Oklahoma’s Chat Pile have made a name for themselves quickly over the past six years. Their debut, God’s Country, took hardcore and noise by storm, offering a pitch-black view of our lives and mixing everyday horrors with tracks inspired by their film-geek obsessions. Cool World (2024) found them mining similar themes on a global scale, with tracks like “Shame” addressing the Palestinian genocide and the effects of war on those who fight it on tracks like “Milk of Human Kindness”.
It is bleak, powerful stuff, a stiff cocktail of unsettling images and a balance of noise and melody. If you are not a fan, Who Loves the Sun is unlikely to convert you, but it is hard to imagine fans of the band being disappointed.
Chat Pile haven’t had a change of heart on Who Loves the Sun. They are still cataloguing the world’s ills and still looking for meaning in the wreckage. Opener “Creature” surveys the damage to the planet, as lead singer Raygun Busch declares, “Please don’t say we couldn’t stop this”. The track opens with one of their catchiest riffs, and the verses have an eerie, horror-tinged sound before the chorus explodes. “Deep Blue”, named for the first computer to beat a human at chess, also rides a catchy riff that retains menace, calling out the way many of us seek distraction despite the collapse of everything around us. It is a musical and spiritual relative of Cool World highlight “Shame”.
Chat Pile have been up front about their nu metal influences. It is most apparent in Stin’s bass sound to these ears. I also hear hints of bands like Ministry in the repetitive, borderline industrial pummeling of earlier records on tracks like “Masc”. Regardless of what you hear in these songs, it is indisputable that Chat Pile are honing and perfecting their signature sound across these ten songs, while taking some calculated risks. “Same Rules” slows things to an ominous crawl before exploding into Busch’s shouts.
The turn toward accessibility suits them, and it doesn’t feel like a different band because those tracks are balanced out by ragers that conjure that early fire, like “PEN I S MALL”, with its hellish depiction of work and some of lead singer Raygun Busch’s most powerful lyrics and vocals, with the line that cuts the deepest being, “Hard to think your whole life can pass / As a series of acts of subordination.” Probably not the song to make your alarm, but it is an alarm call, and “Time to build the fence again” could be read as a call for unionization.
“Shrine” is one of the most brutal tracks, and its lyrics may reference the 28 Years Later films. “Intruder” starts catchy, but becomes blood-curdling, which seems to address the American nightmare many of us find ourselves caught in, unable to unlock the dreams that colonizers promised us. It’s one of the strongest tracks, with guest vocals from Claire Hannah and Brittany Sawtell from Nightosphere, which are a welcome addition to a pummeling track.
“Christabel ’26” seems to reference the parasitic tech titans who seek to bleed us dry. “Influence” is another catchier track filled with upsetting images interspersed into our feeds as we numb ourselves to them. It’s a critique of a tough situation: how do you reach people when this is the easiest way, without cheapening the real human horror and inoculating them by letting them swipe right past?
“Family Funeral” brings back the relentless grind of the debut record, melding an insistent bassline with Busch’s spoken vocals that build into a groove for a moment before retreating. Closer “October All the Time” is a stark, acoustic track that reminds us that nature will live on, battered as it will be, even after humanity. It’s a powerful end to a record that is relentless in its pessimism, but still utterly compelling. There are answers, it seems, if we are willing to pursue them, but Busch and his bandmates don’t seem optimistic that we will find the motivation.
At a moment when artists with any level of notoriety are often content to avoid statements of any type, it’s somehow oddly reassuring that Chat Pile are going to pick at the wreckage to hopefully shake some of us out of complacency.