Shallow, North Dakota - This Apparatus Must Be Earthed

Label: Sonic Unyon

Year: 1997

Big time sludgy, metallic, thick necked, thud rock out of Canada. Nasty, spiteful stuff that makes a nice blend of Unsane + Cursed (which there's a member connection) + Tad + Milligram. You get a lot of rumbling riffs that go from molten magma to hot spitting lava (volcano reference!), meaning they can get all doomy or kinda thrashy, but mostly it's mid-tempo hammering. Just know that it is heavy. Really, that's pretty much the gist of it. Also, if you were ever into hardcore music, you stand a better chance at liking this one, just cause you can tell the dudes in this band are/were into hardcore and that vibe comes through. Also, there are a few moments where they get a little experimental on that ass and throw some noise, or found sound, or sickeningly de-tuned instruments into the mix, so if you're prone to like things that veer off into the neither regions of metal, than you'll also find happiness here.

The band started out in the early 90's releasing two albums (this one being the second, I don't have the first one), then went AWOL for awhile before showing up in 2004 with a new record (that also fucking slays), and now they're AWOL again. Hopefully, they will resurface sometime soon to bludgeon again, but until that day, please enjoy this trip into the Great White North.

DL