tc electronic Dark Matter Distortion

I use this pedal as my main distortion pedal on a Fender Hotrod deluxe mkII with a Fender telecaster special from 2010. It sounds exactly like advertised. It's a good distortion. It's quite transparant so it makes your guitar still sound like your guitar!
The knobs are pretty straight forward: gain, volume, bass, treble and a toggle switch that kind of shifts the mid emphasis to a more modern sound. To be honest the down position will probably have troubles cutting true a bandmix
But there is plenty gain on tap in this pedal
It also likes to be booster by a tubescreamer the potentio meters from the bass and treble controls are center detent. This means you can cut and boost the bass of treble frequenties. This is quite handy if you have a super shrill or bassy amp. Of if it lacks bass or treble you can boost them. The build Quality is good. The Paint work is good. And the sound is good. Foto the price what more do you want?

Pros: cheap, good sounding distortion goes from overdrive to distortion to fuzz alike tones, you can cut pro boost bass and treble. Plenty of volume on tap, and pretty transparent.

Cons: to bad there is no mid control. Except for the Toggle switch., The distortion is not for everybody: it's quite hairy and probably doesn't deliver modern metal tones.

That said it's a pretty good investment and it's dirt cheap.

It's a strong, durable pedal that looks like it can handle a beating.

The bass and treble controls allow for a little EQ customization which is cool. The mini toggle switch does something that is not very noticeable, I have spent a lot of time trying to figure it out. Sonically, I prefer it in the vintage position. Maybe it's because I am a little prejudiced. Features like the knobs having a little notch at 12 o'clock, the easy opening thing at the back for replacing the battery, the soft yet sturdy switch are all signs of fine design and construction. Everything (apart from that mini toggle switch) is very responsive.

I haven't managed to dial in a nice sound by plugging it in straight into a clean amp. I either need a nice, tube amp to be broken up already or to use an overdrive with it. I like it in a booster - light distortion mode before my MXR overdrive for soloing or heavier rhythm parts.

This pedal most certainly needs a good amp and a cabinet to go with. Otherwise, it'll sound somewhat harsh and muffy if you crank the gain knob too much. The EQ is kind of meh, and the "voice" switch does little to compensate for the lack of mid-frequency controller, because the change in its two positions is barely audible (up - slightly more mids, down - slightly drowned mids).

It's a good pedal to shape your tone a bit while adding a considerable portion of distortion to be later nuanced further by your amp. It's not the best pedal for starting your heavy tone, however, due to its somewhat peculiar and specific sound.

I'd recommend trying it out in real settings - borrow it from someone for a few moments, or find it somewhere in your local shop to see if you'd want that kind of sound. I wasn't expecting it to be exactly what I needed, but it's a fine addition to my newly started pedalboard, anyway.

Initially, I was torn between this one and the "Fangs Metal Distortion", but Fangs seemed more like a set of typical metal tones and I wanted something more to experiment with, without those limitations of having only super-distorted sound.

Dark Matter Distortion is capable of acting as an overdrive pedal, or, I'd say, it's somewhat in-between those overdriven and distotrted sounds. It has a nice warm and fuzzy feel to it when cranked to higher gain levels, which can be very suitable for something like sludge and stoner metal/rock, or some experimental indie stuff.

Don't get scared by the name, but this pedal can do small blues like overdrive.

+ goes from almost clean to usable dirty overdrive
+ classic sound, very rich
+ very little noise, even with the drive all the way open
+ comes close to the sound of pushing an older tube amp
+ lovely harmonic overtones
+ good controls


- the LED is very bright
- the little voice switch is made for small fingers, not a lot of space between the gain and level knob
- the name suggests it should sound a bit heavier than it is

But I love this pedal, it's almost perfect for me

This is a good pedal, especially for the price. The name suggests Metal but I would say it's more of a hard rock pedal, I've managed to find some decent AC/DC, Foo Fighters and Biffy Clyro type tones. I use it both alone and stacked with a sweet honey and it sounds pretty good either way and holds up surprisingly well with the gain rolled back.

If you're looking for a good cheap, all round distortion pedal this is a good choice. I don't play much metal so it's good enough at that for my needs but if I suspect if metal's your thing you're probably better off looking elsewhere.