Grand Cadaver – Deities of Deathlike Sleep (Review)

Grand Cadaver are a death metal band from Sweden and this is their second album.

Featuring current and ex-members of Dark Tranquillity, Katatonia, The Halo Effect, and Tiamat, Deities of Deathlike Sleep is the 35-minute follow up to 2021’s Into the Maw of Death.

The elevator pitch for Grand Cadaver is simple – classic Swedish death metal fronted by the singer of Dark Tranquillity. It’s a simple enough description, but one that encapsulates what Grand Cadaver do so well.

Deities of Deathlike Sleep delivers a tight package of old-school Swedish death metal. Played with style, passion, and skill, these songs are easily engaging and effortlessly enjoyable for worshippers of the chainsaw. Grand Cadaver know how to write this sort of material in their sleep, and the results speak for themselves.

These new songs are overall probably on the more energetic side of the style, and when compared with those on Into the Maw of Death. There’s more speed and a greater sense of dynamics. Alongside this though we’re still immersed in plenty of macabre atmosphere and dark, gloomy heaviness. The melodies enhance the beefy guitars, and the vocals – as well-delivered as you would expect – tear out from the music like vicious predators.

Packed with solid, enjoyable songs, filled with crushing riffs, and festooned with hooks, Deities of Deathlike Sleep is an easy win. I’ve cooled on the Swedish death metal style over the last few years, but Grand Cadaver have rekindled my flame for it once more with this new slab of catchy heaviness.

Very highly recommended.