Empress Effects unveils updated Heavy Menace stompbox – its “most versatile distortion pedal ever”

Empress Effects has issued an updated version of its popular Heavy stompbox, which the Canadian pedal specialist advertises as its “most versatile distortion pedal ever."

Dubbed the Heavy Menace, the new-for-2023 distortion pedal has been marketed as an evolution of the flagship Heavy unit, offering both an extended feature set and smaller pedalboard footprint.

The briefest of glances at the Heavy Menace will reveal the extent to which Empress Effects has really committed to a compact enclosure for its latest stompbox, with reduced control knob (10 to eight) and toggle switch (four to one) counts.

As for what parameters are present, the Heavy Menace boasts six larger and two smaller control knobs, with the former concerning themselves with adjusting the Gain, Weight, Output, Low, Mid, and High parameters.

The latter, meanwhile, are tasked with dictating Gate Threshold – used in conjunction with the footswitchable noise gate – and Mid Frequency, which is sweepable from 200Hz to 2.5kHz.

Those Gate Threshold and Mid Frequency knobs are a notable upgrade from the original Heavy, which alternatively offered limiting three-way toggle switches for the two parameters. Here, much more sonic ground can be covered.

Other notable controls include the aforementioned Weight knob – which adjusts a high-pass filter in the distortion circuit to shape the low-end character – and a new Gate footswitch, which engages the adaptive noise gate.

Notably, a gate key input is also present on the top of the pedal, meaning users can trigger the gate with an external signal.

As well as new controls, the Heavy Menace also introduces a whole new sound, adding a Lite(ish) voice alongside the original Heavy and Heavier modes. Accessed via the sole toggle switch, Lite(ish) harnesses a lower gain option for a more classic crunch.

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As was the case with the original Heavy, the Heavy and Heavier modes – also accessed via a toggle switch, as opposed to a footswitch – work their way up the gain scale, promising to deliver searing modern metal sounds.

The Heavy Menace is available now for $250.

Head over to Empress Effects for more info.