I'd like to know what distortion you'd recommend me. For death metal.

Anything, old-school, newer stuff, whatever. I play both fast and funeral-esque things, Discordant, etc.

Not really into EHX kind of stuff like the Metal Muff.

are you looking for a pedal specific? A little more info on what you are working with would help. cause I can say almost any high gain amp would set you straight.

Valve amp preamp gain is the best you can have. Maybe an overdrive pedal as a clean boost in front to go with it.

The classic death metal distortion pedal is the Boss HM-2, of which many clones exist. It's specifically for swedeath tones. Most distortion pedals are crap, however.

I pretty much agree with what Ilwhyan said. I'm better at recommending heads for different death metal tones. and HM2 is the buzzsaw. that Beringer Hm300 is spot on for the HM2. there are some independent pedal builders that do decent. I am not a fan of that Left Hand Wrath. it seems to hit everything but that tone.

Many beginner-level guitarists are afraid that the gear they're looking at might not be able to generate the amount of distortion required for the extreme metal styles they're interested in playing - you often see questions like "can this amp do death metal", "will I need a distortion pedal with this gear". In reality, some quintessential metal amps like the Dual Rectifier or Marshall JCM800 aren't so because they're absurdly saturated, and in fact, they're far less gainy than many of their competitors. Many metal guitarists use overdrive pedals to drive their valve amps harder, but generally they will turn down the preamp gain to compensate, as they're mainly using the pedals to tighten the response and sculpt the tone.

If your guitar is equipped with correctly installed humbuckers, and you plug it into an amp's lead channel, it can probably do death metal just fine. Even single coils can be enough, but they will be noisy with death metal gain levels. Admittedly some bands in extreme metal use absurd amounts of distortion in their guitar tones, but it's not a requirement, or even the norm. Even in extreme metal, wise gear choices are more based on tone rather than the amount of distortion.

As a relevant anecdote, I play an amp that the manufacturer advertises as a great amp for modern rock tones with tamed gain. I play death and black metal with my gain between 1 and 2 out of 10.

Only valve pedals come close to real valve distortion, and the Blackstar HT series is the best of those that I have tried (and I have tried a fuckton).

I've got a great amp, but if I were to buy a distortion pedal, I think I would look at the MXR fullbore metal. I once saw a video of that and it blew me away. Never heard that good distortion coming out of a pedal.

Shit... that fullbore metal I saw some videos of that too... it blew me away with how shitty it sounded.

The spectrum of sounds in death metal is so broad, its hard to actually give you any advice without narrowing down what you're going for. If we are talking pedals, here are some of my favorites.

ProCo Rat(Obituary)
Boss HM-2(Swedish bands)
Boss Mega Distortion(Undergang)

These three all have classic pedigrees, as well as contemporary applications.

Hmmm.... I already use ProCo Rat for my black metal project, and it sounds great, but when I start playing death metal, it's not want I'm looking for.

Here's what the style is: I'm kind of looking for something ''dark'' yet clear. Kind of like new Bloodbath, where the lower notes have really punch, grittiness, yet it's not over-saturated.

I do NOT have a good amp. I'm kind of short in money for now, so I record for now guitar-soundcard. I have a small-ish amp, but it's simply stupid to record with that shite, only rehearsing.

The fullbore metal blew me away too....can't believe it was that expensive for how crappy it sounded. Only worse quality to price ratio is probably the Zvex Box of Metal, which not only sucks ass but is almost as expensive as a goddamn tube head.

OP, buy the Blackstar HT-Metal and you will not regret it. If that's out of budget, then just get a Metal Zone and be done with it. Eq the latter properly and it will still sound better than most practice combo amps.

HT-Metal: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjNMgnB5mEI

Metal Zone (warning, shameless self-promo): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SM3a6kXeybI

All these pedals suck. Only the Valnott is good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WcsV7hQ1V4

Problem spotted. You're really not going to get a proper deathmetal/any kind of metal sound without a decent amp (even the HM-2 sounds better through a tube amp).

If you're from the states, check out Guitar Center's used section of their site (I've gotten some serious steals from them, even if it is a bargain with the devil). Used Peavey 6505+ 1x12 combo would be the place to start - one of them is going for $350.

Yeah and you can find them at that price fairly regularly assuming you live somewhere reasonably populated.

i actually do use the fullbore metal but that is mainly for the specific sound i am going for not because of how good it sounds otherwise. It is definitely not a death metal pedal i say. You can play maybe Beheritesque black metal on it and doomy stuff.
SLK above recommended me to get a crate amp instead once for me but i don't have to money to randomly switch up amps without having one to try out nearby.

I also have a HM2 and if you tune low everything you play will sound like death metal.

Also one thing people here are forgetting is that you are seemingly recording it directly into your computer. While a better amp mic'd up will sound better can you actually pull that off sound level wise? Or is recording at home not that important?

If you are recording at home on a budget then just buy a soundcard and line that shit in. It will beat most pedals with an emulated output anyway.

The Bloodbath tone on Fathomless Mastery was done with an HM-2. Crank everything except the distortion, which you turn all the way down. Play through a somewhat gain saturated amp.

You mentioned your amp sucks. Fix that. Most important part, IMO, to having a great guitar tone.

i've never heard of anyone trying to achieve the chainsaw sound that way.

Yea never heard of that but tmwr I'm going to specifically give it a shot just to see the results.

If the OP is still sold on using a pedal, the TightMetal by Amptweaker is a hell of a pedal.

It is indeed. It's consistent, has a lot of fine-tuning, and the mid-boost and noise gate are useful. Problem is, it still sounds harsh and digital to me. Only substitute to valve distortion is valve pedals!

I was kinda skeptical myself, then I did tried it and played along to Mock the Cross. Tone is spot-on. I don't particularly like it for what I do, but if going for that tone, then it's what it is. I achieved best results with a JCM 800 gain all the way up. Something like a 5150 probably will get there with less saturation.

I just used an ampeg ss150 in a pinch,(didn't want to wait for any of my tube amps to warm up) cause I was mainly working on drum tracks today. but I can see how it would work.

I didn't see any difference as far as the way you described or taking and putting my amp on clean and turning up the pedal's distortion all the way. so yea it works but hell I guess it doesn't matter.

I've tried a couple of valve overdrives/pedals (one was the Mesa V-twin). They were not helpful when it came to boosting a tube amp gain channel, much less creating a valve-based distortion sound. They were pretty 'soft'.

That and the Tube King series is crap. I only recommend Blackstar HT series (distortion, not overdrive). The DistX is average, the Dual and the Metal are solid. The Blackfire is great if you can get your hands on one, it was a limited run.