REVIEW: Carpenter Brut - Leather Temple
- Jakub Tomasz Czaicki
- 13 hours ago
- 4 min read
The sky shines no bewitching television static glare. There is no dead channel. There is only red, alive; a bloodstain on the heavens, the red-hot ichor of leather-clad angels screaming its shadows into every nook, every recess, every misbegotten alley of this city. CARPENTER BRUT, the industry-defining seminal synth suzerain brings forth the new Leather Temple, the orchestrally bombastic finale to his leather series of long-plays that brings a cinematic climax to his most recent releases from beyond cyberspace. Jack in, gaze into the deliciously dark abyss of the synth city, and steel yourself for an album experience you truly need popcorn for.
With little known of the carpenter himself – far more at home skulking in the darkest memories of every neo-tyrant, scavenger and corporate micro-lord and letting his mastered craft speak for itself – one can only speculate on his true nature. Scion of some oligarch, street deck jockey- most likely a console cowboy of some strain, running the net with the same ease he breaks beats into splintering shards of perfectly pure audio horror- but if so, it is certain anyone who dares pry will find themselves flatlined, fast. We know not his face nor name, but we do know CARPENTER BRUT’s language: ultra-violence. Eye-bulging electro crashes – more localised nuclear catastrophes than samples – truly despicable and brooding riffs, and the darkest, most vile, yet ice-cold synths’ this side of the Blackwall. This alone would bring fame and fortune; but the carpenters’ joining of these industrial echoes with a true passion for an orchestral turn leaves each song feeling like a personally curated, immersive, cinematic experience. And let it be said, this is but his reputation: one Leather Temple not only lives up to, but pushes to new heights.
To briefly drop the crimson-tinted glasses, the leather set of albums have seen a growing influence of more metal influences throughout CARPENTER BRUT’s work, disturbing synth cascades slowly usurped by bombastic and ultra-harsh hammers of horror, shifting in similarity from PERTURBATOR to KEYGEN CHURCH. And while, certainly, Leather Temple does continue this trend, fans of both the crippling drums and spine-chilling synths will find more than their fair share to love throughout the ten tracks of this long play. Beautifully blending the industrial, gritty-yet-cocktail-smooth synthetic sound he is known for with not only metal, but black-clad orchestra and even the occasional jazzy groove of saxophone to create a truly brilliant experience.
Certain tracks seem as if ripped directly from an alternate reality Trilogy: Neon Requiem being the perfect ballad to sail down endless stretches of red-soaked digital highway, and She Rules The Ruins casting it’s very own shadow to cover you while stalking through the endless alleys of the city – before itself going loud, marrying the two influences in a baptism of fire, carnage, and smoothness. Start Your Engines commands such a destructively anxious, nervous yet confident through sheer force of adrenaline sound as befitting such a title, as to turn any if not all listeners into a rally racing legend for all the net to enjoy. It is, scientifically, impossible to not move to. Escalation, escalation, escalation: the abrasive audio of the entire album is the perfect stress accelerator, sure to rise heart rates to match the bpm.
Those seeking no more escalation, but simple carnage are too spoilt for choice. The Misfits The Rebels cracks your skull in twain with a blood-curdling shriek of distortion. You earn perhaps a second, a brief moment to realise there is now a stake-raising amen break rapidly counting down to the beginning of the track; before you are simply melted away. A neurotic screech of panicked obliteration, it is followed only by Speed Or Perish: where panic is simply vaporised into raw horror. God is dead, synths are fuel: and the leather temple is full.
And yet, this is not all. Leather Temple is orchestrated as if a movie not only for the cyberpunk cinema it conjures in any listeners heads, but in its’ format. The opening Ouverture (Dues Ex Machina) brings not a screech, but a foreboding, monumental introduction to the viewing pleasure that is the album: ghostly organ and heavenly synth instantly casting aside any potential doubts about this latest release. Similarly, the concluding The End Complete is a credit-roll ballad, the victorious answer to the mysteries of the Ouverture- perhaps one of the few CARPENTER BRUT pieces to be associated with any form of joy over complete and utter brooding. Each track has its charms, of course; but listened so, as part of the continual audio experience paints a hero’s story in sound- and is a work of art that must be experienced.
CARPENTER BRUT holds a reputation for defining the dark electro-synth genre as its’ bard. Leather Temple does not just maintain this reputation: it crowns him as its director.
Score: 9/10
Leather Temple will be released on the 27th of February 2026, via No Quarter Prod
Words: Jakub Tomasz Czaicki
Photos: Stefan Brending
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