it has the rock/grunge sound. Not quite sure if it works well for middle and lower frequency ranges for genres such as thrash or death metal. It looks, good, but it doesn't feel like the one I had 25 years ago the classic piece from that era, probably because the manufacturer maybe has been changed to Taiwan. Also, I changed three new batteries to see the "light" flashing and still is not turning on. When I plug it in 9V adapter then Yes! But I still remember my old distortion which was exactly the same , the light was always on. Well it worths the try though and i am still trying to figure out if the light is this way or the batteries go weak very soon, I don't know. The sound depends on what you wanna play is ok,not bad,not perfect .