REVIEW: Powerplant - Bridge of Sacrifice
- Jakub Tomasz Czaicki
- 11 hours ago
- 4 min read
It is difficult to quite classify POWERPLANT. One part concrete kaleidoscope, one part haunted surfboard, two-and-one-quarter something so profoundly unique in its psychedelic approach to the music as concept that it simply rejects classification, on principle. Many bands provide vast experiences in their songs and albums - POWERPLANT’s newest upcoming release, the Bridge of Sacrifice, however, is not such an experience. It is a trip. Cast in skulking, faded film shadow, a certain fantastical glimmer, and seasoned with spectacularly spooky dungeon-oriented visions of past and future, its a classic so different - yet so familiar - both to POWERPLANT’s other work and in a more base, nostalgic familiarity, to more than earn its psychedelic accolades.
THEO ZHYKHARYEV's passion project has been releasing haunted distortions since its breakout People In The Sun album in 2019, inventing for the world an approach to post-punk rock sound that defies set genre norms in favour of a continuous experiment in, presumably, just how many ghosts, ghouls and assorted spirits can fit in one synth. Established in a realm of tinny distortion, POWERPLANT’s initial up-beat melancholies and garage-built soul attracted an audience that has been delightfully surprised at every turn. With each new EP, ZHYKHARYEV has added new ingredients and spices to his drum machines, often defying and sometimes defining how best to manipulate the electronic soundscape.
Bridge of Sacrifice does not, however, simply add new spice. It is almost a new menu in unto itself.
No longer an individual project, the second album of the powerhouse has felt the touch of STANLEY GRAVETT from Holy Mountain Studios - responsible for the fidelity, mastering and mixing of bands like IDLES, THE HORRORS, and HIGH VIS - and has erupted full-force into a truly professional, dungeon-synth metal, still partially haunted-surfboard riding masterpiece. With backing vocals, an expanded repertoire of orchestral samples, and even the ghostly acoustic cello performances of HANI HOOPER, this is POWERPLANT at its best production, and it shows.
The expansion has also allowed ZHYKHARYEV to showcase his personal vocal abilities further: proving himself to be a brilliant singer even under the distortion; somewhere between the jaded mania of the VIAGRA BOYS’ SEBASTIAN MURPHY and an actual black-metal infused wizard that, for any other synth project, would be entirely unprecedented. As this is POWERPLANT, however, it is only par for the course.
Bridge of Sacrifice does much to curate a palpable aesthetic, tone and thematic vibe as to nary require description. In tone, it is almost reminiscent of the music from the other side of the Carpathians, from Slovakian indie project Felvidek, composed by MARCEL GIDOTE’S HOLY CRAB: the novel blending of both unplugged and electronic, alongside a dedication to fantasy visuals creates an aesthetic based on perfect thematic mixing that works far better to sell the fantastical “dungeon” atmosphere than any strict commitment to “real” medieval music ever could.
Totalling 11 tracks, the new album treks from punk to melancholy to metal as if it were all one winding forest road. While the titular Bridge of Sacrifice well extenuates its groovy, distorted punk credentials, each following song brings its own style to the table. Running Cross, with its melding of major and minor tones and hammering drum-machines sounds suspiciously like what you would expect an evil, lovestruck sorcerer, relaxed on mystical herb, singing of his woes to be like. Florida, meanwhile, heartily reintroducing sheer whimsy, recounts a vampire sick of his cold castle, wishing for the warmth of the gulf. Reinforced by the outright silly, hallucinatory psychotic break of Transaction, in only four songs you begin to understand the dungeon of Bridge To Sacrifice precisely.
Then you remember this is a POWERPLANT project.
The Fork is not silly. It is a revelation of POWERPLANT’s mastery of a kind of sombre gravel previous tracks do not prepare for, with fantastic bass and emotion only punctuated by curated dashes of absurdism throughout. Kept ever-guessing, the following Hall Of Wolves is instead a manic, warped battle hymn, growled and barked rather than sung; the hammering drum-machines being one of the few constants throughout the album to be held on to for safety. Bad Moon Motel follows more in The Fork’s tradition, providing a groovy, almost melting sound of colourful lamentation, before succumbing to the dungeon’s mania after one too many hellish nights at the titular motel, occasionally calmed by unplugged plinking of guitars. Last Wheel, Red Death and Wing Span buttress the album with POWERPLANT classics throughout, showcasing a continuum of distortion: Red Death prioritising a thumping, marching synth metal while Wing Span, curious for such black metal influences, sounds almost optimistic with its major keys.
POWERPLANT here has reinvented itself as metal-infused mastery of synth, cast in garbling, warping distortion, and – even in such a medieval dungeon – still powered by a haunted surfboard. While some tracks may blend together throughout the gritty fuzz, It is still delicious thematically, and we cannot wait for more artisanal dungeon synth. Neither can we wait for POWERPLANT’s next reinvention; who knows, perhaps next, it will be a science-fiction inspired album, or one entirely dedicated to shrimp. With artists like ZHYKHARYEV, the sky is truly the limit.
Score: 7/10
Bridge of Sacrifice will be released on the 13th of March 2026, via Arcane Dynamics.
Words: Jakub Tomasz Czaicki
Photos: Harry Rodgers and Hani Hooper
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