Us Americans are wimps. Scandinavians know how to test music gear. As a metal soundtrack pounds away in the background, a Shure SM58 gets subjected to some serious torture testing, including:

• Being used to hammer nails
• Dropped a couple of meters
• Frozen
• Dunked in water
• Driven over by a car

And then something really nasty happens involving Heineken and a microwave.

Mats Ståhlbröst, diabolical creator of this insanity, explains:

We wanted to find out if the SM58 can live up to its [reputation as the toughest mic in the world] and decided to put it through a series of tests. PS Studio is Scandinavia’s leading magazine covering music production.

Of course, Shure had no part in these tests … wait, they actually did? (I’m going to start requesting review units from these guys!)

The Swedish Shure distributor supplied us with an SM58… and I think both they and Shure should be pretty happy with the results. This is one tough mic.

I’ll say. There’s a reason the SM58 is a favorite in live venues. You have my permission to keep this a secret and tell everyone to keep babying your mics, mind you.