Carpenter Brut is a metal fan's synthwave, so the best next artists are the ones who also bring a heavy edge: Perturbator from the same French scene, and GosT, whose darksynth one reviewer compared to Carpenter Brut's directly. After those, the archive's data points to film-score names on his soundtrack label and a crowd of small electro-darksynth acts.
Metal without the guitars
Carpenter Brut is the project of Franck Hueso from Poitiers, who according to Wikipedia set out to blend horror-film sounds, metal, rock and electronics.[1] The archive lists 19 releases from 2012 to 2026, 15 of them on No Quarter Prod and none self-released. The core is easy to follow: three EPs (2012, 2013, 2015), later collected as Trilogy, then the albums Leather Teeth (2018), the film soundtrack Blood Machines (2020) and Leather Temple (2026).
When Metal Hammer interviewed him in 2022, the headline carried his own line about Leather Terror: "I thought it would be cool to make a metal album without guitars".[2] That sums up the appeal better than any tag does. The tags the archive uses, on top of darksynth, are french electro, electro house, horror synth, 80s, horror and rock. Metal Hammer's 2017 feature on synthwave's dark side describes the genre as steeped in the world of 1980s exploitation and science-fiction films, which fits his titles and artwork.[4]
Counting a catalogue honestly
A short warning before you chase long discographies. Carpenter Brut's 19 releases include repeats: EP I and EP II return in 2021 as Carpenter Brut I and Carpenter Brut II, and the 2020 single "Maniac" is listed twice. Release counts in any archive overstate the music. When a name below shows a big number, check the titles before assuming a deep body of work.
Heavy neighbours
- Perturbator (France) is the obvious pairing. His own circle is mapped on If you like Perturbator: artists to try next; start with TERROR 404.
- GosT (US) is the artist a March 2024 review of Prophecy called an "ill-bred cousin of Perturbator and Carpenter Brut".[3] Start with Prophecy.
- Dav Dralleon (France, 10 releases, 2017–2025) carries darksynth and electro tags with a 0.87 similarity rating; try Daemon Devastator.
- JEREMIAH KANE (Poland, 18 releases, 2017–2026) is darksynth on RetroSynth Records: Charger.
The Lakeshore thread
Carpenter Brut has a release on Lakeshore Records, a soundtrack label, and the archive links him to artists who put out film and TV music there.
- Kyle Dixon (6 releases, 2017–2022) has his Stranger Things 4 score on Lakeshore. Our Synthwave in 2016: the year in the archive page covers how the show first reached a wide audience. Try Stranger Things 4.
- OGRE Sound (UK, 5 releases, 2014–2020) scored The Rise of the Synths: the soundtrack.
- Wojciech Golczewski (Poland, 36 releases) carries horror synth and darksynth tags: Ewer City.
- Deadly Avenger (UK, 9 releases, 2017–2020) pairs the Lakeshore link with a darksynth tag: Yokai.
For more on this side of the scene, read Synthwave and 1980s film scores: Carpenter, Vangelis and the sound of the screen.
French-electro cousins
The electro tag is where the archive finds most of its small matches. Beatbox Machinery (Greece, 36 releases, 2011–2024) rates 0.90 for similarity on electro and darksynth tags; Physical Touch is on Werkstatt Recordings. Arcade Metropolis (Greece, 16 releases, 2012–2016) and Nexus-6 (Argentina, 12 releases, 2009–2019) each rate 0.93. Vector Seven (Germany, 18 releases, 2017–2026) adds an electro-house tag, and Orax (Italy, 16 releases, 2011–2025) pairs electro with darksynth; try Hardwired and Blame. Night Runner (Mexico, 10 releases) is the rock-tagged one in this group, with Roswell (Hangar 18 version).
Matches here come from shared tags and the Lakeshore label link. Small catalogues can rate high without much to listen to, so lean on the picks below. If you want the wider map of the dark end of the genre, What is darksynth? The heavy, horror-lit side of synthwave and What is horrorsynth? Synthwave for the slasher-movie crowd explain the tags, and the Dark station (94.6 FM) on our radio plays it end to end.
Records to start with
- Beatbox Machinery · 2024 · Werkstatt Recordings · LPThe biggest catalogue among the high scorers.
- Kyle Dixon · 2022 · Lakeshore Records · LPA Lakeshore neighbour.
Sources
- Carpenter Brut (used as a map to its references) · Wikipedia
- Carpenter Brut: 'I thought it would be cool to make a metal album without guitars' · Alec Chillingworth, Metal Hammer (Louder), 30 Jun 2022
- Chronique: GosT, Prophecy · Verdammnis, 7 Mar 2024
- Resonant evil: how synthwave is taking over the underground · Dom Lawson, Metal Hammer (Louder), 2 Feb 2017