Review: Chat Pile - Who Loves The Sun
Aidan Greenlee
Chat Pile's latest album is socially conscious, politically charged, and deeply disturbed. In their usual fusion of noise rock and sludge metal, the band is raging against a feeling of hopelessness of modern life and the problems plaguing our society, from environmental destruction to the greed of billionaires to the constant barrage of AI slop online. The album is littered with shredding bass lines, deep snare hits, and guttural screams carrying Raygun Busch's cool, partially spoken-word vocals.
On Deep Blue, named after the chess-playing IBM supercomputer, the chorus rails against the societal burden of AI and living your life by an algorithm as we move "deeper into screens". Busch's even voice layered over the driving bass and thrashing guitars almost evokes a Depeche Mode aesthetic. This theme is repeated on the track Influence, which expresses deep depression at a loss of control and addiction to social media. The chorus of "bed is made, not afraid, razor blade" combined with the band's deprived screams is utterly disturbing.
The band also rages against the oppression and exploitation of workers in modern capitalist America. A highlight is PEN I S MALL, a full-on sludge metal track full of thrashing guitars and deep, growling bass. This is the hardest-hitting track on the album with furious drumming and pinging hi-hats eventually slowing to an oozing crawl full of dread. The type of stuff I'd listen to driving into work on a Monday.
There are also softer moments like Intruder, which starts out with melodic, plucking guitar, and crescendos into fits of anger and all-out cries of anguish at the climax. It's moments like this where Chat Pile shows their range as more than just a metal band, approaching an alt-rock sound. Or on the mellow outro track, October All the Time, the tone shifts with quiet guitars and soft-spoken vocals. Despite the utter dread and desperation dripping from the lyrics throughout the album, it ends with a glimmer of hope that "everything will be fine."