Electro-Harmonix Hell Melter Distortion Pedal Reviews
Designed around the boss of all heavy metal distortion circuits, the Electro-Harmonix Hell Melter dishes out blasphemous quantities of Swedish-flavored, chainsaw-buzz carnage. This red-hot guitar effects pedal takes a tried-and-true formula to new depths, augmenting the classic, in-your-face high-gain sound of an early-'80s stompbox with expanded EQ options, increased output, and a whole horde of new bloodcurdling sonic capabilities. You also get Normal and Burn modes for extended clipping possibilities, a Dry Level control for maintaining clarity under severe circumstances, and a footswitchable boost section for applications that require absolute incineration. To top it off, the Hell Melter includes a built-in noise gate for taming the intermittent artifacts that surface between chugs. If you want to conquer the extreme metal underworld, the EXH Hell Melter is the pedal to do it with.
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Highest Rated Reviews
Radical Pedal
I play Metal a lot and this is my go-to whenever I pick up my guitar. I record and jam with my friends with it and it works great in both settings. "Chainsaw" is definitely the best word to describe it. It's crunchy and crisp. You can clearly hear what's being played. You definitely don't have to sacrifice clarity of sound for the distortion. High quality and versatile pedal. Would 110% recommend for any metalhead!
Most Versatile Pedal I've Played
Not only does this immediately pull off any HM-2/MT-2 tone you could want, but it allows for more "modern" metal tones as well. It doesn't stop there. The clean mix makes it great for country or bass if you turn the distortion down. For the first time since I can remember I'll only have one dirt pedal on my personal board!
What the HM2 should have been
You want Nordic Death Metal? No problem. But this pedal is capable of a lot more. I've never been a fan of the original unmodded HM2, and was a bit skeptic about this pedal to begin with but Nick Bowcott's demo sold me on it. It's really what the HM2 should have been in the first place.
Thee absolute best HM-2 style pedal ever made.
Hails from the 901! Dollar for dollar, tone for tone, you can't beat this HM-2 style pedal! Easier to dial in other tones besides the maxed out Swedish death metal one. Doomers will love this with a Rat juicing it or the Hell Melter itself juicing a Metal Muff or Big Muff. Had to adjust the internal trim pot for the boost function because it was too loud for my tastes-lol! EHX hit the extreme metal ball outta da park with this pedal.
A New Metal Zone-ish
The Hell Melter is a welcome addition to the salvo of Heavy Metal distortion boxes I own. I'd recently been playing a Boss Metal Zone Waza Craft edition. The Hell Melter's controls are the same with the addition of the BOOST switch, a dry level dial, a noise gate dial, and a BURN mode instead of custom on the Metal Zone Waza Craft.
With my pedals in parallel, the Hell Melter has more low end and the Metal Zone has more headroom. The Hell Melter's BOOST makes up for the audible difference in headroom. Presumptuously, this attribute allows for accommodation of a preceding overdrive in a pedal chain and exercise of the dry level feature; an option I plan to explore.
The Hell Melter's GATE feature is handy for tight stops. I use a Pigtronix Gate keeper to achieve the same effect with the Metal Zone.
The Hell Melter's BURN mode is similar to the Metal Zone Waza Craft's C (custom) mode with the intent to change dynamics. But, each pedals' alternate modes exploit their different characteristics in terms of compression and harmonic emphasis. The Metal Zone in C mode tends to sound brighter and louder in comparison. The Hell Melter sounds like there's greater range to explore.
Overall, the Hell Melter offers more options for tone, play-ability, and interoperability with a pedal chain whereas the Metal Zone Waza Craft more focused on loud, brighter harmonics. Both have a home in my pedal arsenal.
In my evaluation I played a 2004 BC Rich Warlock Body Art Edition through a Music Man HD-130 Reverb head with a 412-65 cabinet and direct into a Mackie VLZ series mixer with an auxiliary send to a Roger Linn AdrenaLinn III for Hiwatt and Marshall amplifier emulations.
The other "Metal" pedals in my arsenal include the following:
Boss MT-2w Metal Zone Waza Craft (used as a baseline comparison)
Idiotbox Dungeon Master (HM-2 comparison)
Electro-Harmonix Metal Muff
Catalinbread Sabbra Cadabra
Swedish Chainsaw Death Metal Distortion with gate
Electro Harmonix improvement of the original Boss HM2. With this pedal no doubt you can get The Swedish Chainsaw Death Metal Distortion but compared to the Original boss HM 2 this is a more versatile pedal with extra features like a gate, dry level knob, and boost gain footswitch it sounds amazing the Burn mode is my favorite it really gives you a new and modern vibes and a different flavor with the essence of the HM 2.
Gnarly distortion box
You've seen the online reviews, this sounds as good in real life as it does on the screen. Very versatile and looks bad a** on the board.
One thing that I found to be outstanding is running the HM in front of my digidrop with the boost on kills the synth sound the drop produces on its own. I can drop way down and not have it sound like a pipe organ. Bonus!
Are there other chainsaw style pedals out there? Yeah. But if you love the EHX brand this is a slam dunk.
