Pedal Round-up: Metal Distortion

The promise of the metal distortion pedal has always been to transform any amp into a high-gain beast. Now, if you’re sticking an Amptweaker in front of a Marshall stack, you might be able to squint and feel like it’s actually a Mesa or 5150, but more often than not these pedals have been bought by teenagers to run into cheap practice amps, and the effect is, frankly, underwhelming. That’s the tip of the iceberg, however, and the options for fantastic high-gain pedals have never been better. Even Boss’s much-maligned Metal Zone, every guitarist’s first high-gain stompbox, has had a minor reassessment, and it remains popular enough that Boss have even issued a high-spec Waza Craft version. That’ll show the haters – as will the rest of these high-octane stompboxes…

Cramming a 100W head into a pedal. Surely not?