“Fab Tool” by Carpenter Brut (feat. David Eugene Edwards)

Here’s a collaboration that I did not see coming at all: Carpenter Brut (best known for his horror-themed synthwave) and David Eugene Edwards (of Wovenhand fame and one of American music’s most distinctive voices). But the resulting song — titled “Fab Tool” — works, and pretty brilliantly so.

Edwards’ booming, “desert prophet” voice and evocative lyrics (sample: “Oh ancient of days/Hand over fist/Blood as diamonds/Drip from your wrist”) are a solid match for Carpenter Brut’s darkly cinematic electronic music.

As for the Dehn Sora-directed video, it’s filled with appropriately bleak, nightmarish imagery: barren desert vistas filled with massive skeletons and crumbling statues; tentacle-filled faces; cities overrun by giant insects. It’s tempting to try and figure out what it all means — I’m particularly intrigued by that brief shot of a quaint little country church in the midst of the apocalyptic imagery — but it works just as well to let it all wash over you.

Wovenhand’s next album, Silver Sash, was recorded in 2019 and scheduled to come out in the spring of 2020 — only to be delayed by the pandemic. I’ve seen at least one distributor list a February 2021 release date, though I don’t know how official that is. Back in September 2019, Joel Oliphint interviewed Edwards about the new album’s themes and production, as well as Edwards’ religious background (“I see the world through [the scriptures]. It’s basically impossible for me to not do so”).

For a better glimpse of Edwards’ impassioned and otherworldly music, watch this Wovenhand footage that I shot at the 2002 Cornerstone festival.

As for Carpenter Brut, his most recent release was last year’s Blood Machines soundtrack.