The closest artists to Perturbator sit on his own label. GosT and Dan Terminus share Blood Music with him, and both are tagged with the same horror-synth and cyberpunk words. From there the archive splits in two: film-obsessed darksynth for people who came for the dread, and EBM-flavoured darksynth for people who came for the pulse.
Four records in one year
Perturbator is James Kent, from Paris. The Frekvenci archive lists 14 of his releases, from 2012 to 2025: ten on Blood Music, two on Aphasia Records, and two with no label at all. Four of them date from 2012 alone, among them the album TERROR 404. Louder's list of essential synthwave albums places it directly after the Drive score and ahead of Kavinsky's OutRun.[3] That is also the year Hotline Miami launched, and NME's retrospective names "the dark synthwave of Perturbator" among the game's level music.[4]
Kent's releases carry some unusual tags for a synthwave artist: electro-industrial, EBM, coldwave, gothic rock and post-punk next to the expected darksynth and horror synth. In 2021 Metal Hammer ran an interview under the headline "Synthwave is dead", with the standfirst "Synthwave is out, electro-goth is in".[2] That is a framing of his turn towards a gothic sound, but the tags suggest it was always part of the mix. When you look for neighbours, you are choosing which strand to follow.
Start on Blood Music
Blood Music is a Finland-based label that began in 2011; Metal Bandcamp's 2015 profile describes a roster that runs from death and black metal to jazz, with darksynth acts among the metal.[1] Our Blood Music: label profile and where to start page covers the label in more detail. Three artists connect here.
- GosT (US, 14 releases, 2013–2024) shares Blood Music and carries electro-industrial, horror synth, EBM and dark wave tags. A review of his 2024 album Prophecy, released on Metal Blade Records, calls him an "ill-bred cousin of Perturbator and Carpenter Brut".[5] Start with Prophecy.
- Dan Terminus (France, 8 releases, 2014–2026) also shares the label. Metal Bandcamp reviewed his album The Wrath of Code.[1] The newest entry in our archive is Gestalt Providence, from 2026 on Neuropa Records.
- Dynatron (Denmark, 11 releases, 2012–2021) shares both Blood Music and Aphasia Records with Perturbator. The archive files it under spacesynth, so expect a wider sky than the others here. Try Origins.
If you came for the horror films
The horror-synth tag is the most useful one for this strand, and What is horrorsynth? Synthwave for the slasher-movie crowd explains where it sits in the genre tree. Four artists in the archive carry it alongside darksynth and cyberpunk tags.
Volkor X (France, 24 releases, 2015–2023) is the most prolific French name here; try The Loop. Occams Laser (UK, 33 releases, 2014–2024) adds a dark wave tag; Headspace Instrumentals is the way in. Cryocon (UK, only 7 releases, 2015–2019) also carries an industrial tag, and Neuro is on Thesis Records. Acryl Madness (Russia, 23 releases, 2019–2023) rounds out the group with Blood Rage Hurricane.
If you came for the dance floor
EBM and industrial tags pull in a different crowd. Starfounder (Russia, 38 releases, 2016–2025) is the largest catalogue, and Halo is on Electric Dream Records. DEADLIFE (UK, 24 releases, 2017–2023) adds cyberpunk; Mortal Sojourn came out on NewRetroWave. Daniel Deluxe (Denmark, 15 releases, 2013–2023) is the one to try if industrial matters more to you than the film side: Nocturnal Odyssey.
Side roads
- Carpenter Brut is the other French name people pair with Kent. His own neighbours are mapped on If you like Carpenter Brut: artists to try next; start with Trilogy.
- Donbor (Argentina, 31 releases, 2016–2024) mixes dark ambient and darksynth tags; try I don't deserve it.
- Mega Drive (US, 29 releases, 2012–2026) carries industrial and cyberpunk tags: Theme Cartridge.
- GUNSHIP is far more song-led, but its 2025 EP Tech Noir Timelines is filed as darkwave. See If you like GUNSHIP: artists to try next.
How these were found: from the Blood Music and Aphasia Records rosters, plus the artists whose catalogue tags overlap most with Perturbator's. The archive's darksynth page also collects the older darkwave tag, which can pull in gloomier new-wave records.
For the wider scene, our What is darksynth? The heavy, horror-lit side of synthwave is the next stop, and 25 essential synthwave artists, and where to start with each places Perturbator among his peers. The Dark station (94.6 FM) plays this territory on our radio, and the Night Drive station (92.0 FM) is a lighter step back.
Records to start with
- Perturbator · 2012 · Blood Music · LPThe 2012 album that Louder places directly after the Drive score on its essential list.
- Perturbator · 2014 · Blood Music · LPThe 2014 Blood Music album, filed under horror synth.
- Perturbator · 2021 · Blood Music · LPThe 2021 album from the "electro-goth" interview.
- GosT · 2024 · Metal Blade Records · LPMetal-leaning, from the label-mate reviewers set beside Kent.
- Dan Terminus · 2026 · Neuropa Records · LPThe other Blood Music cyberpunk name, newest listing.
Sources
- Label Spotlight: Blood Music · Kevin Page, Metal Bandcamp, 20 Apr 2015
- Synthwave is dead: how Perturbator embraced the dark side · Dannii Leivers, Metal Hammer (Louder), 17 Jun 2021
- 10 essential Synthwave albums · Dom Lawson, Louder, 8 Jun 2020
- Hotline Miami's soundtrack and the game's 80s Miami setting (Rock The Spacebar) · NME, 9 May 2022
- Chronique: GosT, Prophecy · Verdammnis, 7 Mar 2024