Sharp and Aggressive Sound You Can Call Your Own: The Best Distortion Pedals for Metal

There was a scene in the movie “Back to the Future” where Michael J. Fox went up on stage and played the guitar. Mike let her rip, playing Johnny B. Goode and performing a lead solo the crowd (and band) from the 50’s weren’t ready for.

Makes you wonder.

Imagine if he had access to distortion pedals as well? Heads would’ve exploded!

Rock music and all its sub-genres (metal, punk, grunge, etc.) are synonymous with distorted, amplified sound. For this review, we’ll be talking about the best distortion pedal for metal enthusiasts.

Distortion Mastery

Best Metal Distortion Pedal allows you to find and create your own distinct guitar tone. Whether you like it heavy, gritty, dirty or heavenly, its equal parts your skills and what pedal you choose that gets you the sound you’re looking for.

Heavy metal is easy to distinguish. The music is aggressive, angry and heavy (hence the term). Many musicians tune their guitars to “drop-D” (the sixth string is tuned down), creating a heavier sound. An essential and Good Distortion Pedals for Metal gives the player heavy distortion, overdrive and fuzz.

An amplifier does all the heavy lifting, taking signals from your passive guitar and amplifying the sound. While the sound coming out of the amp is a little distorted, you would need a separate distortion pedal to get the full effect.

Pedal Type

Now, that you got your guitar and amp squared away, it’s time to choose Best Metal Pedals for rock music. We say “some” because selecting the best one is almost impossible. There are gazillion metal pedals out there, each producing its own distorted sound.

Wait, what’s a guitar pedal again?

A basic description of a guitar pedal is that it processes and can add effects on guitar signals.

Before we go any further, let’s take a look at the various effects pedals can do to guitar signals:

·         Distort, boost, or compress a signal

·         Modulate a signal

·         Create delay, reverb and echo effects

·         Filter out the bass or treble

·         Other multi-effects based on the play style

Guitar Effects Explained

There are plenty of effects a pedal can give you depending on which one you choose. Booster and compression pedals are the Best Metal Guitar Pedals which has clean effects that don’t distort the sound of your guitar. Booster effects are for increasing the signal volume, while compression narrows a tone’s dynamic range.

Heavy metal relies heavily (pun intended!) on distortion effects. Guitar amps use vacuum tubes, and Overdrive pedals mimic the sound of vacuum tubes pushed to their limits. Distortion pedals are for altering waveform and increasing overdrive levels. Fuzz pedals create the busted amplifier sound by distorting distortion itself.

We’ve reviewed plenty of heavy metal pedals, and we’d love to share our favorites with you. After all, choosing the best distortion pedal for metal can be a daunting task. So, without further ado, here are some of the best effects pedals we had a blast trying out. Read on to find out more!