London’s Electric Brixton venue has been home to plenty of the most impressive heavy tours of the last few years. Even in the last couple of months it’s held shows from Misery Signals, Cattle Decapitation and plenty of others. But last night’s show might be one of the most talked about of those for years to come, as three apoplectic bands turned up and turned the room inside out. Paleface Swiss sold out their whole headline tour for their latest album ‘Cursed’, and just their name and the promise of their crushing live show alone was enough to sell a very healthy majority of tickets, but with the addition of The Acacia Strain’s pounding deathcore and Desolated’s spittle-flecked hardcore, it was a surefire recipe success. Now, as we rewind to the events of the night and it’s abundantly clear just how successful it really was, we can look back and see quite how obvious it was that the show would be so brilliant.
The first sign should’ve been the absolutely enormous queue that more than comfortably wrapped all the way around the corner and carried on for some distance, with a significant proportion of the punters rocking their own Paleface merch in preparation for the night to unfold. Once in the building, even before the first notes of Desolated’s set rang out, the excitement was more than even just palpable - it was visible on the faces of most everyone in the room! Desolated then began proceedings with a stunning display of how not to observe health and safety practice within crowds, as they riled up a pit full of spin kickers, crowdkillers and more within a song or two. Their utter disdain for anything other than causing mayhem was a joy to behold, and with riffs upon breakdowns upon riffs upon breakdowns they mercilessly careened through a half hour set that could have carried on for far longer, but was immeasurably enjoyable whilst it lasted. Notable highlights would be ‘Victim’ and ‘Another Realm Of Misery’, but if there was more room then their whole set would make an easy inclusion into the highlights reel of the evening.
The Acacia Strain’s set was in a similar vein, but with more brutal vocals, more squeals (both vocal and guitar pick), and more moshers. As Paleface Swiss’ noose hung ominously above the stage, adding a morbid atmosphere to proceedings, the hardcore tinged deathcore crew walked onstage to a chorus of whoops and cheers, before abruptly switching up and getting into sixth gear to kick off the set. The fashion with which they dispatched their crushing setlist was incredible, and their professionalism shone through as they displayed their massive experience at running a crowd that’s already full of energy excellently. ‘CHAIN’ went off like a bomb had been let off, and ‘Feed A PIgeon Breed A Rat’ was truly a sight to behold. Finishing with ‘Carbomb’ left no room for breath, and certainly brooked no argument that The Acacia Strain had laid the Electric Brixton to waste.
As the evening’s headliners arrived on the stage, the volume in the room easily tripled. Paleface Swiss have been going from strength to strength of late, and their London show might be one of the finest examples of it. As the European quartet began their set with ‘Hatred’, the room erupted into a sea of movement, with crowd surfers and moshers and spin kickers all taking up space in the middle somewhere, just trying to be as involved as possible in the pulverising power of Paleface. The band have notably a little less hardcore influence than their support acts, and whilst that did mean that they had a little less two stepping and mosh calls, the melodic elements they did incorporate soared high into the night above the audience. Their carefully crafted blend of modern and old school deathcore with bits of hardcore, metalcore, nu metal and modern alt music gives them plenty of points for a huge variety of fans to latch onto and enjoy, giving them a scope that their supports just didn’t have. As the set progressed, songs like ‘...and with hope you’ll be damned’ tore the Electric Brixton a new one and gave their lighting technician plenty of time to shine.
The visual show was stunning, and when vocalist Marc Zellweger joked about coming back to play the Wembley Arena next time, it felt less and less like a joke the longer the set carried on. We could quite easily be watching one of the next big arena headline bands on the circuit - and with it all to play for, they hit for six. The one-two punch encore of ‘Pain’ and ‘Love Burns’ was received rapturously by an audience who could not do anything but scream their love for the band, and walking out into the cold Sunday evening air after they’d finished felt like the end of an era for the Swiss group, and the beginning of something that much bigger.
Words: Jake Longhurst
Photos: Lizzie Jones
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