Band:	Martyrdöd
Album:	Elddop
Style:	Crust punk, D-beat
Release date:	July 22, 2014
A review by:	wormdrink414

01. Nödkanal
02. En Jobbig Jävel
03. Synd
04. Mer Skada Än Nytta
05. Prästernas Tid
06. Victoria
07. Tentakler
08. Slavmanual
09. Elddop
10. Skum På Världens Hav
11. Varnings Klockor
12. Steg
13. Martyren
14. Hjärnspöken

Were you to isolate most of the riffs on Elddop, crust probably wouldn't be the first thing that'd come to mind; the technical, dissonant riffing here floats and coils about, practically glittering half the time. It's flashy, often unstable-sounding stuff.

That floating and glittering all feels like it's done in hopes of escaping the gravity of the pissed-off molten core here though, and everything ultimately gets tugged back to its rightful place. Elddop isn't any less visceral for its ample guitar technicalities. Under all its discordant fret-meandering and occasional triumphant melodies, there's some crust that wants you crushed.

Songs spiral around pretty chaotically a lot of the time, but they do so in an ultimately focused kinda way. They move along and bang around like stars in colliding galaxies, but there's definitely a d-beat order underlying all the seemingly chaotic jamming on this, just as there's an underlying d-beat order to the universe.

This isn't typical d-beat by any stretch though. Martyrdöd clearly doesn't want you just throwing your fists like countless other groups, they want you with a fist to your chin, nodding and saying "interesting, interesting" just as much. Or, when they take their breaks from that, they want you rocking the fuck out: old bald drunk guy in a jean jacket with an '87 Civic with a bunch of fast food wrappers and half-burned cigarettes and what you hope is an empty cat carrier in its back seat style (check out "Prasternas Tid"). It's eclectic in tone, but never feels floppy because of it. It all fits together snugly.

They've been exploiting that kind of stylistic range for a while now, I guess. Elddop is, in a lot of ways, a more of the same kind of thing for them. That "the same" happens to be unique when likened to most other crust and crusty albums coming out . It sounds shinier in the end than shady and pounding, especially on this with its crisper, less cramped mix, and it all sounds great.