Catalinbread Carbide

The Catalinbread Carbide is a distortion pedal from Catalinbread that recreates the "chainsaw" tone of the Boss HM-2 Heavy Metal with all four of its knobs turned up to 10¹². Where the original HM-2 gives you four EQ-style controls, the Carbide replaces them with a different idea: it splits your signal into two parallel paths, one a clean boost voiced for downtuned instruments and the other the full chainsaw distortion circuit, each with its own volume knob so you can blend them to taste¹².

Catalinbread announced the pedal in June 2023 as a regular production model rather than a limited edition¹, priced at $189.99³.

An HM-2 chainsaw distortion with a clean blend

The Boss HM-2, first released in 1988⁷, became the defining sound of Swedish death metal: bands like Dismember and Entombed built the "chainsaw metal" style around its grinding distortion, with all four knobs dimed⁸. The Carbide takes that all-knobs-at-10 sound as its starting point and makes it blendable.

Inside, the signal splits in two. The Wet path runs through the distortion circuits, which emulate an HM-2 with all four knobs at 10². The Dry path routes the signal to a clean boost that Catalinbread configured specifically for downtuned instruments². The two circuits sit in parallel, so you can mix both sides to your taste or rig⁵. When either knob is turned down, that path disappears from the mix⁵.

A third control, the Emphasis knob, sits after the two channels are mixed. It lets you tighten up the extreme low end while taming the high end for a more focused sound². That is the whole control set: there is no gain knob, and no traditional EQ.

Delicious Audio summed up the design in plain terms: the Carbide is "a pulverizing distortion with heady boosts to certain frequency bands, three of them, to be exact, and a ton of volume"².

How it differs from the Boss HM-2

The stock HM-2 circuit gives you two "color mix" EQ knobs, a Low and a High, that you set yourself⁵. The Carbide removes that decision. It keeps the HM-2's three EQ boosts intact and hardwires them: a low frequency boost at 87Hz, and two higher bands at 958Hz and 1279Hz that the original's High knob controlled simultaneously⁵. Those three simultaneous boosts are what produce the chainsaw tone¹.

The other big difference is the parallel clean path. The HM-2 is a straight distortion with no blend, and the original version also ran off a 9V battery⁹. The Carbide instead gives you the clean boost alongside the distortion, which is what makes it practical for downtuned guitars, where a pure HM-2-style circuit can turn low-tuned chords into mush.

Guitar.com's reviewer, Richard Purvis, noted the trade-off directly: "The gain is fixed, and there are no traditional EQ controls to help you tame the middly monstrousness"⁶. The Emphasis knob is the only shaping you get after the blend.

Where the HM-2 sound comes from

The Boss HM-2 Heavy Metal shipped in 1988⁷ and was later replaced in Boss's lineup by the MT-2 Metal Zone, which offers a similar midrange control¹⁰. Its second life came from Swedish death metal players who ran everything at maximum, which is exactly the setting the Carbide emulates⁸. For players who want the original control layout, the HM-2's four-knob approach is still the alternative; for players who want that sound with a blend and a focus control, the Carbide reorganizes it into three knobs⁴.

What reviewers said

Guitar.com reviewed the Carbide in October 2023. Richard Purvis found it uncompromising but purposeful, concluding it was "surely the nastiest pedal Catalinbread has ever made, but nasty in a clever and potentially inspiring way"⁶.

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