Behringer HM-300 Heavy Metal

You're probably here for ONE of two reasons:Either 1.) It's cheap, it's bright pink and it says heavy metal on it.Or 2.) You've heard that this sounds identical to the original Boss HM-2 Heavy Metal, made famous by all those Swedish death metal bands.If you're here for reason 1, skip on this pedal, and go buy the UM300 Ultra Metal (cheap, pink Metal Zone clone), as the HM300 most likely isn't the heavy metal sound you have in mind. The UM300 can dial in a lot more standard metal tones, it's quite versatile and it's actually not that bad.If it's reason 2, then you can definitely believe what you've heard.I have a MIJ Boss HM-2, and I picked this up on a whim as I'd heard what it supposedly does. For £20, I thought "what's the worst that can happen?" especially after hearing the demos. The side-by-side comparisons were spot on. The HM300 is as close as you're going to get to the original HM-2, and if you don't fancy spending £100 in a beaten up, 25 year old HM-2 (or up to £250 on a boutique clone like the Left Hand Wrath which doesn't really sound all that much like the HM-2 anyway), then get this.Obviously the original HM-2 has a certain cool-factor and an everlasting re-sale value, but honestly - and you boutique pedalheads might scoff at this - I now prefer the HM300.The "sweet-spot" is slightly different. The HM-2's sweet spot is all the dials at 10, and the pedal sounds like garbage if you dial in anything BUT that. Whereas the HM300 is similar, though you roll off the "High" EQ (which on some models, they've called "Mid") just a *little* bit, though you can have it full, but it will give you a very cutting tone. which is great for leads, but is far too fizzy for that thick, saturated rhythm sound you're probably looking for. You can also roll off the distortion a little bit (to about 3 o-clock), which still gives you an incredible amount of gain, but it seems to ease off on the throttling compression you get at maximum gain, and the chugged palm mutes start to sound a bit more thrash-like; clear and stabby and less like an atomic bomb going off. That versatility is important for getting it to sit right with your amp. Unlike the HM-2, which if it doesn't sound good with your amp with the pedal's dials maxed out, then you are fighting a losing battle.It sounds like the original, with that added room to maneuver around your amp's natural tone. If your amp is bright, roll off the High. If your amp/cab gets a bit farty with low end, roll off the distortion, to get a much more level chug sound without compromising *that* tone. From my experience, you just can't do that with the HM-2. It's either all or nothing. With this, you have some wiggle room.Not only that, but it sounds GOOD. So close to the original that I feel a bit silly paying £100 for a Boss HM-2 some years ago.The ONLY downside is that it's plastic. For a stomp-box, I am worried as to how many stomps it will be able to take. But the tone is worth preserving, and for such a low price, you could use the money you saved on not buying a HM-2 to get a DIY FX pedal maker/modder to rehouse this for you, into something more resilient, if you really wanted to. Or you could just be careful with it. It's up to you. I am told they are more sturdy than they look and feel by folks who have had theirs a long time. We'll see. I haven't rehoused mine yet, but I am thinking about it.Ignore the reviews saying that it's bad. They just didn't know what they were buying. If you are buying this with either Swedish Death Metal in mind or that crusty grind/hardcore sound like Nails, Trap Them, Black Breath etc (which is pure Swedish Death Metal worship anyway), then you will not be disappointed! If you want a crisp, clear Brown Sound or a modern Metalcore sound, then this won't do it.

I've been playing guitar for about 18 years (on and off) and recently my brother in law started learning so I picked the guitar back up to try and give him some basic lessons.He's come on leaps and bounds in 6 months and has a bigger pedal collection than me! I recently bought a few pedals off eBay (Boss Ds1, MD2, Digitech Grunge, electro Harmonix big muff) and was extremely disappointed with all of them except the MD2. I decided to buy this Behringer pedal for £20 as I'd already spent over 100 on these other pedals.Build quality is pretty good considering it's plastic, this has obviously been used to keep the costs down. It can definitely take a pounding when used for gigs! I love the look of the pedal due to its bright fluorescent pink colouring which is contrary to the genre of music it was made for. I plugged this straight into the effects loop of my boss katana amp and was a bit "meh" with it so I put it straight into the amps input and went through the clean channel. After mixing the settings on both the pedal and amp I am very happy with this pedal considering how little it cost. It can sound a bit fuzzy rather than metal but it's great for some low end metal riffs.After being impressed with this pedal I have decided to buy some more Behringer pedals but from Andertons as they are just £21:99 each (purchased ultra metal and the tube amp modeller).I am genuinely very impressed with these Behringer pedals and will definitely be keeping them.

Absolutely in love with this pedal - it really sounds amazing - it is simple to dial in a range of sounds (I mean they are are rock, punk and metal but with a light touch, is also possible to get a decent overdriven tube tone). The pedal is plastic and this is both good and bad - good because it keeps the price down and I might not have given this a go if it was more expensive (but at this price, well why not) and in fairness, I really quite like the pink - it is not “obvious” like black! All of that said, I really enjoy the sound this little pedal makes and I hope it will last many years (this is potentially the less good) but even then, it does feel quite strong and with care, a long life shouldn’t be impossible. So! In summary, if you like a bit of fuzzy distortion, give this pedal a shot - I play it every day and it brings a smile every time - Swedish Chainsaw is here but as I say, so too is a bit of Metallica, Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath! If you’re still not sure, from my view, I’ve had a 5150 overdrive ( excellent in every way possible), a Bosss Metal Core (good but not as much fun as this) and and REVV in recent years (good but maybe too brutal for me) and this little Behringer is a star!

I bought this as I was looking for, you guessed it, the ‘chainsaw’ sound.I’m using this with a Marshall valve amp. The first thing I noticed is that there is no loss of low end, I thought there might be. In fact, it’s possible to dial in low end in spades. Apparently, the go-to setting for the Heavy Metal pedal this is inspired by is everything on ten with the amp on its clean channel, and I can see why - that’s the ‘Swedish Death Metal’ sound - insane yet musical. At 12 o’clock it actually sounds surprisingly similar to my Marshall’s overdrive channel, and one of the best ‘Marshall-in-a-box’ pedals I’ve tried (I’ve tried a lot!).The way I see me using this long-term is as a boost. With the drive at zero, and with the bass and treble both at around 75%, it flavours the amp’s overdrive just enough to create a nice mix between the amp’s overdrive sound and that ‘chainsaw’ sound. When I switch to the clean channel, it sounds compressed and a bit like a dialled-back Rat.It’s been years since I last felt compelled to write a review, this pink pedal deserves one though. I appreciate it’s not Behringer’s own design, but it deserves some credit. I have loads of drive pedals and this one is better than some of the expensive ones. The Behringer ‘Vintage Tube Overdrive’ is another .