HeadRush Black Death Distortion

The Black Death Distortion is a distortion stompbox from HeadRush. According to HeadRush's product page, the circuit is based on a ProCo Rat, the long-running distortion design known for a gritty, rasping character that players have used for everything from light crunch to heavy grind¹.

Because the circuit follows the Rat, the pedal sits in the same family as other Rat-style distortion boxes: a gain stage with a tone-shaping filter, capable of going from overdrive-adjacent bite into full distortion. Players comparing it with other options in HeadRush's own range, such as the HeadRush D1 Dist or the HeadRush Sher'ff Distortion, will find the Black Death is the one HeadRush identifies as Rat-based¹. For a wider view of where it lands, see the site's pages on Overdrive Pedals and Fuzz Pedals, the two effect types distortion is most often weighed against.

What it does

HeadRush lists the Black Death as a stompbox-format distortion, meaning it is a single-effect foot pedal built around one circuit rather than a multi-effects unit. A Rat-based design typically places a gain control, a filter or tone control, and a level control on the top panel, giving a player a straightforward three-knob layout, though HeadRush's page is the reference for the exact control set¹.