The Medusa is the long-awaited successor to one of Lichtlaerm’s most infamous and in-demand creations: the Breathe//Die. Originally released as a collaboration with the Berlin-based band of the same name, the original Breathe//Die was the first HM-2–style pedal to combine crushing distortion with a built-in boost and noise reduction — all packed into a compact enclosure. It sold out in days and went on to fetch sky-high prices on the used market. But rather than simply reissue it, we rebuilt it from the ground up.

Medusa takes the brutal Swedish chainsaw DNA of the Breathe//Die and evolves it into a more powerful, more versatile monster. The boost is now integrated directly into the circuit, pushing the gain to three times what a standard HM-2 offers. Want tighter, punchier palm mutes? The Cut control lets you rein in the low end, giving your tone the sculpted aggression the original could never reach. Output? It’s dialed up massively, because why not leave a crater?

All that gain comes at a cost — noise — but Medusa is ready. We've embedded a full version of our acclaimed Key & Gate noise reduction circuit, triggered from the input just like modern standalone gates. And it doesn’t stop there: everything blended through the loop is gated too, making even the wildest tones tight and controlled.

Speaking of the loop, Medusa includes a parallel FX loop to blend in anything — overdrives, boosts, distortion, preamps, or even just clean signal for extra clarity. Want to get weird? You can invert the loop phase to explore out-of-phase madness or eliminate phase issues entirely.

The classic HM-2 EQ bands, Low and Grind, are still here to dial in that iconic buzzsaw tone. But now you’ve got added control: a midrange sweep (200–700Hz) to shape your presence in the mix, and a shelving high filter to tame or enhance treble and air. With this kind of tonal flexibility, Medusa also shines as a preamp, delivering full-spectrum distortion and response into a power amp or clean channel.

And for even more sonic range, Medusa features a second, switchable gain circuit — modern, louder, and more mid-focused. Now you can choose between the raw fury of the classic black-and-orange box and a tighter, more aggressive voicing that still retains the character of the original.

All of this lives in a compact enclosure, topped with real gold foil artwork by the brilliant Kasia Jasmina — a pedal that doesn’t just sound mythic, but looks it too.

This is not just another HM-2 clone. This is Medusa. Face it head-on — and prepare to melt some faces.