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
Download the presetOpen the tab(opens in a new tab)

Loads in AmpliTube 5, using only gear the standard edition includes: no MAX upgrade or extra collections.

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.

  1. GateNoise Gate
  2. EQ10 Band Graphic
  3. DriveDistortion
  4. AmpJazz Amp 120
  5. Cab2x12 Closed Vintage

Knobs, in signal order

  1. Noise gate Noise Gate

    • Release, 20 ms
    • Depth, −50 dB

  2. EQ 10 Band Graphic

    • 31 Hz, −4 dB
    • 62 Hz, +1 dB
    • 125 Hz, +4 dB
    • 250 Hz, +1 dB
    • 500 Hz, −2 dB
    • 1 kHz, +3 dB
    • 2 kHz, 0 dB
    • 4 kHz, +3 dB
    • 8 kHz, −2 dB
    • 16 kHz, −4 dB
    • Level, 0 dB

  3. Drive pedal Distortion

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

  4. Amp Jazz Amp 120

    • Bass, 5 of 10
    • Mid, 4.5 of 10
    • Treble, 6 of 10
    • Volume, 5 of 10
    • Reverb, 0 of 10

  5. Cab 2x12 Closed Vintage

    Nothing to set; the preset loads it.

Set your guitar

Pickups
an unusual pickup layout
Position
bridge
Tone knob
10
Channel
Driven by Distortion, 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