Review by Tomek on May 16, 2008.

Nowadays it is pretty hard to find a band that willfully plays music that is somewhat hard to digest, demands numerous listening sessions, or is very interesting. Most bands go for music that’s popular, gets played on the radio at the moment or is just plain, simple and will sell well. Dark Mass chose not to be one of those boring, copycat, uninteresting bands, and I must say that even though it took a while to get used to, their “Dark Mass Medium” became one of my favorite albums.

Sound was the first thing that I’ve noticed. It reminded me a little bit of the Eastern European thrash bands from 80’s. Most of them played very different tunes back then but sounded very similar to each other, simply because of the same studios/garages they’ve used. Ukrainians bring back the garage sound but musically they’re eons away from 80’s bands that I had in mind. I don’t know much about recording of this album, or people that were involved because information was not given to us, but listening to the album brought back some good memories of the bands I listened to growing up. First song on the album wouldn’t be my choice for an album opener but that doesn’t change the fact that after minute or so it got very interesting in a progressive way and kept me listening all the way to the end. Not only to the end of the song but to the end of the album. Very little space between the songs makes it virtually effortless but the real reason is how wonderfully fascinating, inspired and astounding this album simply is. I must mention here that there are NO vocals on this recording. I don’t know why they chose not to have a vocalist in their ranks, but it doesn’t stop them from delivering some most outstanding instrumental storytelling. Lots of excellent guitar shredding, plenty of amazing solos, keyboard intros, eerie backgrounds, classical guitar, piano, jazzy drums and rumbling bass are only some of many ingredients of this strange medium. What glues the whole thing together is the timing. Nothing is too long or too short; nothing is too fast or too slow. Guitars, drums, keyboard, bass all in perfect combination and amount. All balanced and mixed together in exquisite harmony.

I can’t ever get bored with this record. Every spin gives me something new, something I’ve missed before or something that was kept in a background and comes out after few listens. Every time this album ends I just sit there waiting for next song that isn’t there. I can’t stop myself from pressing play again and try to find more and more that’s been hidden from me. Whenever “Dark Mass Medium” ends I have a feeling of something overlooked or missed, I have a constant feeling that I need to listen to it again. For me this album ends way too quickly. It’s my only complaint.

Categorical Rating Breakdown:

Musicianship: 8
Atmosphere: 8
Originality: 7
Production: 7
Overall: 8

Rating: 7.6 out of 10