Artwork by: Førtifem
Official press release:
French synthwave icon Carpenter Brut has announced his new album Leather Temple for release on February 27th via No Quarter Prod/Virgin Records. The album is available to pre-order here.
Leather Temple is the third and final album in his Leather trilogy, which includes the hugely acclaimed 2018 debut Leather Teeth, which was in parts a celebratory take on ‘80s glam rock, and the 2022 follow-up Leather Terror, an altogether more malevolent slasher-horror affair telling the story of Brett Halford, a serial killer anti-hero wreaking revenge on those who wronged him. Like its predecessors, the new album forms the soundtrack in the latest chapter of this filmic concept.
Leather Temple shoots the story forward into 2077, where the world lies in ruins. Eighty-five years after a nuclear explosion devastated everything, humanity survives under the rule of a transhuman elite – the Overlords – who live in neon-lit cities, while the rest of the population struggles to survive among the wreckage.
At the heart of this dystopia stands Midwichpolis, the nation’s capital, governed with an iron fist by Iron Tusk, a paranoid tyrant, addicted to Pink Base, a synthetic drug, and obsessed with immortality.
Each week, he stages Speed or Perish, deadly races broadcast live where contestants fight for a shot at freedom… one no one has ever actually reached.
At the other side of the nation is the Midwichslums, and here reside the Horde, a rebel group and high-tech scavenger collective led by Lita Connor. Within the Midwichslums a forgotten cold room is buried in the ruins. Inside lies Bret Halford, a.k.a. Leather Teeth, a nightmare from the past.
Determined to bring down the regime, Lita transforms him into a living weapon. Upgraded with advanced tech, now half-man, half-machine, Bret becomes the unlikely ally of a rebellion in search of justice.
This brutal world sets the stage for the story of Leather Temple. Enter the world via the video for the title track here:
On the musical side, Leather Temple dives into a raw, rhythmic, and restless energy, with each track working like a condensed charge. More cinematic and orchestral, yet also more direct, the album distils a saturated 90s electro atmosphere — dark and unflinching — driven by sharp beats, distorted layers, and unrelenting tension.
Short but intense, Leather Temple hits fast and hard. It doesn’t take time to explain — it acts. Each track feels like a scene, a shot, a chase. A soundtrack seemingly designed to make the neon lights flicker, speed up the heartbeat, and set the engines of a collapsing world roaring.
Leather Temple track listing:
- “Ouverture (Deus Ex Machina)”
- “Major Threat”
- “Leather Temple”
- “She Rules The Ruins”
- “Start Your Engines”
- “Neon Requiem”
- “Iron Sanctuary”
- “The Misfits The Rebels”
- “Speed or Perish”
- “The End Complete”
