Paleface Swiss have produced another work of fine art. Following this year’s impressively oppressive Cursed album, the modern heavy-music masters have enlisted Stick to Your Guns singer Jesse Barnett to deliver a guest spot on their new “Instrument of War.”
Following a pair of behind-the-scenes videos of the acts working together in the studio, a press release now explains that the track was written by Paleface Swiss and Barnett while their bands were on tour with each other earlier this year. The fruits of that friendship ended up inspiring them to collaborate on the punishing new cut.
The song also took influence from an old Pablo Picasso quote, in which the Guernica master said, “Painting is not done to decorate apartments. It is an instrument of war for attack and defense against the enemy.” Together, Paleface Swiss and Barnett muse on “art as armor.”
“Our music isn’t just some shit to put on in the background,” Paleface Swiss singer Marc Zellwegger and Barnett commented in a joint statement “It’s something real that comes from a real place and it’s meant to attack the things that divide us and defend all the things that bring us together.”
A new music video for the collab — which is bound to the artistic theme — was directed by Kriss Jakob. You can check it out up above.
Adding to its heft, “Instrument of War” is being released as a charity single. Proceeds from the release, as well as those from sales of a split Paleface Swiss/Stick to Your Gus T-shirt — which you can see below — will be donated to humanitarian outreach and medical services not-for-profit Doctors Without Borders.
“Paleface Swiss has generally avoided taking explicit political positions — especially given how complex things are today,” Zellwegger explained. “But Doctors Without Borders provides care to people affected by conflict, disease outbreaks, natural and human-made disasters, and mental health crises. That kind of direct, human-first action is something we deeply respect.”
More info on the charity merch drop can be found here.
