Boss HM-2W: Return of the Buzzsaw

Guitar playing readers, who is foaming at the naughty bits for the return of Swedish Buzzsaw in a box? After prices have been steadily rising recently with a resurgence in popularity for the legendary Boss HM-2 Heavy Metal pedal, the geniuses at the Boss Waza division have presented us with a gift straight from the demons of the night – the Boss HM-2W.

For those oblivious to the legendary sound from the little black box of devastation, the Boss HM-2 was released in 1983, and discontinued in 1991 due to poor sales. Boss pedals tend to hang around on sale for 1000 years, so to get cancelled so soon says something. As anyone who knows the pedal, try to use it like any other overdrive or distortion pedal and it sounds like ass. The distortion knob does nothing for 90% of its travel. No wonder no one bothered buying it. Apart from David Gilmour, who had one on his board. No idea what he used it for.

But then along came some certain Swedish purveyors of destruction in the form of Entombed. Armed with a bunch of crappy equipment, they decided to grab a HM-2 and just stick all the controls on 10 and see what happened. The result was their 1990 debut album Left Hand Path. In that moment magic was created. The poor selling, piss poor distortion pedal turned into an angry, snarling behemoth ready to tear the face of unsuspecting listeners. Swedish Buzzsaw was born.

Bloodbath are probably the band that has mostly kept the Swedish chainsaw tone relevant for the past couple of decades. However with bands like Frozen Soul and Necrot recently releasing albums using the old school buzzsaw tone, are we destined for an explosion in use following the excellent decision by the folks at Waza? One can hope.

Colin at CS Guitars provides an excellent breakdown of why the HM-2 works when dimed, and provides such a unique sound profile. There really is nothing else like it.

So those who crave that Chainsaw tone rejoice. With rare Japanese made Boss HM-2 pedal prices skyrocketing, the announcement of the Boss HM-2W is gold. There is no official release date yet. But there is certain to be a waiting list when it finally comes out. I may already own a HM-2 – the title picture is my very own sadly non-Japanese one. However I will be one of those in said queue for a Boss HM-2W.

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