Behringer HM300 Heavy Metal Distortion Reviews

Great Pedal

I bought this pedal, because I was looking for an alternative to the HM-2.

I had heard about this before, but have never seen it in action. I was a little skeptical of the bright pink color and the rather cheap looking case. But when I plugged it in, I was pleasantly surprised by the sound it produced and made me immediately forget about the unfitting color. It comes really close to the HM-2 sound I was looking for.

High Gain Pedal!

I usually used the built-in pre-amp gain of my amp for my sound. But with this pedal, I can achieved the gain that I need that I can't get from my amp. I read that this was intended as a clone for a counterpart pedal for "Swedish Metal" sound with all controls at max, but honestly you can also attain a good distorted sound if you just play with knob. There's a buzz sound I noticed whenever I step on it but when I observed closely, it was also with my P90-Pups (No hum when I use my guitar with HB Pups). This is made of hard plastic, but if you treat it right it will last long and because of its price, I can easily get a new one if it breaks. Definitely recommended!

Bruno Correia

Bought this pedal because of it's characteristics of being a clone of the Boss Heavy Metal pedal and it's "Swedish Death Metal" sound. It stands up to it's job and the quality/price equation is quite positive.

Pink pedal - do not let its looks deceive you.

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.

Swedish "Buzzsaw" sound on the cheap :-)

This is basically a really good clone of the Boss HM-2 "Heavy Metal" pedal from the 80s which made a sound popularized by bands like Dismember and Entombed - what became known as "the Swedish sound" in death metal circles.

It's pretty much the same as that pedal, even the "distortion" knob behaves in the same way (pretty much no change from 9 o'clock to 4 o'clock then all of a sudden BANG !

Don't be fooled into thinking this is just for "heavy metal" as in all honesty it's not really that useful for getting that sound, there are better pedals, but if you're looking for really meaty distortion for the more extreme end of the metal spectrum then this is a great pedal. It's not as distorted as the MT-2 (Boss "Metal Zone") pedal but that pedal is, imo, REALLY overrated and very hard to get a good tone out of, far too much high end and in a live situation it really doesn't cut through the mix.

If you're looking for serious, "buzzsaw" style distortion then this pedal will definitely hit the mark and the difference in sound (very little) doesn't justify the inflated ebay prices that the HM-2 is fetching these days, especially the Japanese version (which is the most sought after due to apparently having the most 'Swedish' sound). The knobs on this pedal truly do replicate almost exactly the sound/useability of the pedal it's setting out to copy. I've not taken it apart so I can't say if they've copied the circuitry exactly but, knowing Behringer, I'd imagine it's as close as they can get it with modern parts.

The build is, as usual for the Behringer pedal range, good quality BUT the pedal itself IS hard impact plastic (Just letting you all know incase you're expecting a metal chassis). This isn't a problem and unless you're jumping up and down on it very hard you will get a long life out of it and it's more than useable in a gig situation, contrary to what some purists (idiots?) might say about the range. For this price you can't really go wrong.

Coincidentally, I have both the Taiwanese and Japanese versions of the HM-2 and I really would say there's very little difference between those and this pedal. I bought this as it was only £15 just to see how it sounded, I was curious as much as anything else, and will now probably gift it to someone who is looking for an HM-2.

the cheapest way to get that HM-2 sound

I bought this for a few reasons.... Firstly, i wanted a pedal to achieve that Swedish Death Metal sound from the 1990s, and since the Boss HM-2 is quite a collectors item and rarely seen for sale for less than £150, I decided to try this £19 reissue/clone.

Plugging it in, Im amazed at the sound! its everything I needed. I wondered if the cheap price would reflect in the quality of the sound, but no. Admittedly, its the plastic cover that makes it cheap, but for that price, who cares?

So the plan is to remove the casing anyway and put it into a metal box with some custom graphics and a 3dtp switch. At this price, i can afford to do it and not worry about breaking it, plus I get the sound I wanted.

Legendary HM-2 tones in a pink plastic box

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.

95% there

You should know what this pedal is about pretty well. I've compared it to real HM2's and other emulators and this is pretty much spot on. It actually has a tad more insane mid boost than the original but it's still controllable and you really can't tell the difference in every day usage.

Only thing that I don't like is that it's completely plastic and looks dumb. I guess it's a plus that you can dip it in a paint can (might not work after that.)

Why haven't you already bought this?

Get the Swedish Death Metal sound for an affordable price

Anyone who likes the thick chainsaw guitar sound that a lot of Swedish Death Metal bands used in the early 90's won't be disappointed by this pedal. For a pedal that's so affordable, it's quite impressive that it comes so close to reproducing one of the heaviest guitar sounds of all time.

The Behringer HM300 may be used as a regular distortion pedal, but it really starts to shine when you turn all knobs to 10 and let the madness (and riffing) begin. Although the casing is made from plastic, it withstands rough handling but obviously you should not stomp too hard on it. The pink color is not that pretty, but it makes it distinguishable from other heavy distortion pedals. Don't judge the book by it's cover - the HM300 have nothing to be ashamed of when it comes to how it sounds.

If you're looking for a heavy, distorted and thick guitar sound for a low price, you should definitely take a look at this one.