AmpRecipe

Slaughter Of The Soul guitar tone

At the Gates. Built for this recording. Nobody has played this one yet; it comes from a documented rig, not from ears.

Play it in
AmpliTube 5Guitar Rig 7
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Dial it in Guitar Rig 7 Pro by hand, using only components the Pro edition includes. A starting point nobody has played in this edition yet.

A noise gate, a 10 band graphic EQ and a drive pedal modelled on a Boss DS-1 into an amp modelled on a Roland JC-120, through a Marshall 2x12 cab.

Knobs, in signal order

  1. Noise GateNoise gate

    • Release, 20 ms

    The recipe also sets depth, which Noise Gate does not have. Leave its other controls where they load.

  2. Equalizer ParametricEQ

    In the expert panel

    • Band 1 Frequency, 31 Hz
    • Band 1 Gain, −4 dB
    • Band 2 Frequency, 125 Hz
    • Band 2 Gain, +4 dB

    The curve is reduced to its 2 largest moves; 62 Hz at 1 dB, 250 Hz at 1 dB, 500 Hz at -2 dB, 1000 Hz at 3 dB, 4000 Hz at 3 dB, 8000 Hz at -2 dB, 16000 Hz at -4 dB are left flat. The recipe also sets level, which Equalizer Parametric does not have. Leave its other controls where they load.

  3. DistortionDrive pedal

    • Distortion, 7 of 10
    • Tone, 5 of 10
    • Volume, 6 of 10

  4. Jazz AmpAmp

    • Bass, 5 of 10
    • Mid, 4.5 of 10
    • Treble, 6 of 10
    • Volume, 5 of 10

    The recipe also sets reverb, which Jazz Amp does not have. Leave its other controls where they load.

  5. Matched Cabinet ProCab

    • Cabinet, the one that loads with Jazz Amp

    The rig calls for a Marshall 2x12 cabinet. NI does not publish the names of the matched cabinets, so start from the one that loads with the amp and change it by ear.

  • EQ swapped: A 10 band graphic has no counterpart in Guitar Rig 7 Pro; Equalizer Parametric does the EQ instead
  • Note: A plain number is the knob's own reading on a 0 to 10 scale unless the setting gives another range; %, Hz, dB and ms are the units the Guitar Rig 7 interface shows. Amp, drive and fuzz knobs are assumed to read 0 to 10.

Set your guitar

Pickups
an unusual pickup layout
Position
bridge
Tone knob
10
Channel
Driven by a pedal, into a clean amp

Where the rig comes from

  • Amp: Peavey Supreme 160 solid-state head, run on its clean channel (all drive came from pedals in front). Attributed to Anders Björler's own account, reposted from the band's website; Pedal 1 (first in chain): Boss HM-2 Heavy Metal with its distortion knob at 0, used as a crunch/EQ-coloring stage rather than the main gain source; Pedal 2 (main distortion): Boss MT-2 Metal Zone, which supplied the bulk of the gain into the clean amp; Cabinet: a home-made mixed cab with two 12-inch and two 10-inch speakers; Björler recalled them as Celestions (he hedged with 'I guess'); Guitar: Ibanez Maxxas wit harmonycentral.com
  • Anders Björler (2014 Guitar World interview) confirms the album's rhythm tone was a solid-state Peavey Supreme with two Boss pedals, Heavy Metal (HM-2) and Metal Zone (MT-2), chained in series; Björler describes the Ibanez Maxxas as a resonant, hollow-bodied guitar with lots of sustain (relevant for why the tone is not a typical solid-body EMG sound); Later-era context only: by the 2014 reunion/At War With Reality era Björler had moved to Peavey 6505/5150 heads and a Line 6 HD500 live, with EMG-81s on an Ibanez Iron Label baritone — not the 1995 rig guitarworld.com
  • Pedal order per Reverb's HM-2 history: HM-2 first as a boost, into the MT-2 Metal Zone, then into the solid-state Peavey reverb.com
  • Equipboard's summary of the Earache 'Making of Slaughter of the Soul' documentary: Supreme 160 head confirmed around the 15:45 mark; Equipboard adds that the custom 2x12+2x10 cab reportedly had two broken speakers, and that the rig was miked with four SM57s (Björler himself said two) equipboard.com
  • Nail The Mix states the Fredman dual-SM57 technique was developed by Fredrik Nordström during the recording of this album; one 57 on-axis at the cone centre, the second beside it angled 55 degrees nailthemix.com
  • URM Academy podcast with Fredrik Nordström: he reveals the Slaughter guitar tone came from a Boss Metal Zone urm.academy
  • Community claim (Ultimate Metal forum, citing Fredrik Nordström's reissue liner notes): Peavey Supreme 160 head, Boss Super Overdrive plus Boss Metal Zone, home-made 2x10+2x12 cab. Note this names an SD-1 rather than the HM-2 Björler himself cites — a conflict in the record; Community claim (Ultimate Metal forum): the home-made cab was built by the Björler twins' father, per the making-of DVD ultimatemetal.com
  • Community claim (Harmony Central): both Boss pedals went into the clean channel, one providing distortion and the other acting essentially as an EQ harmonycentral.com
  • Community claim (Kemper forum) reinforcing that the album tone was HM-2 + Metal Zone, not a Peavey 5150 as commonly assumed forum.kemper-amps.com
  • Conflicting community claim (Metal Archives forum): one poster asserts At the Gates did not use the HM-2 on Slaughter at all — contradicted by Björler's own statements above forum.metal-archives.com
  • Session context: recorded May–July 1995 at Studio Fredman, Gothenburg, produced by Fredrik Nordström; the band spent three weeks dialing in the rhythm guitar tone en.wikipedia.org
  • Gear-roundup page listing Björler's amps across his career (Peavey Supreme 160, 5150/5150 II, ENGL Powerball, Marshall Valvestate 8100) and pedals including Boss HM-2 and MT-2; useful only as corroboration of the Supreme 160/HM-2/MT-2 pairing uberproaudio.com