TC Electronic DARK MATTER DISTORTION Phenomenal Distortion Pedal with Extreme Dynamic Range, Two-Band EQ and Voicing Switch

I love this pedal - for the money it does a really great job and you can get excellent tones out of it. I prefer the 'fat' setting - superb for metal, especially when complimented with an overdrive. I've got a dialed-down Boss SD-1 just before it, and it really fills out the tone. I run all of my pedals through the clean channel on a Laney Ironheart, and this pedal has now earned a place on my board. I have other 'higher end' distortion pedals (some are just over-rated due to their name IMO), but this is actually my current little favourite, I just find it really easy to dial in the tones I like. Others may disagree of course, because tone is so subjective, but if you are looking for a well made budget distortion pedal that does what it's supposed to then you can't really go wrong with this one. Good pinch harmonics and thrashy chugs can be obtained all day long here!! Happy shredding :-)

Sounds greatGood build quality and fairly cheapYou get a lot for your moneyI use a power supply so can’t comment on battery life but definitely great pedal 👍

Tons of tone variation and as heavy as you need, there’s a crisp texture and quality that you just don’t find with similarly priced pedals. Very impressed!

I'm a bit of a pedal freak and have way too many including some TC Electronic pedals, so when I saw this at a price too good to refuse I had to have one and I'm truly delighted I did. Great build quality and more importantly, a great smooth, refined distortion that works equally well ahead of a solid state amp (Cube 80) and a clean-set tube amp (Engl Screamer). From the name of it I was expecting something more 'metal', but no, it's far from that - I find it quite warm and it'll do low to moderate levels of distortion which is great for me as I like to stack pedals and this one works very well on its own and after low-gain pedals. So, yes, fab pedal at a great price - no hesitation in recommending this one.

The media could not be loaded. As soon as this was delivered I immediately plugged my guitar into it and connected it into the return of my Laney Leadtop effects loop and it sounds insanely good for the money especially in the "scooped" setting.Doing this allows the pedal to act as your preamp so you control your tone purely with the pedal.I haven't currently tried plugging it in to the front of the amp like a normal distortion pedal as I don't have a long enough cable but I don't see the point in doing so for me anyway.Sounds great and I would still think so if it cost double the price I paid.Worth noting that the video attached to this review is recorded with a phone camera hence why the sound is quite fizzy.

Bought this after reading all the positive reviews. Sadly it wasn't for me! Was using it with a Marshall DSL5C and the combination of the bright Marshall sound and power output of the dark matter just produced an ear splitting harsh overdrive. On it's own or combined with the dirty channel I just couldn't get a pleasant tone from it. The voicing switch was pretty ineffective too. That said, the pedal is very responsive, it is true bypass and the range from clean to distorted is huge. It just didn't suite my set up. Fantastic delivery and return.

If you want that classic Swedish death metal buzzsaw guitar sound that Tomas Skogsberg produced at Sunlight Studios for bands like Entombed and Dismember then look no further. A boss HM2 pedal is the sort after item for achieving such classic sounds but this incredibly well built pedal from TC Electronics achieves exactly the same sonic range at a fraction of the price. Even my 15 watt Fender Blues Junior turns into a seething, snarling beast with this thing plugged into it! I’ve also used this pedal plugged into my favourite DAW through an audio interface and the sounds you can achieve are astounding! If you want a modern metal sound look elsewhere, if you’re after the classic old school Swedish death metal sound this is just the ticket. Highly recommended!

Not a bad word to say about this - for the money it’s ridiculous - great solid metal build quality (none of that plastic casing you get on some cheap pedals), smooth quiet foot switch, decent variety of crunchy effects that can be obtained (within reason - this is primarily a hard rock / metal distortion so none too subtle but if you’re looking at this you’re probably looking for high gain distortion), volume can be set pretty low through the pedal without losing too much presence, it’s easily a match for bigger name units three times the price. Lots of fun.