Electro-Harmonix Hell Melter Review

Chainsaw Massacre

The first hint at the Hell Melter’s versatility is in its control panel. Many pedals favored by metal players simply have volume, tone, and gain controls. The Hell Melter, on the other hand, features eight knobs: distortion, master, high, low, mid, dry, a knob for dialing in specific midrange frequencies, and a noise gate control. There is also a toggle switch for normal or burn mode (the latter is a more open, less compressed voice), a bypass footswitch, and a second footswitch for a boost circuit.

The Hell Melter, of course, is designed to produce the “chainsaw” distortion tone that is characteristic of Swedish death metal, and right off the bat you can feel the aggression the pedal is capable of. Using an Ernie Ball/Music Man Axis Sport and a Mesa/Boogie Trem-O-Verb combo, I used the suggested “everything all the way up” setting and was greeted with the evilest tone you can imagine. But there was still a ton of clarity with everything maxed. Output from the 6th string is defined and packs a wallop, and power chords are razor sharp. The built-in noise gate is an excellent extra that can keep things amazingly noise-free throughout the carnage.