after trying out numerous pedals I have narrowed my search down to three: Boss Metal Zone; Digitech Metal Master; Digitech Death Metal. I like the sound of all of them, but I'm wondering if any of them have more subtle differences like breaks easily, or something along those lines that I wouldn't notice just from trying them out at the store. Any comments?

well the metal zone is by boss so right there you know its a tank, there solid i dont think i have seen or heard of one being busted (unless on purpose) not sure about the others

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out of those 3 i say metal zone... not only are boss pedals built well, but that pedal owns the other two in flexibility.

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Well, I hate the way the Digitech Death Metal sounds, and I haven't tried the other two personally myself. That said, I stick firmly with Boss pedals, you can kick the crap out of them and they still sound great.

not to change the subject too much, but does it really matter if I use a coupler cable, or just a shorter guitar cable? I know it's possible, I just wonder if it'll make any difference somehow. (I know I'm ignorant, I'm semi-new to guitar)

It can make a very small difference at times if there are things that can cause noise in the system, like other electrical devices.

About then pedals. The best bet is the Boss because even though the Metal Master sounds nice and has a nice morph knob that can drastically change the tone to whatever, it has no gain knob so you are are stuck with balls to the wall distortion. If it had a gain knob it would be a ok pedal.... I have one and the gain thing is my only bitch. It has actually too much distortion and I never thought I would ever say that. The Death Metal is shit so don't waste your time or money.

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I'd go with the metal zone. It's much better than the others and you can get more variation to your sounds.

Out of all those, I'd say the Metalzone is the best. If you're like more of a beginner and ur gear sucks, then the Metalzone can put some really dirty distortion on it, but then as you get better, you tend to hate it more as it is a muddy sounding piece of shit and it sounds all fuzzy and unclear.

Does it?

metal zone mate. i lent mine to my mate for six weeks and he said it was the most perfectly solid pedal and wants one of his own. on top of my recommendation in that you almost can't break one.

I'd say metal zone, built like a tank and it actualy has an DRIVE knob.
It's still a crappy pedal in the end though

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But why is everybody using it then?

who is this "everybody" you speak of?

i can't think of a single professional guitarist that actually uses the metal zone for his main distortion.

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Thats easy. See, most people start off with shitty equipment and trying to get a mean metal tone out of it. They fail, and seek some other distortion pedal, hoping that it'll fix them up. They buy the MT-2, and it works, or does so for a few months. Then, as the player gets better he realizes that no pedal on earth will give him that house shattering gut rumbling tone his favourite artists have, and that a nice tube amp is in order. Even tough he now plays at least an Peavey 5051, he still has this crappy pedal in his collection because of the sentimental value...

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Basically it sits around unused until a buddy comes over with no equipment and you need to set up a second rig for him with some crunch to it. Other times you have to fly somewhere for vacation or whatever and all you can carry is your guitar, a small practice amp, and the old Metal Zone. That's why. Otherwise it is total crap...