Lichtlaerm Audio Medusa

The Lichtlaerm Audio Medusa is a Swedish death metal distortion pedal, the maker's take on the Boss HM-2 Heavy Metal, the circuit behind the "chainsaw" guitar sound of Swedish death metal¹². Where the original HM-2 is a fairly simple four-knob distortion, the Medusa keeps its core character and builds a much deeper control set around it: active EQ bands, a sweepable parallel mids control, a noise gate, a switchable second gain voicing and a parallel effects loop¹².

Guitar Pedal X reviewed it in May 2024 and described it as Lichtlaerm's MKII take on the Boss HM-2, following the company's 2020 Breathe//Die collaboration². It sits in Lichtlaerm's compact high gain lineup alongside the Gehenna, Altar and .Ritual.².

A death metal distortion in the Boss HM-2 mold

The Boss HM-2 is the pedal most associated with Swedish death metal. Boss's own description of the circuit says that with all knobs maxed it produces the signature "chainsaw" tone that defines the Swedish death metal guitar sound⁵, and MusicRadar notes its tone "spawned the Swedish death metal sound's chainsaw wall of distortion, pioneered by bands" like Dismember and Entombed⁶. The recipe is simple in the original: raw, aggressive distortion with a uniquely voiced midrange and powerful low end, with the distinctive grind coming from two boosted upper-mid frequencies.

The Medusa takes that trope and expands it. Lichtlaerm kept the traditional HM-2 EQ bands, named Low and Grind, and added a parallel mids control sweeping 200 to 700 Hz, a shelving high Presence filter, a Low-Cut control and a cut control for shaping the low end into punchy palm mutes¹⁷³. Guitar Pedal X's reviewer, Stefan Karlsson, notes the Twin Peaks frequencies that give the HM-2 its character are delivered in the Medusa by a pair of gyrators at 1.0 kHz and 1.3 kHz, which is what makes the grind "slightly brutal / harsh and discordant"².

The pedal also carries Lichtlaerm Audio Smart Relay technology, the maker's switching system¹.

The controls

Guitar Pedal X's 2025 roundup lists the full control set⁴:

The Low and Grind band names come straight from the HM-2's original EQ³. The parallel mids control is the big addition for players who found the original HM-2's midrange fixed: sweeping 200 to 700 Hz lets you place the mids where your amp and cab need them¹⁷³. The cut control shapes the low end, which Lichtlaerm says allows you to create punchy palm mutes rather than flubby ones¹.

What Modern mode does

The Mode switch selects between two voicings. HM-2 Classic is the traditional character; Modern engages a second, switchable gain section that Lichtlaerm describes as "more modern, louder, more mid focused"¹³. Guitar Pedal X found in practice that "the Modern voicing beefs things up quite a bit more - with more mids present, more output volume and aggression"².

The parallel FX loop

The Medusa has a parallel FX loop with send and return jacks, an FX Loop Blend control and an FX Loop Polarity switch²⁴. Lichtlaerm describes it as a parallel loop with a polarity switch for blending⁷. Because the loop is parallel, effects plugged into it sit alongside the distortion rather than in series with it, and the blend and polarity controls govern how the looped signal combines with the dry distorted signal.

Lichtlaerm publishes a dedicated manual with a detailed description of the controls¹⁷.

Where it came from and what it costs

Guitar Pedal X describes the Medusa as Lichtlaerm's MKII take on the Boss HM-2, following a 2020 collaboration with the band Breathe//Die². The designer behind Lichtlaerm's pedals is Daniel Ringl, credited by name in the Guitar Pedal X review².

Pricing as listed by Guitar Pedal X in 2025: €199 / $219⁴. The 2024 review listed the same figures by market: £179 from Joe's Pedals in the UK, €199 direct from Lichtlaerm, $219 USD from Eastside Music Supply in the USA, and $359 AUS from Pedal Empire in Australia².

What reviewers said

Guitar Pedal X has covered the Medusa twice. The May 2024 review covered the control set, the gyrator-based Twin Peaks and the Modern voicing in detail². In the November 2025 full metal roundup, Stefan Karlsson's verdict was unambiguous:

That verdict is specifically among HM-2 variants, the class of pedals built on the Boss circuit. For players weighing the Medusa against other HM-2 takes, the differentiators the review points to are the active EQ with sweepable parallel mids, the gate, the Modern voicing and the parallel FX loop, none of which the original HM-2 has²⁴.

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