| Review:
Darker Pleasures is like one of those classy boutique stores you find
in expensive shopping districts that only sell handmade croquet sets or
tea cozies. It targets a very specific niche--in
this case breast bondage and tit and nipple torture--which it then
presents in a very personal, knowledgeable and no-nonsense sort of way. Customer
satisfaction is obviously very important, as the site features not one
but four "surveys" for ways to improve the site and offer
feedback. Matt Nicholson, the Webmaster and breast torture fetish chief,
really cares.
The site advertises: "over 10,000
pictures [the new stuff is all 800x600] of bound and tortured tits, tied or pressed until they're dark
and bursting, breasts and nipples clamped flat, brutally twisted,
whipped and cropped, needled and pierced, waxed, bitten, stretched,
shocked and more!"
Well, if breast and nipple torture is all you
do, you should expect the works.
Other things to note:
This site is all about breasts. Don't expect general bondage, toy
play, pussy play, or couples stuff. The focus here is solely on
endangered breasts. The only "partners" these
girls have are the masked man, or a pair of hands that magically appear from outside the
frame, holding a rope or lit candle, dripping wax. Like most bondage,
there isn't much action. Bondage models are basically props. The ropes
and clamps are the real heroes.
That said, the models here are decent. The only big name we recognized was
the Queen of Internet Porn Aria
Giovanni (who only appears in one set). Natural boobs are the rule
throughout. Given what these poor funbags are put through, that's not
surprising. You can't get too rough with the implants because they have
a tendency to break. Just so you know.
This is a photography and fiction site. The
only video is the "Scream Streams" hosted off site by Fetish
Cinema. We weren't real impressed by this. Apparently the site did have videos at one point, but due to a
legal dispute over the technology being used, had to withdraw them.
Presumably they will be back sometime. Until then, you won't be joining
for the movies. And if you're a bondage fan, this probably won't upset
you too much. Most bondage videos are pretty lame anyway.
Just a second . . . did we say photography and fiction?
Yes we did. Actually this site is very big on breast bondage stories.
These stories accompany many of the galleries, and they work very well
in combination. The "illustrated story" format is something
that you don't see enough of on the Internet. Of course it's not for
everyone, but in this case it's quite well done and they work well
together.
Even though this is a small, specialty photography site, it's not
just the work of one man. There are a number of different photographers
involved, including a lot of photos by Rico Tymann (as well as access to
an archive of his work: Strict Times). This variety is important, as
single photographer sites, especially ones that deal with a single
fetish, can get pretty redundant.
The extras are pretty good. "The Punishment Primer" is an
excellent essay providing "a comprehensive photo-illustrated guide
to breast torture" by Matt. It's really quite informative, in case
you want to try any of this action at home. There are also a couple of
galleries of breast torture artwork, one of which is exclusive to Darker
Pleasures. A good selection of Wallpapers is available. "Webmaster Ramblings" was a little hard to follow,
but includes a variety of editorial materials. A lot of it is commentary
on the various photo-stories.
We thought the site could improve in some ways. There is a
main "Table of Contents" with links to all the different
sections. We are told that "It doesn't get any easier than
this." Maybe not, but here are two things that would help: a
general model index (with pictures) and thumbnails to go with the
gallery index. This would make browsing the site a little easier.
The site could also use getting its video back. As it stands now, it
is not that large, and only updating with around 200 new pics once a
month ("on or before the 15th"). On the other hand,
at $9.95 a month it's still a good deal. Obviously it's very niche-specific,
but that's what Internet porn is all about.
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