The last album from Sweden’s Martyrdöd, 2012’s Paranoia, was a fire-starting collision of crust punk and melodic death metal with some lead-guitar heroics that occasionally lifted the whole thing to Iron Maiden-levels of fist-pumping anthemry; it landed at #8 on our list of that year’s best metal albums. Now, the band are set to release their fifth album, Elddop, and the new one doesn’t merely improve on the band’s already incredible body of work; it distills Martyrdöd’s sound to its most exciting elements, leaving everything but the highlights on the cutting-room floor. Elddop opens with a few bars of ominous doom, then quickly shifts into ultra-catchy, hard-shredding d-beat, similar to Disfear’s incredible 2008 LP, Live The Storm — but more — and it stays in that gear for the next 45 minutes. Where most metal records right now are either self-consciously mirroring legends of the past or uncomfortably evolving into something not always recognizable as metal, Elddop feels totally fresh and thrillingly new, yet employs only those tools fashioned in the ancient forges. (It’s worth noting that the name Martyrdöd looks and sounds an awful lot like the name Motörhead.) I can’t imagine any generation of metal fan for whom Elddop would seem inappropriate — in many ways, it’s the very essence of metal. Or you could just call it essential.

We’ve got the album for you to stream in full today, and if the preceding paragraph didn’t indicate as much, then let me be clear: It is a great album and you should definitely check it out.

Elddop is out 7/22 via Southern Lord.