It’s also great for that classic Bluegrass sound 
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I don’t know what happened to my original one from High School. We probably sold it at a garage sale or something. A little bummed about that. But I re-bought a used original one ten or twelve years ago for filming, which I still have.
I saw that they reissued the Waza one, which again, blows my mind. A high-end recreation of a low-end thing!
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A friend of mine who plays in indie bands asked to borrow an overdrive for a show. So I thought, I’m supposed to know guitars, I’ll give him my Tumnus – the Klon clone. Then he can show up and look like a real insider. I had no idea I could (or should) have just given him the HM2.
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It’s actually underrated as a mid gain OD imo. Part of what makes the swedish buzzsaw tone is the filter.
Especially on the treble side it has a very unique EQ spectrum. It’s kinda like how Josh Scott discovered that Bad Monkey pedal can do klon tones hahaha.
Part of the waza benefit is it has a mode that lowers the noise floor since people use them dimed and they aren’t particularly quiet circuits, no idea how the 90s bands managed this pre noise gates becoming ubiquitous. Boss/Roland actively understands how people are using them.
The funniest part of all this to me is At the Gates famous Slaughter of the Soul tone is HM-2 and Metal Zone. And there are now waza versions of both.
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i read this and Blinded By Fear immediately started playing in my head. You monster.
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I get the My Bloody Valentine usage – it’s aggressive but not in an ice picky way, more like an odd-order harmonics way. It’s exactly the opposite of the brown sound that I really wanted, which is why I didn’t like it back in the day. But I get why it might work for a band located toward more of the indie end of the spectrum.
The Slaughter of the Soul example I don’t like as much. To me that sounds like a mix which would be improved by a more hi-fi high gain sound, with better bass control and smoother overdrive. It’s not power chords like the Valentine example, it’s articulate riffs. And you can’t really hear what’s going on in the single notes with that tone – especially in the unaccompanied parts.
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Yeah this is why a lot of the boutique clones have blend knobs, it allows you to just add in some of that tone while still retaining definition. I know for a fact that Entombed ran a DS-1 pedal up the center of the mix to add clarity to the riffs. My band quad tracks with two sets of HM2 and two sets of no-HM2, again to add clarity. I think Dismember just did the HM2 with all knobs on 10 and what you get is this:
Also @Dissonant_Timbres theres a clue to how they controlled the massive feedback from all that gain during the bridge of this tune.
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Can’t believe I missed the HM2 convo and all the “core” bands talk, also didn’t expect Troy to bring up Underoath or My Chemical Romance.
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Which reminds me, Underoath just released a new album I need to check out!
I like the take the folks from Does it Doom went with.
All the controls maxed with a single knob for the distortion control and an internal trimmer for level.
Haha yeah I’ve seen the single knob ones. I have a Lone Wolf Audio Left Hand Wrath Deluxe which is like the polar opposite - more knobs than you’ll know what to do with 
Another fun one that’s pretty inexpensive is the TC Electronic Eyemaster (they even bothered to name it after an Entombed song). That’s only two knobs - volume and gain.
Really the “chainsaw” sound is a result of the EQ curve when the “color mix” controls are dimed, and more specifically, the H knob. I’ve run the HM2 with the gain dialed way back to increase clarity, almost exclusively running it like an EQ pedal and it still gets that tone.
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Few know this…
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Here’s a new one we just found while listening at home: Imperial Triumphant. At first I couldn’t figure out what to call it – gutturals and low-tuned riffs, but also chord tremolo and reverb. Then their band bio made it clear: “blackened death”. Of course. With a dash of noise rock and ambient sounds. Perfect test case for John’s lesson on identifying mixed genres. Also great for those conflicted about black metal: all the reverb, none of the Satan!
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This is the tune I play for people with normal music taste when I want to freak them out a little.
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These dudes are sick, and thats Kenny G’s kid on guitar (I actually think he’s not in the band anymore though). Kenny G did a guest solo on this tune, too!
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I’ve met the drummer a couple of times, and his name is… Kenny G. (Grohowski)
Australia’s Portal. I don’t even know what to call this genrewise. “Ambient Death Metal” seems like an oxymoron. It sounds like you took a death metal band and threw them down a well and recorded them. It sounds like what parents groups thought Kiss sounded like in the 1970s. Sounds like the third panel in Hieronymus Bosch paintings.
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Extreme metal as a label has always sort of amused me because while I enjoy it and appreciate the technicality of it, it’s not particularly extreme.
Admittedly that’s probably because I actively enjoy Merzbow, but…
I will say that the most “extreme” band I’ve ever heard that wasn’t harsh noise is probably early Swans.
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Swans is a the loudest band Ive ever seen live, Godflesh a close second. Swans was absolutely crushing incredibly loud even with earplugs.