The Boss HM-2 Heavy Metal is a

distortion pedal Distortion pedals are a type of effects unit designed to add distortion to an audio signal to create a ''warm'', ''gritty'', or ''fuzzy'' character. Depending on the style of signal clipping, the broader category of distortion pedals is typicall ...

manufactured by

Boss Boss may refer to: Occupations * Supervisor, often referred to as boss * Air boss, more formally, air officer, the person in charge of aircraft operations on an aircraft carrier * Crime boss, the head of a criminal organization * Fire boss, ...

from October 1983 until October 1991. Designed to emulate a

Marshall Marshall may refer to: Places Australia *Marshall, Victoria, a suburb of Geelong, Victoria ** Marshall railway station Canada * Marshall, Saskatchewan * The Marshall, a mountain in British Columbia Liberia * Marshall, Liberia Marshall Is ...

stack Stack may refer to: Places * Stack Island, an island game reserve in Bass Strait, south-eastern Australia, in Tasmania’s Hunter Island Group * Blue Stack Mountains, in Co. Donegal, Ireland People * Stack (surname) (including a list of people ...

, it became associated with

Swedish death metal Swedish death metal is a death metal music scene developed in Sweden. Many Swedish death metal bands are associated with the melodic death metal movement, thus giving Swedish death metal a different sound from other variations of death metal. Unli ...

and gained a cult following in the heavy metal scene.

Background

The Boss HM-2 was first issued in October 1983. It was originally manufactured in

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

from 1983 until 1988 and then in

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

from 1988 until 1991. It was designed to emulate the

mid-range In statistics, the mid-range or mid-extreme is a measure of central tendency of a sample defined as the arithmetic mean of the maximum and minimum values of the data set: :M=\frac. The mid-range is closely related to the range, a measure of ...

response of a

. The HM-2 is based on Boss's DS-1. Despite achieving moderate success in the

glam metal Glam metal (also known as hair metal or pop metal) is a subgenre of heavy metal music, heavy metal that features pop music, pop-influenced Hook (music), hooks and guitar riffs, upbeat arena rock, rock anthems, and slow Sentimental ballad#Powe ...

scene, the pedal was discontinued in 1991; it was succeeded by the HM-3 Hyper Metal and MT-2 Metal Zone, the latter of which became a commercial success and top-selling Boss pedal. Since its discontinuance, the HM-2 has become one of the most demanded pedals of the Boss back catalogue. Guitarist and record producer

Kurt Ballou Kurt Ballou (born February 1, 1974) is an American musician and record producer based in Massachusetts, best known as the guitarist for metalcore band Converge and for his recording and production work at his own GodCity Studio. Early and pe ...

has been cited as an influence for the pedal's resurgence and bands such as Nails and

Rotten Sound Rotten Sound is a Finnish grindcore band from Vaasa, formed in 1993. The band comprises vocalist Keijo Niinimaa, guitarist Mika Aalto, bassist Matti Raappana, and drummer Sami Latva. The band has released eight studio albums and "earned a reputa ...

have also appropriated the pedal's sound for different

extreme metal Extreme metal is a loosely defined umbrella term for a number of related heavy metal music subgenres that have developed since the early 1980s. It has been defined as a "cluster of metal subgenres characterized by sonic, verbal, and visual tran ...

styles. In 2020, Boss Corporation president Yoshi Ikegami announced that the pedal would be reissued as a part of the Waza Craft pedal series under the name Boss HM-2W. For the reissue, the company also established a

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

group to seek design feedback from the fanbase. The prototype of the HM-2W was tested by

Ola Englund Ola "The Swede" Englund (born 27 September 1981) is a Swedish guitarist, YouTuber, record producer, and the owner of Solar Guitars. He is a founding member of the band Feared, plays lead guitar in the Swedish Heavy metal band, heavy metal band T ...

. The Waza Craft version added standard and custom mode to the Boss HM-2W.

Swedish death metal

Leif Cuzner of

band Nihilist used the pedal with the controls "dimed," and bands like Entombed, Dismember, and

Bloodbath Bloodbath is a Swedish death metal supergroup (music), supergroup from Stockholm, formed in 1998. The band has released six full-length albums, two EPs and two DVDs depicting their performances at Wacken Open Air (in 2005) and Bloodstock Open A ...

followed suit. Many Swedish bands have used the HM-2 with a Peavey amp to achieve this sound. In the 1990s, the pedal attracted a

cult following A cult following is a group of fans who are highly dedicated to a person, idea, object, movement, or work, often an artist, in particular a performing artist, or an artwork in some medium. The latter is often called a cult classic. A film, boo ...

in the underground heavy metal scene due to its formative influence over the

sound. Entombed's 1990 album, ''

Left Hand Path In Western esotericism, left-hand path and right-hand path are two opposing approaches to magic. Various groups engaged with the occult and ceremonial magic use the terminology to establish a dichotomy, broadly simplified as (malicious) blac ...

