Description

BOSS has taken this sleeper stompbox and gave it the full Waza Craft treatment, resulting in the HM-2W Waza Craft Heavy Metal distortion pedal. Taking cues from its older sibling, the HM-2W boasts onboard controls for Level, Low/High Color Mix, and Distortion. Don’t let its simple layout fool you — this searing pedal pumps out walls of axe-grinding, gut-punching chainsaw sounds while cleanly cutting through mixes.

The HM-2W works equally as well in clean and dirty channels, with a handy toggle for switching between modes for even greater versatility. Need to add a bit of girth and roundness to your barre chords and chugs? Switch on over to Custom mode for an instant injection of additional gain and more pronounced lows and mids. Many discerning metallers were amazed by the HM-2W’s icepick-like attack while tremolo picking, and when it came time to test those classic death metal riffs, diming all the controls delivered instant Slaughter of the Soul–esque aggression. For death metal die-hards and anyone looking to conjure metal’s Swedish origins, the BOSS HM-2W Waza Craft Heavy Metal distortion pedal is an instant classic.

Waza Craft: a higher art of stompbox design

The Japanese word “waza” means art and technique, an appropriate name for BOSS’s premium line of redesigned guitar effects pedals. You see, the pedal collectors have seen more than enough special-edition stompboxes that are only a paint job away from the originals, which is why we’re so blown away by what BOSS has done with the Waza Craft series. Even in their Standard modes, Waza Craft pedals sound like idealized versions of the originals, offering the same sonic character that made them iconic but with less noise and a more consistent tone. And when you A/B the Standard mode with the Custom, the contrast is nothing short of astonishing.