Album review: Carpenter Brut – Leather Temple

It is the year 2077. Bret Halford, the central character of Carpenter Brut’s Leather Trilogy, has been cryogenically frozen for decades, when he’s stumbled across by Lita Connor, leader of the rebellion against the evil overlord Iron Tusk. Unfreezing and upgrading Bret, the resistance now have a formidable weapon in the fight against Tusk’s tyranny over the sprawling city of Midwichopolis.

Thus runs the plot behind the closing chapter of the Leather Trilogy. Though dealing in the hyper-real neon synthwave that’s made its creator’s name – like fellow Frenchman Perturbator, getting black metal fans to dance – there’s a more pure and futuristic strain to his soundtracking of Bret’s adventures in his bleak, violent dystopia here. On 2018’s Leather Teeth, things were broken up by collaborations with Ulver and Grave Pleasures, adding synthpop and sleazy glam metal to the mic. With 2022’s Leather Terror, Bret’s quest for revenge saw guests a-go-go, including Greg Puciato, Gunship and Tribulation.

Here, there is none of that. Leather Temple is entirely instrumental, and much more sprawling. At first, it’s actually a little disappointing. But that’s simply the shifting of gears between the immediacy of its predecessor and its cast of guests. Settle with it, and its strengths come as the epic soundtrack to a sci-fi film that just hasn’t been made yet. Should Carpenter ever get the nod from Tinseltown, Trent Reznor could well find himself bested for a job.

The lack of vocals or need to fit things into a normal song format means that Carpenter Brut is actually liberated to go wherever he fancies in his nightmarish future world. On Major Threat, it’s a techno banger that sets a wicked tone. The title-track grooves along like The Prodigy, while you can fully imagine the titular action in Start Your Engines.

As ever, much of Carpenter Brut’s vision of the future is actually how the future looked in the ’80s, and sounds appropriately and intentionally dated. The sax-tastic Neon Requiem is a love letter to Terminator’s Tech Noir club scene (another one), while She Rules The Ruins is almost post-punk fed through a robot. Even the more modern, openly dance music sounds of The Misfits / The Rebels and Speed Or Perish look back to the decade of decadence, while simultaneously sounding like they’ve been broadcast back in time from the end of the century.

Of the three parts of Leather, Temple is easily the most challenging. But with that, it also shows a greater breadth of Carpenter Brut as an artist, completely unshackled to go where he pleases. It takes a minute longer to get into, but once it gets you, you’ll once again be completely sucked into his nightmarish but tempting and compelling world.

Verdict: 4/5

For fans of: The Prodigy, Perturbator, Trent Reznor

Leather Temple is released on February 26 via No Quarter