Behringer HM300 Heavy Metal Distortion

An excellent and genuinely well done clone of the HM-2. I actually have had recording clients sell their vintage HM-2's and get this for gigging for ease of use. It comes in a fashionable pink and does all you'd expect. I actually use this more for shoegaze textures than anything else and it's also great at this.

The only downside is that, unlike the original, this can only operate at 9V. The original HM-2 has extra headroom at 18V which means the EQ doesn't crap out quite as quickly at high gains. It'd be nice to have the option of this, or of having lower overall gain to improve its ability to pair with other drives. But for the money..how could you go wrong?

Similar in tone to the much sought after Boss HM2, it's slightly more flexible in tone and performs well. The only quibble I'd have is with the build quality ie it's pink plastic and I can't imagine it holding up to a lot of stomping during gigs. Needs a compressor to control the inevitable squalls of feedback when you drive it up into full Old School Swedish Death Metal territory. Recreates the tone of the early Entombed, Grave, Dismember, Carnage, Nirvana 2000 et al very well. Blasting out Entombeds "Drowned" with this pedal is a gregarious pleasure.

For the price, an absolute bargain.

The character of the legendary Boss HM-2 is captured quite nicely in this pink box of plastic. Not quite the same, but the harsh midrange gain sure sounds familiar. I've seen this pedal as a backup on many HM-2 owners' rigs. Instant Entombed tones! The nature of the distortion, whilst being very aggressive and heavy, is still "loose" enough for the notes to come through. Palm muting sounds suitably chunky, but the pedals really shines on lead guitar passages and raw riff-barraging. The low range reaches low enough to double as a gnarly bass distortion. Sounds like a wasps nest, in the case that the wasps living in the nests are a pack of wolves with a serious case of rabies.

The negative side of this effects pedal is the build quality. Packed in a plastic box, the connectors and the knobs feel a bit wobbly. This also isn't a true bypass pedal. When playing live I use it inside a looper.