Powerplant : Bridge of Sacrifice
When listening to Powerplant’s Bridge of Sacrifice, there’s an impulse to engage in music-evolutionary-biology 101, hypothesizing a common ancestor among black metal, dungeon synth, shoegaze, power pop, and lo-fi bedroom punk (besides the obvious: Dungeons & Dragons, studded leather, and a shared appreciation for black eyeliner). After all, Powerplant (the sole project of Ukraine-born, London-based Theo Zhykharyev) has produced a seamless synthesis of old-school black metal and his trademark fuzzed-out synth-punk sound.
Playing with genres is what Powerplant is about. The project’s debut album, 2019’s People of the Sun, was a lo-fi ripper, while the follow-up, Stump Soup, was mired in the dankest of dungeon-synth. 2023’s Grass EP seemed to evoke the prog pranksterism of Primus’ Les Claypool, and Zhykharyev embraced ‘80s hard rock with last year’s Heat. His dabbling never came at the sacrifice of his own musical identity, and this pivot into black metal is no exception.
Bridge of Sacrifice is pure black metal, and that’s the album’s greatest strength. Zhykharyev has utilized black metal as a key ingredient in one of the hardest rocking albums of the year, but it’s not the sole flavor in this tasty meal. The first half of “Florida” has the DNA of an early horror punk song, perhaps a forgotten Misfits demo or an early Color Me Psycho B-side; it then shifts to a somber moment, where Zhykharyev switches to clean vocals. “Transactions” slows things a bit, leaning heavily into gothic post-punk. With haunting vocals and a forbidding acoustic guitar, “The Fork” scratches that Layne Stanley itch on your soul. “Last Wheel” is perhaps the best synthesis of Zhykharyev’s inspirations. With guitars plucked from The Cure, and blast beats from Darkthrone and fuzzy vocals, it’s just a charming bit of blackened rock that should turn any corpse-painted frown upside down.
Thematically, the album touches on Faustian bargains (“Bridge of Sacrifice”), possessions (“The Fork”), and the weight of one’s mortality (“Arborglyph”). There’s also a healthy dose of humor: “Florida” is about a vampire looking to trade his snowed-in castle for a tract of swampy land in the Sunshine State.
One might ask: Who is this for? It’s a patchwork of styles that, while enjoyably woven together, delivers a multifaceted, magpie listening experience. Is it blackgaze egg-power pop? Is it bedroom garage indie synth metal? And the answer is simple: Bridge of Sacrifice is a great album, wide in its appeal and accessibility. It’s for the metalheads that don’t take themselves too seriously; for the goths who enjoy black metal baddie boyfriends with makeup as sharp as theirs; for punks who are still proud to know what a Displacer beast is; it’s for dungeon synth fans who like to headbang; it’s for everyone who wants to have fun. Powerplant has delivered an album that bridges all these fans, so buckle up those knee-high boots. Don the battle vest and studded bracer. Crack open a cheap beer. The adventure awaits.
Label: Arcane Dynamics
Year: 2026
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