E.P. Review: Grand Cadaver - Madness Comes
Reviewed by Paul Hutchings
It was inevitable. Leave talented musicians at home, unable to tour and what happens? They start forming super groups to ease the creative itch. During summer 2020 something deadly was brewing at Gothenburg’s Welfare Sounds and at last it is ready to crawl blinking into the sunlight.
Grand Cadaver is the combination of guitarists Stefan Lagergren (The Grifted/ex. Treblinka/Expulsion) and Alex Stjernfeldt (Novarupta/Let Them Hang), drummer Daniel Liljekvist (Disrupted/ex. Katatonia), Pagandom bassist Christian Jansson, and Dark Tranquillity’s Mikael Stanne. Unsurprisingly, given the band’s name, the offering here is homage to the old school death metal which spawned from Stockholm over three decades ago. Combining elements of death metal with traditional thrash, doom and even elements of progressive rock, ‘Madness Comes’ is four tracks curled into a frenzied clenched fist of an EP. It salutes extreme music, pays homage to those who led the way and is also a demonstration of what can happen if you are careless enough to leave musicians of this calibre alone.
All four tracks are short, bludgeoning, and fast. There’s the pacy title track, dominated by a filthy HM-2 fuelled riff fest, which opens the EP. Stanne’s growling vocals a level or two further down the chain compared with his performance on last year’s Moment, whilst Liljekvist demonstrates why he held that drum stool in Katatonia for over 15 years. And then there’s the pulverising blast of the final track, ‘Fields of the Undying’ with its explosive finish.
Recorded by Per Stålberg and Kalle Lilja and snapped up by Majestic Mountain Records, Grand Cadaver have demonstrated that good things can emerge from the darkness. An EP to provide hope in the long months ahead.
