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4.0 out of 5 stars
I believe in the ethereal soul, March 7, 2008
2002's Matters of the Dark is the 5th release by Swedish power metal masters Tad Morose, and the 3rd album to feature Urban Breed on vocals. The band took a major step forward when Urban Breed came on board, and this album finds the band continuing to improve their dark, melodic, somewhat progressive power metal sound. Think Savatage meets Evergrey with an understated appreciation for Iron Maiden and Helloween. I also see a lot of similarities between Tad Morose and Brainstorm/Symphorce.
The best word to describe Matters of the Dark is "anthemic." This is an album full of powerful metal anthems, and I don't mean that in the Manowar or Hammerfall sense of things. Without resorting to inane lyrics or trite "metal warrior" subject matter, Tad Morose has delivered an album jammed full of melodic metal songs that you can shake your fist and sing along to. The song Ethereal Soul is one of my favorite metal songs ever, but In the Shadows, Reason of the Ghost, and the title track are nearly as impressive.
It takes more than just anthems to make a power metal album stand out. Fortunately Tad Morose delivers the goods in terms of songwriting, production, and amazing musicianship. Christer "Krunt" Andersson in particular has the guitar hero skills, but is savvy enough not to get all Yngwie on us and lose the song for the sake of a tricky solo. And as impressive as this album is musically, Urban Breed's powerful vocals continue to amaze me. He has to be one of the most underrated vocalists in metal.
Aside from the "kid" who wishes this sounded more like Rhapsody (God help us all), I can see Matters of the Dark appealing to a wide array of progressive/power metal fans. I wouldn't necessarily call it a must-have album, but it's not that far removed either.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Well executed metal, September 18, 2005
My first purchase of a band I knew little of other than the title track, what a great surprise. Not a shredfest, it IS alot of melodic lead guitar work with some excellent short ripping leads, this would have been huge in the 80's heyday. This is NOT glossy glam shallow metal, it's really good songwriting with excellent musicianship all around. The singer, Urban Breed, has a great deal of variety in his voice that adds the right elements to each song.
Some of the best songs are Sword of Retribution, Matters of the Dark, I Know Your Name, & Riding the Beast. This would be very solid pickup for anyone interested in great musicianship.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Ethereal Soul!!!!, May 30, 2004
I love extreme metal. Death, thrash, power, but not so much black. I had a good week. I bought this, Cage's Darker Than Black and Killswitch Engage's End Of Heartache. I couldn't be happier with my purchases-this is why we go to work. What do they all have in common? Superior vocals. This is what seperates the men from the boys in metal. It's why Iron Maiden will always be better than In Flames. I like In Flames, but it's in spite of the vocals-which I find to be quite grating. If they had any one of the vocalists from these three bands, then they would be unstoppable. Tad Morose's Urban Breed is one of the best (Cage's Sean Peck is better, I think). Urban Breed sounds more like the name of a rapper, doesn't it? They tend to come up with non-conventional names while metal men usually go with their regular ones. This cd is strong from top to bottom, with some stand-outs. If you're like me and you read a lot of reviews before purchasing metal cds then you may have seen the virtues of the song Ethereal Soul extolled in text. Trust me, it's all that and then some. It makes me want to look up ethereal in the dictionary. If you like great metal, then buy this and enjoy.
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by Tad Morose 