'', cemented its use in the scene.

Anders Nyström Anders Nyström (born 22 April 1975), also known as Blakkheim (or formerly Blackheim), is a Swedish musician, best known as a founding member of Katatonia and Bloodbath alongside Jonas Renkse. Career Nyström founded the Swedish metal band K ...

said, "The Boss HM-2 is the

holy grail The Holy Grail (, , , ) is a treasure that serves as an important motif in Arthurian literature. Various traditions describe the Holy Grail as a cup, dish, or stone with miraculous healing powers, sometimes providing eternal youth or sustenanc ...

death metal Death metal is an extreme metal, extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. It typically employs heavily distorted and low-tuned guitars, played with techniques such as palm muting and tremolo picking; deep death growl, growling vocals; aggressive ...

. There is no other pedal that has meant as much to this genre. It has been described as a

chainsaw A chainsaw (or chain saw) is a portable handheld power saw, power saw that cuts with a set of teeth attached to a rotating chain driven along a guide bar. Modern chainsaws are typically gasoline or electric and are used in activities such as t ...

or a

buzzsaw A circular saw or a buzz saw, is a power-saw using a toothed or abrasive disc or blade to cut different materials using a rotary motion spinning around an arbor. A hole saw and ring saw also use a rotary motion but are different from a ci ...

, and I think that’s a good comparison; it is a chainsaw formed into a guitar sound. How can you go further? How can you go beyond that? You can’t. It is the most essential sound in death metal of all time, and the bands who have adopted that were always going to be unbeatable in a sense. Other bands had outstanding performers and musicians, and kick-ass songs, but if they didn’t have that sound they were still sub-par in some way, and this pedal has meant everything."

At the Gates At the Gates is a Swedish melodic death metal band from Gothenburg, formed in 1990. The band was a major progenitor of Gothenburg-style melodic death metal alongside In Flames and Dark Tranquillity. Prior to their first disbandment in 1996, At ...

's 1995 album, '' Slaughter of the Soul'', combined the Boss HM-2 with a Boss MT-2 and

Boss SD-1 The SD-1 Super Overdrive is the second overdrive pedal made by the Boss Corporation. Released in 1981, and produced continuously since, the SD-1 was an update to the brand's groundbreaking List of distortion pedals#Boss OD-1 Overdrive, OD-1 Overd ...

. Many HM-2 pedals, especially ones made in Japan, have been collected by the guitarists of Entombed and Dismember.

Controls

According to Michael Astley-Brown of ''

Guitar World ''Guitar World'' is a monthly music magazine for guitarists and fans of guitar-based music and trends. The magazine has been published since July 1980. ''Guitar World'', the best-selling guitar magazine in the United States, contains original a ...

'', compared to the other distortion pedals, the pedal offered "radically versatile low and high ‘Color Mix’ EQ controls with 20 dB of boost/cut." Notable users of the pedal include: * Mika Aalto * Tomas Åkvik * Erhan Alman *

Michael Amott Michael Amott (born 28 July 1969) is a Swedish guitarist, founding member of the metal bands Arch Enemy, Spiritual Beggars and Carnage (band), Carnage, as well as a former member of Carcass (band), Carcass. He is the older brother of Christoph ...

Anders Björler Anders Björler (born 26 February 1973) is a Swedish musician. He is best known as the lead guitarist in the metal bands The Haunted and At the Gates, alongside his bass-playing twin brother Jonas Björler. Björler has also directed, edite ...

The Greatest Boss Metal Zone MT-2 Moments
/ref> *

David Blomqvist David (; , "beloved one") was a king of ancient Israel and Judah and the third king of the United Monarchy, according to the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament. The Tel Dan stele, an Aramaic-inscribed stone erected by a king of Aram-Damas ...

Justin Broadrick Justin Karl Michael Broadrick (born 15 August 1969) is an English musician, singer and songwriter. He is best known as the lead singer and a founding member of the band Godflesh, one of the first bands to combine elements of extreme metal and i ...

Uffe Cederlund Entombed is a Swedish death metal band formed in 1987 under the name of Nihilist. Entombed began their career as an early pioneer of Scandinavian death metal which initially differed from its American counterpart by its distinct "buzzsaw" guitar ...

The Chemical Brothers The Chemical Brothers are an English electronic music duo formed by Ed Simons and Tom Rowlands in Manchester in 1992. They were pioneers in bringing the big beat genre to the forefront of pop culture. Originally known as The Dust Brothers, th ...

