Customer Rating: 
Summary: Cemetary Gates open wide
Comment: Midnight Syndicate's newest release is perhaps their best.
1. Cathedral Ruins
2. Shadowed Grove
3. Meeting of the Acolytes
4. The Revenants
5. Called From Beyond
6. Nightfall
7. The Hunt
8. Across the Chasm
9. Cemetery Gates
10. Entering the Crypt
11. Alchemist's Chamber
12. Tear of Osiris
13. Forging the Scarab
14. Shadows Descend
15. Inside the Scarab
16. Exodus
17. Dark Legacy
18. Lullaby
19. Lost
20. Not Your Saviour
Customer Rating: 
Summary: A very good comeback for Midnight Syndicate
Comment: I bought this CD and Nox Arcana's "Phantoms of the High Seas" at the same time and for the first time, I'll have to say that Midnight Syndicate has the better album. "The Dead Matter" has more keyboards and less strings which is what made Midnight Syndicate sound too repetitious over the years. And, on the other hand, Nox Arcana sounded like they are depending more on strings with "Phantoms of the High Seas" with only one poetic passage during the opening track. I've only played both the albums once each, so I just want to say that "The Dead Matter" stands out better to me.
But, don't get me wrong. I cherish most all the albums from both these artists. I have to play at least one album from either of these two groups at least once a day to enhance and maintain my gloomy moods.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Very good album that's slow and creepy
Comment: The Dead Matter by Midnight Syndicate is a well put together album that creates a scary atmosphere that is on the mellow or slow side, which is just the right tempo for an album with this subject matter (vampires, the living dead). The slow tempo allows the spookiness to really come out more. When listening to this album I feel like an impending sense of doom is in the air. My favorite tracks are Cathedral Ruins, Meeting Of The Acolytes, The Revenants, Called From Beyond, Nightfall, The Hunt, Entering The Crypt, Forging The Scarab, Shadows Descend, Exodus, and Dark Legacy. This album sounds like a cross between Realm Of Shadows and Gates Of Delirium (two great albums, by the way). I do not care for the 3 bonus tracks, however. I think inserting Rock & Roll tracks onto the album is a bad idea, and I think Midnight Syndicate got this idea from Nox Arcana when they put a rock song (a hidden track) at the end of the Carnival Of Lost Souls album. I think Midnight Syndicate should abandon this idea and stick to what they've done before. I recommend this album to anyone wanting to create a great haunted atmosphere.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Awesome disc except................
Comment: The last three tracks!!!
What the HELL were they thinking?
I can understand MS want to branch out and try something a little different but comon.
There's experimental and then there's just plain bad which the last three tracks are.
Thank God there called "bonus tracks"!!!
Stick to what you do best and hopefully this isn't a sign of things to come.
The last three bonus tracks in no way detract from the main album which is simply amazing.
My introdution to MS was with The 13th Hour.
I can say that as good as 13th Hour was, The Dead Matter is just leaps and bounds ahead of it.
The songwriting is way more mature, it has more balance.
The songs are way more epic, I think MS working on an actual movie has helped them immensely.
There seems to be more of a cohesion between the songs than just being different tracks.
My favorites so far are track 3 and 5.
But really, there isn't one bad track on the main disc.
I can't recommend this disc any more than I already have.
And with Halloween right around the corner, what a great time to introduce yourself to one of the scariest, innovative and brilliant groups on the planet.
Just skip the last three songs......DREADFUL!!!
Still....
Highly Recommended!!!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Good,Good - what the....?
Comment: Wow, I have been waiting for this album for quite a while. Nothing can substitute for the depth of MS. Production quality of the recording is first rate. The album begins on familiar notes and territory. It builds the macabre and you can start to feel the MS signature creepiness. Yet, still not quit reaching dynamic of the masterpiece of The 13th Hour. It comes to its own stride finally on the 13th track ,Forging the Scarab after a couple of great tracks MS gives the listener an audible chop to the wind pipe, with what sounds like Cousin Eddie Griswald, belting out his favorite power Goth rock ballads in his bulging polyester leisure suit. Yuck! This guy should quit singing, period.
I am going to remix my own copy with out the hackneyed vocalist.
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