Best amps for metal

EVH publishes two independent channels each with an additional gain voicing — an Overdrive button on the green channel and a Burn button on the red — plus an effects loop, dual parallel speaker outputs and a speaker-emulated DI with power amp mute.

The gain structure is what matters. Multiple cascaded valve gain stages distort progressively across the preamp, which is why the result stays articulate under fast palm-muted playing in a way a single pedal clipping stage does not.

The 10-inch internal speaker is the limiting factor on low-end weight, and the dual speaker outputs are the answer — through a 4x12 this is a different amp.

The effects loop is the reason to choose the 100 over the 50 for this application, and it survives the generation change: the KATANA-100 GEN 3 publishes Send and Return jacks and the 50 still has none. High-gain playing wants the delay and reverb after the preamp.

Brown is one of the six amp characters and is BOSS's high-gain voicing. Five simultaneous effects sections with three variations each cover the gate, the EQ and the time effects without additional pedals, and there is a Line Out for the desk.

The cons: 100 W is more than a rehearsal room needs, though the Power Control's Standby, 0.5 W, Half and Max positions are why that is not a problem. At 14.8 kg it is heavy, the Line Out is a 1/4-inch jack rather than an XLR, and the GA-FC footswitch that unlocks channel and effects switching is sold separately.

The Ultra Gain channel is a genuine high-gain valve channel, and the Resonance control specifically shapes low-frequency response in the power stage — which is the frequency range that decides whether a palm mute is tight or flubby.

EL34s are the mid-forward British voice. For a scooped modern metal sound that is not the natural choice; for anything with midrange presence it is exactly right.

The half-power switch is about 3 dB. It is a real reduction and it is not bedroom volume.

Blackstar's ISF control sweeps between an American and a British tone character, which on a high-gain amp is a more useful control than a fixed mid knob.

The speaker-emulated line output makes silent practice and direct recording viable through the amp's own preamp, which is what most people playing this music at home actually need.

5 W of valve power is still not quiet at the volume where the power section works, and 5 W into a 12-inch speaker is not going to compete with a drummer.

We are not picking this one for metal. The high-gain models in the Spark are perfectly credible and the amp is excellent at what it is designed for.

The specification that decides it is two 4-inch speakers. Metal tone depends heavily on low-frequency weight and on a speaker that stays controlled under a chugging palm mute, and 4-inch drivers cannot do either.

Through headphones the models are fine and this is a genuinely good practice tool. Through its own speakers, for this music, it is the wrong product.