By Jase Walker
It’s no secret I’m a huge fan of Carpenter Brut and have been for a very long time since the building blocks for the ‘Trilogy’ album were being steadily put together. The ability to fuse darker synthwave vibes with elements of rock and metal to create a monster that has live audiences split 50/50 between people who enjoy a good rave and your average sweaty mosher. Now, 2026 sees the completion of yet another “trilogy” of albums in the form of ‘Leather Temple’ that wraps up the journey from ‘Leather Teeth’ through ‘Leather Terror’ and onto this newest effort.
As is fairly typical with their releases so far, Carpenter Brut sidesteps the approach of large track listings in favour of a smaller number of tracks that excel in quality and follow a pretty consistent theme overall. What really stands out to me in this particular album is the dialling back of any vocal or lyrics that peppered the earlier ‘Leather’ albums in favour of straight instrumental bangers.
I won’t lie to you though in the way that I wasn’t super keen on the direction of ‘Leather Terror’ as I felt it somewhat lost a lot of the deeply electronic feel of the earlier material which is what really drew me to Carpenter Brut in the first place. The innately danceable nature of Carpenter Brut is the primary part of the music for me so I was a bit deterred by the initial single drop because it felt like the movement towards a more metal approach was a done deal.
I can confirm this is absolutely not how ‘Leather Temple’ is as a whole, passing the introductory track and hitting ‘Major Threat’ gave me chills that the more electronic focused sound of Carpenter Brut is very much still there but seemingly they’ve decided to avoid trying to cram in their genre mashing into every song. This makes each standalone song a bit more consistent overall so if the Carpenter Brut style of ‘Escape From Midwich Valley’ is your jam, there’s still that element there.
The likes of ‘She Rules The Ruins’ feel like spiritual successors to ‘Turbo Killer’ and I have little doubt the more rapid and energetic feel will be fuelling pits around the world on their forthcoming tours in support of this album.
To me overall, ‘Leather Temple’ feels less like a step back and more of a return to the core elements of Carpenter Brut’s sound that made them so compelling in the first place while still respecting the more interesting heavier parts that drew in the metalhead crowd.
Standout tracks to me personally are ‘Neon Requiem’ and ‘Iron Sanctuary’ placed neatly in the middle of the album as the feel of more outrun styled synthwave is the sort of thing I really vibe with more than the rest. That’s not to say I don’t find the more metal feel of ‘The Misfits The Rebels’ is something I would sniff at, I’ve got all the time in the world for an energetic headbanger anthem.
This journey of the ‘Leather’ albums has been another solid trilogy experience where Carpenter Brut have been more than happy to experiment and play with their sound that I feel will do another fantastic job of crossing genre and listener boundaries and further grow their appeal to a wider audience.
Go see em live. I promise you that you won’t regret it whether you’re wearing your finest dancing shoes or just stomping with New Rock boots on.
- ‘Leather Temple‘ will be released tomorrow.
- © Über Röck 2026.
