The asshole who used to run the Washington NFL football franchise would spend every offseason trying to put together practical all-star teams to try to buy a championship. It never worked. In fact, it never came remotely close to working. It failed hilariously over and over, and it’s even more enjoyable now that we all know how truly shitty that guy is.

Swedish death metal crew Grand Cadaver manage to pull off what so many sports team owners fail to do, that being putting together a team of heavy hitters well known from other forces into a group that easily gels and kills. Featuring current and former members of bands including Dark Tranquillity, Katatonia, the Halo Effect, Disrupted, Expulsion, and plenty of others, this band—vocalist Mikael Stanne: Vocals, guitarists Stefan Lagergren and Alex Stjernfeldt, bassist Christian Jansson, drummer Daniel Liljekvist—smashes expectations yet again with their thunderous second full-length “Deities of Deathlike Sleep.” This follow-up to their debut LP “Into the Maw of Death” is another serving of the good stuff, that being raw, yet melodic death metal that lays waste and proves a team of dependable veterans can work together and create something destructive in a positive way.

“The Forever Doom” just unloads, Stanne’s raw howls overpowering, great speed and energy uniting. The playing goes cold, and mystical powers radiate, burning with precision before blasting out. “A Crawling Feast of Decay” rampages out of the gates, crushing with nasty force that is thrashing and gutting. Guitars catch fire as the howls dig deep into your chest, landing their final blows by dealing copious amounts of filth. “The Wishful Dead” brings tangling guitars and a pace that gets heated in a hurry, the growls totally scathing. The pace continues to mash, paving the way for a strong chorus that overwhelms, slaying to the track’s ominous finish. “Serrated Jaws” opens in the midst of anger and violence, Stanne howling, “Go for the jugular, go for the kill.” The melodies smoke, but the atmosphere is threatening, the guitars ripping and torching, everything coming to a buzzing finish. The title track has the drums whipping everything into shape, the playing racing and putting on the pressure that sparks fight-or-flight tendencies. “I can feel it now, I can feel it dying,” Stanne belts, the band bashing hard, encircling with fire and impenetrable heat.

“Vortex of Blood” trashes with blazing leads and a D-beat pace that feels like it’s putting your bones in a blender. The drums pummel as the guitars leave deep scarring, the growls boom, and sinewy destruction flexes with nastiness. “Funeral Reversal” is one of the best song titles of the year, and the band ensures the music is just as memorable. The playing sometimes slithers, at other times it comes at you like a feral beast, collecting carnage and vile energies, splattering to an abrupt end. “True Necrogeny” brings muscular power as the growls stretch your already vulnerable muscles, everything turning morbidly grisly. Melody and fire combine, Stanne’s powerful vocals send jolts of voltage, and the miasma of pain bleeds away. “Stabbed With Frozen Blood” is another tremendous title, and it unleashes a thrashy assault, getting you prone on the ground as they painfully pound away. The guitars cut through the center as if going for the heart, start/stop crushing makes the waves of pain even more intense, and the final minutes comes unglued before disappearing into smog. Closer “Necrosanctum” is eerie when it opens, but it’s not long until the hammers drop. The growls punish and unite with a mangling force, picking up speed and ill intent, strange keys making the fog thicker. Wild howls emerge, the pressure mounts, and the final stabs swing out in the darkness.

Tossing a group of well-respected, heavily traveled death metal veterans onto the same team isn’t absolutely a recipe for success, but Grand Cadaver have made it work and destructively so. “Deities of Deathlike Sleep” is more than a worthy successor to their pleasantly surprising debut, and if anything, the blood has gotten thicker and more poisonous. This is rough, driving death metal played with precision and power, letting these accomplished forces breathe shockingly monstrous new life.

For more on the band, go here: https://www.facebook.com/grandcadaver

To buy the album, go here: https://majesticmountainrecords.bigcartel.com/

For more on the label, go here: https://www.facebook.com/majesticmountainrecords/