Live Review : Paleface Swiss + The Acacia Strain + Desolated @ New Century Hall, Manchester on February 28th 2025

Move over Slipknot because there are a Swiss band in town that know exactly how to entice your fans into turning up in Manchester on a cold night! Meet Paleface Swiss who fans of the afore mentioned mask-wearing crew and Five Finger Death Punch should check out immediately. Well…after you’ve read this review if you’d be kind.

The UK’s very own Desolated kick off proceedings with all the energy and vibrancy you could wish to see. They truly embody the spirit of modern hardcore through every element. Their sound is classic hardcore but built upon with those thrashy and occasional blackened elements. At the end of the last year the band changed their line-up with Tony Evans moving onto lead vocals and Dan Ford returning on bass. If anything, it’s reinvigorated the band and their ferocious live performances. Obviously, there are nods to Malevolence here, but also that primal energy of bands like Kublai Khan TX.

They bustle with fast yet precise buzzsaw-like guitars, thunderously pounding bass and almost a barked litany of commands to the crowd. In fairness the crowd are lapping up every second with a pit almost the size of the room. Between that and the enormous queue for the merch stand, which snakes all the way from the back of the hall to the front barrier, the venue feels packed already for the opening band. The atmosphere is electric and you’d almost be fooled into thinking the openers were the main event.

Main support is from The Acacia Strain, a band that we’ve covered before and always bring a ridiculously heavy and enjoyable show. They blend death metal, tech and hardcore and fans of Thy Art Is Murder and After The Burial will dine out joyously to these guys’ death-tech-metal onslaught. The crowd continue to go wild, but with a much more densely packed room now. The punters are treated to plenty of groove, with technicality, delivered in a viciously snarling guitar tone and variation of brutal stompy death and techy thrash.

Vincent Bennett, complete with cap, windbreaker and…shorts, is a well-rehearsed frontman and knows exactly how to conduct the crowd through every track of the set. The engaging feel of the performance continues from start to finish and the energy and passion these guys bring to the stage is infectious. The Acacia Strain are a must-listen-see-and-follow for anyone who loves any aspect of death metal and hardcore crossover.

Paleface Swiss are not afraid of headliners that’s for sure. They make the crowd wait with a fully set-up and sound-checked stage for nearly thirty minutes. They’re clearly pulling a Guns’n’Roses trick quite clearly. The crowd are almost baying for blood with anticipation by the time the band take to stage with a theatrical entrance. A gallows and noose take centre stage over the drum kit and I pray that the set isn’t poised to become either a snuff film or a dodgy magic show. Every third person in the crowd has their mobile phone up to video the first song…second song…third song and on. It’s impressive that there’s still a reciprocated energy with the extremely animated band on stage though.

The band deliver a slick nod to all that is popular in accessible metal, and rightly there’s plenty of buzz about them filling the gap that Slipknot arguably left following ‘Iowa’. It does occasionally feel like it’s one long indulgent intro followed by a series of beatdowns but the vocals are more than interesting enough to carry it all. They are harshly scurrying, brutal and at times rap-like. I’ve seen Paleface Swiss before and felt like their tracks were somewhat stuck in a rut, playing the same formula over and over again, but what they’ve done is take that and made it into their calling card positively in a way that Five Finger Death Punch have channelled an impressive career out of. Having said that, if you're into Biohazard, Bleed From Within, and clearly Slipknot, then give the excitable Paleface Swiss a shot.

Check the “In The Flesh” page for more photos!
Paleface Swiss + The Acacia Strain + Desolated