(with a Juno-106) * Leif “Leffe” Cuzner * Nico ElgstrandGEAR GODS RIGGED - Entombed A.D.
/ref> *

Niclas Engelin Niclas Engelin (born 27 December 1972) is a Swedish guitarist, who is currently playing with Engel, Drömriket, We Sell the Dead, and The Halo Effect. He previously was the lead guitarist for Gardenian and Passenger and the co-guitarist for ...

HM-2: The Sound of Swedish Death Metal and Beyond
/ref> *

SWEDISH DEATH METAL TONE
/ref> * Per Eriksson *

Euronymous Øystein Aarseth (22 March 1968 – 10 August 1993), better known by his stage name Euronymous, was a Norwegian musician and a founder of and central figure in the early Norwegian black metal scene. He was a co-founder and guitarist of the No ...

David Gilmour David Jon Gilmour ( ; born 6 March 1946) is an English guitarist, singer and songwriter who is a member of the rock band Pink Floyd. He joined in 1967, shortly before the departure of the founder member Syd Barrett. By the early 1980s, Pink F ...

* Debbie Gough * G. C. Green * Alex Hellid * Dominik "Dome" HelmuthDome Official Youtube Channel
/ref> *

Christofer Johnsson Christofer Jan Johnsson (born 10 August 1972) is a Swedish musician and producer. He is a founding member and the guitarist for symphonic metal band Therion and was previously a member of Carbonized, Liers in Wait, Messiah, and Demonoid. In ...

Boss HM-2
/ref> *

Todd Jones Todd Barton Jones (born April 24, 1968) is an American former professional baseball relief pitcher. He batted left-handed and threw right-handed. He was an effective middle reliever for several teams and also filled the role of closer, most no ...

* Martin Larsson *

Glenn Ljungström Glenn Ljungström (born 7 September 1974) is a Swedish guitarist from Nödinge-Nol. He was a guitarist and composer in a few Swedish metal bands. He was most notably in the melodic death metal band In Flames from 1993 to 1997. He quit In Flames ...

* Rabea Massaad * Guilherme Miranda *

David Parland David Vincent Parland (26 September 1970 – 19 March 2013) was a Swedish metal guitarist, best known for his work in the bands Dark Funeral, Necrophobic and Infernal, all of which he was one of the founding members. Biography He was a member of ...

* Niklas Sandin * Mike Schleibaum *

Robert Sennebäck The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' () "fame, glory, honour, praise, reno ...

* Tomas Skogsberg *

Jesper Strömblad Clas Håkan Jesper Strömblad (born 28 November 1972) is a Swedish musician who is the guitarist of the bands The Halo Effect, Dimension Zero and Cyhra, and formerly of In Flames and The Resistance. He is best known as the founder and forme ...

Dan Swanö Dan-Erland Swanö (born 10 March 1973), also known as Dan "The Man" Swanö, is a Swedish musician and record producer who is currently the vocalist, guitarist, ex-bassist and ex-drummer for the band Nightingale, lately vocalist, keyboardist and ...

* Rickard Törnqvist *

Kristian Wåhlin Kristian Wåhlin (born 4 December 1971) is a Swedish musician, singer, graphic designer and album cover artist for many bands in the extreme metal scene worldwide. He is often credited under his pseudonym Necrolord. Biography Wåhlin's interes ...

Justin York Paramore is an American rock band formed in Franklin, Tennessee, in 2004. Since 2017, the band's lineup includes lead vocalist Hayley Williams, lead guitarist Taylor York, and drummer Zac Farro. Williams and Farro are founding members of the ...

Twitter
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Bilinda Butcher Bilinda Jayne Butcher (born 16 September 1961) is an English musician, singer, and songwriter, who achieved international fame as a vocalist and guitarist of the alternative rock band My Bloody Valentine. Their studio albums '' Isn't Anything'' ...

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*

Nocturno Culto Ted Arvid Skjellum (born 4 March 1972), also known by the stage name Nocturno Culto, is a Norwegian musician best known as the vocalist, lead guitarist, and partial bassist (shared with Fenriz) of the influential black metal band Darkthrone. He ...

Hamish Glencross Hamish Glencross is a Scottish guitarist best known for his work with the English metal band My Dying Bride. He also co-founded the short-lived Blackdoom Records with the band's other guitarist, Andrew Craighan. Glencross had a brief acting c ...

* James Sedwards * Lee Ranald

References

External links

* {{Roland Corporation Effects units Boss Corporation Japanese inventions Death metal

Background

Swedish death metal

Controls

See also

References

External links