Review Summary: Martyrdöd continues their satisfyingly uniform D-beat, crust punk streak with Southern Lord Records with their seventh studio release, “List.”
Banking off a structure as old as the members, Swedish crust punk underground legends release another unrelenting record continuing a consistent run of quality crust punk music. Not much has changed with their output; Kjellman still lays down his harsh screams over a range of crust punk or epic black metal riff’s all driven home by a tight D-beat drum line. But as they continue their march toward the future their music takes significant strides forward in songwriting and constant innovation with combining new genres into their sound.
Following suit with previous works, the run-time stays within the healthy 40-minute range, tossing your way a fair amount crust carnage. As they’ve progressed through the years, they’ve picked up adornments to add to their original straight-forward crust punk sound. Previously, they’ve used noise rock riffs like the one at the beginning of “Wipeout” and they’ve certainly borrowed plenty of 80’s thrash riffs like the ones in “Over Pa Ett Stick” or “Transmission.” Yet, this time around the effort comes across as diverse and never loses the listener’s attention (Although, the drums stay strict as ever, never breaking away from their D-beat origins).
Title track “List” is placed second on the track listing, which is the first shining epic cut of the record. The guitar play toward the close of the song takes you from a concrete dirty basement to a medieval battle on horseback, charging into battle as the guitars almost duplicate the sound of war-time bagpipe music. “Intervention” marks possibly my favorite moment of the album, containing the most progressive lick of the album reminiscent of Iron Maiden more than Metallica. Speaking of Metallica, their name comes to mind plenty of times throughout, but most notably on “Harmagedon”, a heroic speed metal punk catapult. The steady meticulous side of doom metal weighs in often on intros like “Transmission” or during portions of “Handlost Fallen Angel”, providing evidence that their range of sound is consistently growing outward.
As we draw to the close of 2016 the pickings get pretty slim, but on the positive side, it gives time for bands such as this to earn their place in the spotlight. This release may not find its way onto end of the year lists, but if unburied, it provides many pleasurably listens for any metal fan. In a time where you don’t hear many crust punk or D-beat records, instead you get a lot of artsy ***, Martyrdod issues the thought that maybe we need more solid punk albums in our lives.
Original Link:
http://www.speak-sound.com/single-post/2016/11/28/Album-of-the-Week-LIST
