Theo Zhykharyev, the Ukrainian wizard working low-profile under this brand since 2017 has pivoted to a new realm which blends ferocious energy with freewheeling fun

From London
Recommend if you like Devo, Home Front, Snõõper
Up next New album Bridge of Sacrifice released 13 March

Theo Zhykharyev is one of those brilliant weirdos capable of turning wild ideas into reality. Since starting Powerplant as a bedroom recording project in 2017, a couple of years after he left Ukraine to study in London, he has released records built around fizzing electro-punk, dungeon synth and treble-heavy hardcore, concocting Dungeons & Dragons-inspired role-playing adventures to accompany some of them, while slinging visually arresting DIY merch through his Arcane Dynamics label. Yet even coming amid an output this freewheeling, his upcoming new record is full of surprises.

Bridge of Sacrifice is a pivot into black metal, with Zhykharyev’s antic synth melodies and slashing garage-rock guitars now accompanied by eerie screams and drum-machine blastbeats tinny enough to evoke the frost-bitten demos that emerged from Norway in the early 90s. It’s a head-spinning mix carried off with the gleeful energy of a fan indulging their passions – in the video for the title track, a trenchcoat-sporting Zhykharyev plays a Flying V in a creepy cellar, while Hall of Wolves’ squalling riff sounds comically evil – until the song breaks into a wonderfully camp, Cramps-worthy chorus.

In these perma-anxious times, when hope is pretty much limited to placing one’s faith in the least-worst outcome, Zhykharyev’s desire to prioritise fun, earnestness and escapism in his fabulously odd music feels like sweet relief. He knows the stakes better than many – Beautiful Boy, a ripping punk song from 2023’s Grass EP, lamented everything that’s been lost since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. This is how he’s fighting back. Huw Baines