Ready for an unfurling wave of Death Metal ? Grand Cadaver is here.
Created in 2020 in Sweden by Mikael Stanne (vocals, Dark Tranquillity, ex-In Flames), Stefan Lagergren (guitar, Expulsion), Alex Stjernfeldt (guitar, Novarupta, Let Them Hang), Daniel Liljekvist (drums, ex-Katatonia) and Christian Jansson (bass, Pagandom), the band unveils us Madness Comes, its first EP.
With only four songs, the Swedes will show us that Death metal flows through their veins, and that their riffs fed with dirt, grease and HM-2 is still as effective through the years. Mikael Stanne’s screaming vocals are perfect for such a direct style as Old School Death Metal, and we discover this return to the roots since Madness Comes, a very raw and hooking song. Bloody harmonics melt to unstoppable violence of this heavy rhythmic, while Staff of the Oppressor offers a slower and more haunting introduction. Tempo suddenly increases, then the band stays on this catchy pattern and this dirty sound, full of putrid and incisive leads. Thy offer more dissonant and soaring tones on Blood-filled Skies, a song that happens to be one of the most melodics of the EP, but also one of the most aggressive. That’s this seizing contrast that the Swedes perfectly master since the very beginning, and that we will also find on the solid Fields of the Undying. The rhythmic is very angry and dark, melting powerful melodies with a groovy basis and the vocalist’s recognizable howlings.
Grand Cadaver is born very recently, but the band’s style is anchored in the nineties’ Old School Death Metal. Madness Comes is a very short EP that still allows us to have a glimpse of the band’s potential, who knows its classics and readapts them to offer a raw sound and its own identity.
95/100
