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Album Review: Carpenter Brut’s “Leather Terror” is a Visceral, Violent Triumph

Sunday, April 24, 2022 | Album Review

By RACHEL REEVES

Carpenter Brut, aka Franck Hueso, has long been considered one of the defining, most influential artists in the synthwave and darksynth genres of music – and for good reason. During the great synthwave wars of the 2010s, the scene became flooded with starry-eyed hopefuls who churned out content in an effort to capitalize. As the neon waters of retro-futurism began to boil over with soulless copies and derivative hobbyists, it was patient zero artists like Brut, Kavinsky, GosT, Perturbator, and The Midnight that remained standing when the levees burst. Creatively blessed with unique approaches, styles, and the willingness to evolve, it is these modern genre icons that continue to persevere and progress. With the new album LEATHER TERROR, Carpenter Brut proves, yet again, why there is simply no substitute for his sound. 

Rod Serling once described The Twilight Zone as “… a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man … a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow.” This sentiment of elemental juxtaposition, creative exploration, and rogue freedom is also a perfect embodiment of Carpenter Brut. Refusing to settle and stagnate, each Carpenter Brut project retains a distinct identity while remaining unequivocally authentic. Acting as a sequel to the 2018 faux-soundtrack album Leather Teeth, LEATHER TERROR picks up where Teeth left off and takes the music to unprecedented places.

Leather Teeth follows Bret Halford, a young high-school student in love with a cheerleader who does not love him back. After a violent accident leaves him disfigured, Halford invents a rock star alter-ego known as Leather Teeth. While the story is dramatic, the narrative’s youthful atmosphere injects the album with a playful and much lighter sound than Carpenter Brut fans were accustomed to. However, with the end goal planned from the very beginning, LEATHER TERROR took Halford’s story into the subsequent darkness that would inevitably encompass him. 

Unfolding with deliberate precision, each track on the album progresses the story and flows with purpose. With “Opening Title,” the visceral nature and the epic stage is set through heavy rhythmic pulses and dark, distorted vocals that seemingly arise from the room next door to Pinhead’s lair. Not only does this immediately leave Leather Teeth’s glittery dance floors in the dust, it immediately puts the listener into Halford’s present state of mind. Followed by the intensely industrial, metal-adjacent “Straight Outta Hell,” there’s no question this is a blood-soaked tale of adventure indeed. 

Then, with “The Widow Maker” and “Imaginary Fire,” the lines begin to blur even further. For “The Widow Maker,” Hueso brought in Gunship singer Alex Westaway. Dark and danceable, Westaway’s vocals imbue the track with a sexy, synthwave-ish gleam that glints off the propulsive instrumental sound like motor oil on a well-worn leather jacket. On “Imaginary Fire,” Greg Puciato of The Dillinger Escape Plan unleashes his particular blend of sinister, ’90s-tinged vocals. Fervent and feverish, there’s a restrained intensity to the track that ebbs and flows around Halford’s tortured tale. 

The first of many guest vocal tracks, this emphasis on collaboration highlights Carpenter Brut’s evolving place in the music industry and the varied appeal of his music. Effortlessly transitioning from synthwave to metal, industrial to EDM, rock to disco, horror score to darkwave, there’s no one audience for LEATHER TERROR – or Carpenter Brut. While each previous album has exhibited hints at this unique aspect of his sound, LEATHER TERROR is a perfect example of and testament to that power. Equally at home on the dance floor, a downstairs dungeon, or a lonely, oil-slicked street, LEATHER TERROR defies genre. While fads and trends come and go, Hueso’s willingness to push and blur boundaries ultimately fortifies Carpenter Brut’s staying power. 

“…Good Night, Goodbye” features Ulver in a heartbreakingly bleak moment of respite before “Day Stalker” and “Night Prowler” kick down the door. Like a cinematic goth club dance party, there’s a dark intensity and infectious danceability to the tracks. Despite metaphorical blood raining down from the ceiling, these two electronic tracks grab hold, fill the room with atmospheric fog, and keep the party going. Things only accelerate as “Lipstick Masquerade” (featuring Persha), calls back the ’80s dance-pop aspect of Leather Teeth. A spiritual sister to films like Murderock, Death Spa, or Demons 2, the track glows with energy, Aquanet, and sweatbands. 

As the album wraps up with “Color Me Blood,” “Stabat Mater” (featuring Sylvaine), “Paradisi Gloria,” and “Leather Terror” (featuring Ben Koller of Converge and Jonka of Tribulation), the gritty and violent nature of Halford’s story reaches its climax. Fueled by circuitry and gasoline, this last grouping of tracks holds no punches. Drifting around the corner like a heavily modded muscle car, each song flows one into the next leaving nothing but the smell of burned rubber in its wake. 

All in all, LEATHER TERROR is a gruesome and grandiose display of Carpenter Brut’s appeal. This is especially impressive considering there were no guitars used on the album at all – zero. Dark, dreamy, and deliciously heavy, there are few artists that can pull off such a broad and elaborate sound convincingly. More than just an assemblage of songs, LEATHER TERROR is a cinematic experience that just happens to enter through your ears. With a promised third installment in the Leather trilogy coming at a later date, LEATHER TERROR sets the bar high … and bloody. 

LEATHER TERROR is now available via No Quarter Prod. on CD, vinyl, and digital online or at your local record store.

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