as its title suggests—a grindcore-inflected anthem with a staggeringly violent breakdown that still manages to feel methodical rather than chaotic. “My Blood On Your Hands” shifts between guttural devastation and haunting clean vocal passages, evidence of the band’s expanding emotional range. “Love Burns” and “River Of Sorrows” provide more nuanced moments, giving texture to the rage with melancholic overtones and swelling melodic tension.
What made Cursed truly remarkable back in January is still intact: the ability to marry modern deathcore brutality with genuine vulnerability. That emotional openness, woven through the violence, is what’s turned so many casual listeners into diehard fans. And those emotional stakes are only raised with the new additions in The Complete Edition.
The three previously stand-alone singles—“Best Before: Death,” “Please End Me,” and “The Gallow”—feel anything but tacked on. Instead, they flesh out the psychological descent and inner monologue running through the album’s core. “Best Before: Death” is particularly unsettling, confronting mortality through industrial textures and slow-burning, sinister groove riffs. “Please End Me” is a gut punch, raw and unflinching in its depiction of hopelessness—yet delivered with a precision and clarity that refuses to wallow.
Then there’s “The Gallow,” which might be the most cinematic of the new tracks, both in its pacing and atmosphere. From ghostly melodies to its final, echoing breakdown, it plays like a climax to the entire concept—a moment of confrontation between the narrator and their demons.
“I Am A Cursed One,” the new bonus track exclusive to The Complete Edition, feels like a mission statement: blunt, self-aware, and confrontational. Clocking in as one of the most sonically dense songs on the record, it encapsulates the album’s themes with sharpened claws—“I’m not the victim, I’m the wound,” one lyric screams. It’s a chilling reminder that healing doesn’t always mean peace—it can mean embracing the damage and pushing through anyway.
Among the carnage, there is stillness. “River Of Sorrows (Unplugged)” featuring Ron Deris strips the band of their war paint and leaves the raw skin exposed. Known for chaotic live energy and towering walls of sound, this unplugged version offers a rare moment of reflection. Deris’s guest vocals bring additional weight, while the acoustic arrangement lets the emotional core of the track shine through without distraction. It’s haunting, heartfelt, and perhaps the bravest track on the record—not because it’s quiet, but because it dares to be soft.
Recorded in isolation in the Canary Islands, Cursed was co-produced by Ron Deris at Misueno Studios, with final touches from longtime collaborator Florent Salfati of Landmvrks. The atmosphere of that isolation bleeds through every track—this is an album that feels both huge and inward-looking. Salfati’s fingerprints can be heard in the balance between clarity and chaos; it’s a meticulously layered record, but it never feels over-polished.
The decision to connect each song to a symbolic flower is a subtle but effective touch that adds depth to the conceptual narrative. Like petals strewn on a battlefield, these tracks feel beautiful in their devastation.
The numbers speak for themselves. Cursed debuted at #1 in the UK, #3 in the US, and reached #17 worldwide on Spotify. Off the back of the album, Paleface Swiss sold 55,000 tickets across two major tours, including packed-out venues in North America, the UK, and Europe. The energy that lives in their recordings translates effortlessly to their live shows—each track feels designed not just for listening, but for experiencing viscerally, physically.
With Cursed: The Complete Edition, Paleface Swiss have given fans the full picture. This isn’t just a set of B-sides or a marketing ploy to extend a successful cycle—it’s a vital piece of their journey, bridging what came before with what comes next.
A Landmark Release for Modern Metal
In a genre often boxed in by tropes, Paleface Swiss break free without abandoning their roots. They remain unapologetically heavy, but there’s an artistry and emotional honesty here that elevates Cursed: The Complete Edition beyond most metalcore or deathcore releases this year.
Whether it’s the throat-tearing honesty of “Don’t You Ever Stop,” the spiraling chaos of “and with hope you’ll be damned,” or the introspective gravity of “River Of Sorrows,” this album showcases a band that is constantly evolving without losing its soul.
If Cursed marked the arrival of Paleface Swiss as serious contenders, then Cursed: The Complete Edition solidifies their status as one of the most important voices in modern metal. It’s brutal, beautiful, and unrelentingly human.
Final Score: 9.5/10
For fans of Lorna Shore, Landmvrks, Slaughter to Prevail, and anyone looking for metal with both muscle and meaning.
Prepare yourself. Cursed: The Complete Edition isn’t just an album—it’s a reckoning.
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