Sunn O))) and EarthQuaker Devices are pleased to announce that the Sunn O))) HalfLife Octave Distortion + Booster has officially joined the permanent production lineup. Combining the crushing power of the Life Pedal V3 with a compact, pedalboard-friendly footprint, the HalfLife offers all the sonic devastation of its predecessors at roughly half the size.
“I’m pleased to unveil the HalfLife, the new mutation and creation in the Life Pedal lineage,” said Sunn O)))’s Stephen O’Malley. “Graced with our sonic and visual aesthetic sensibilities, the continuous path of honing the core conceptual matter of the O))) story in the broadest possible way. Enjoy this filthy pleasure.“
The Sunn O))) Life Pedal circuit was originally designed to capture the specific front-end chain used during the Steve Albini-produced Life Metal recording sessions. The original hand-numbered V1 release in 2019 was limited to 1,000 units and sold out almost immediately.
It quickly became a defining modern doom and drone-metal pedal, leading to the more compact Sunn O))) Life Pedal V2 in 2020. Limited to 2,500 units, it disappeared from the market just as quickly as its predecessor.
“At one point I felt like people were genuinely angry that we didn’t make more,” recalls EarthQuaker Devices Founder and President Jamie Stillman.
After the V2 release, Stillman meticulously refined the circuit to squeeze every last drop of crushing tone from modern, reliable components that were more readily available than the N.O.S. (new old stock) parts used in the V1 and V2. He also fine-tuned the octave section, making it more pronounced while retaining the low end.
The resulting Sunn O))) Life Pedal V3 arrived in 2022, bringing the pedal into permanent production for the first time. Today, the Life Pedal is ubiquitous not only among doom, noise, and experimental guitar players, but also among bassists, synthists, and studio engineers. It has even become EarthQuaker Devices’ most-cloned design.
Functioning as a three-headed sonic beast, the HalfLife begins with an octave-up fuzz inspired by vintage Shin-Ei FY2 and FY6 units. This feeds into a brutal take on the classic “rodent” distortion circuit, featuring three distinct clipping modes—OpAmp, Asymmetric, and Symmetric—for a wide range of grit and compression. The final stage is a discrete MOSFET clean boost engineered to push vacuum tubes into harmonic saturation and feedback bliss.
Though sonically closest to the Life Pedal V3, HalfLife offers some subtle variations in terms of functionality compared to the V3 to accommodate its form factor. In homage to the V1 and V2 designs, the octave is integrated directly into the distortion circuit rather than being independently switchable. The control layout has also been refined, with the Amplitude and Octave knobs swapping positions for a more intuitive experience when dialing in textures.
The results are astounding: there is breadth and luminosity of colour, vast sonic cosmoses, flashes of abstract colour (synthetic and objective) through resulting themes which emerged from the mastered depths of saturation and circuits between the two players and their mountains of gear.
“I’m ecstatic for the continuation of this LIFE-affirming collaboration with Earthquaker Devices,” Sunn O)))’s Greg Anderson said. “May the sounds you create from the Half Life be as deep as the forests and massive as the mountains”
Designed and manufactured by EarthQuaker Devices in the dark corridors of Akron, Ohio.
