Shallow North Dakota

Seven years. It has been seven freakin’ years since the heaviest band Canada has ever seen (and most likely ever will see) released their mammoth, buffeting This Apparatus Must Be Earthed, a CD so sonically dense, so destructive and so overwhelming it was banned from being used in times of war. Whatever happened to one of Canada’s great heavy music hopes, you may ask? Well, apparently not much since the heady years of the late ’90s of constant touring and stage/gear destruction. Though they may have missed their chance to remake the world in their formerly unstoppable image, they have returned with the vinyl-only, hour-plus slab of destruction called Mob Wheel. While some of the recklessness may have been lost (there’s no "Speed King” here), Shallow North Dakota have sacrificed not one iota of sonic density. With a sound dirty and heavy enough to make sludge lords Eyehategod weep with pride, Mob Wheel repeatedly pummels with impossibly heavy riffs, super-distortion, screeching feedback and the still incredible bellow of drummer Tony Jacome, who was lost none of his bite. While it’s easy to look back and wonder why Shallow ND failed to lead Canada’s mid-‘90s metal scene to greatness, or at least recognition, it’s comforting just to hear their sonic destruction once again.