Help with distortion pedals?!?

[Hellbat]

Actually they were using the tubescreamer with the IIc+ on puppets as well. I watched or read an interview with James where he mentioned they had a bit dialed in to increase the "Shhhk Shhhk Shhhk" sound on the pick attack.

[Sephiroth]

I've never found a distortion pedal that I liked. I went through a bunch of em when I was a kid trying to find a "Metallica-ish" tone. I eventually went to Multi-FX units and finally good old OD pedal into a tube amp.

Not saying all distortion pedals are bad, just that I never found one that worked for me. Any of em that had "metal" in the name seemed to be absolute crap.

There's been some real-tube pedals out on the market in the past couple of years that are surprisingly decent. Ibanez tube king and the Seymour-Duncan twin-tubes come to mind. They're a great substitute if you have a solid-state amp, and sound great.