Boss HM-2 Heavy Metal
Used on his solo album *About Face* and Pink Floyd's *A Momentary Lapse of Reason*. In a 1984 issue of *Guitar Player Magazine*, Gil... more
According to the lot notes from Bonhams auction house website, Eric Clapton used the Ibanez HD1000 Harmonics/Delay, a DBX 160 compressor,... more
Rare shot of Johnny's pedalboard from the '86 Nottingham gig. The pedal case is a Boss BCB-6. From right to left is a PSM-5 followed by a... more
Daron got the "black-orange heavy metal effect" (Boss HM-2) with 14 (1989), the editor mentioned Boss MT-2 wasn't even out at that time (... more
"a BOSS HM-2 Heavy Metal seems certain (replaced by a BOSS DS-1 later in the year?)" more
Reviews
Trusted musician and artist reviews for Boss HM-2 Heavy Metal
Based on 12 Reviews
Swedish Buzzsaw
Dime everything. Get legendary tone.
But seriously, I use this for Doom/Stoner Metal, and believe it or not, don't actually crank everything to 11. You CAN do that, but if you tweak the colours, you get a really wild distortion that, when mixed with an Akai Phaser set to 270 degrees and a fast repeat, is ball-trippingly freaky.
Everyone should have one of these. Or the Berhinger clone, but it don't sound the exact same--you have been warned.
Definitely The Better Metal
The Boss Heavy Metal pedal has a really good tone sweep and it works really well for power chords and great lead tones.
The OG
Can't go wrong with the original Swedish death metal distortion pedal.
The Saw is the Law
If you ever wanted to emulate that grinding. buzzsaw like tone of early Entombed or Dismember (or more recently a band like Hail of Bullets) this is absolutely the distortion pedal for you. Unfortunately most of these pedals are pushing 30 years old now so you have to exercise caution when buying them as they still go for 80-90 dollars on ebay.
SWEDISH CHAINSAW
If you know, then you know. Get a crunchy amp, plug this in, and dime the high knob to understand if you don't. Or just throw caution to the wind and put every knob on ten and be shocked when you somehow still punch through a mix.
Out-dated. Can sound good with a lot of post-processing and manipulation
I have a vintage Japanese one. The sound is very dark and sometimes flat. If I crank the low end, it completely blankets the mid and high end. So there's a lot of fussing to find even ground to get a usable sound - unless you're looking for that kind of really thick and murky heavy gain. I find this pedal useful for mostly doing solos.
Swedish death metal tone but more
This pedal does a lot more than Swedish grindcore tone. It was used by Gilmor and Clapton too. Cranc all knobs for metal grind, set everything halfway for a great fuzzy overdrive.
Literal perfection
This pedal is literally perfect. It cuts through any mix and is massive as frick.