REVIEW: Chat Pile - Who Loves the Sun

To most, it’d seem like CHAT PILE have risen to relative ubiquity extremely quickly. You’d be strapped to find a modern noise rock or sludge metal band that haven’t been compared to them at some point. As quick as their rise might feel, frontman Raygun Busch, for example, has been in various bands over the past 20 years, only finally seeing some success with CHAT PILE. This is also in spite of the odds being against the group from the start, with them struggling to book any gigs at all in their hometown of Oklahoma City. As it happens, Oklahoma City is a place which inspires much of their core identity, with their name being a reference to piles of toxic waste that townies would use to hang around, play and do whatever, really. It’s a poignant image of the societal rot that the band tends to write about in their music, just on a micro level rather than a macro level.

Their breakthrough was 2022’s God’s Country, their debut album with The Flenser. As with the rest of their discography, it’s very much its own thing; much looser performances than on later albums, less emphasis on things like tone and riffs and more on atmosphere, most notably on opener Slaughterhouse and closer Grimace_Smoking_Weed.jpg. 2024’s Cool World, on the other hand is a much more direct record. Tighter performances, more emphasis on the metal side of their stylings, almost gothic guitar tones, and more affecting lyrics and melodic choruses like on Shame and Masc. We also can’t ignore last year’s In The Earth Again, a collaboration with local American Primitivism artist HAYDEN PEDIGO, who’s been having a great few years himself. He happened to live a few blocks away from bass player Stin, and as such the recording process was relatively simple. Once again, a new direction from the band, taking more influence from folk and blues traditions as per PEDIGO’s contributions. It never feels like the two artists clash, however. They both have a sense of americana embedded within their music, a vital part of CHAT PILE’s songwriting over these early releases.

With this in mind, you’re left wondering - is there anything CHAT PILE can’t do to push the envelope of noise rock? We’ve not even mentioned their early EPs, monumental 2023 Roadburn performance and ensuing live album, split EPs with artists like PORTRAYAL OF GUILT and NERVER, or their Sub Pop-released single Masks / Sifting (not to be confused with their songs Mask, The Mask or Masc - and yes, they have performed all four in a row before). These all have completely new things to offer from the group, most of which being essential listens to understand the ways in which the group have progressed. All this is to say that the prospect of a third full-length LP from such a prolific group, as inevitable as it may have felt, would be impossible to pin down. What could they possibly do to twist the conventions of noise rock, an already ever-evolving genre, this time?

Well here we are, with their new album Who Loves The Sun, whose title feels a little ironic with it being released mere days after Summer ends. A direct reference to the VELVET UNDERGROUND track of the same name, though the band claim that the name was chosen in “not any profoundly meaningful way”. Of course, finding an interview or live performance where Raygun doesn’t speak about film at least once is like finding a needle in a haystack (just watch the episode of Amoeba’s “What’s In My Bag” series featuring them), so it makes sense that the visual components of their work have more intention behind them than something like the album title - and Who Loves The Sun might have their most striking cover yet. A photograph of old, dilapidated buildings contrasted by sleek and futuristic skyscrapers in the background. Tech corporations and the rise of artificial intelligence being built by way of treading on everything beneath it, and an all-encompassing apathy towards what is happening - a suitable metaphor for the modern era, and one we’ll be seeing more of as we dive into the record.

https://youtu.be/4jMsE6KcuAg

In fact, it couldn’t be more clear from the opening track, Creature, that this is exactly what we’re dealing with here. Raygun is clearly enraged about the climate crisis, or more accurately, the powerful people who have allowed us to get to this point. Every CHAT PILE album has an unabashedly politically-motivated song towards the start, notably Why? And Shame. Those songs felt more like passive observations, as heartbreaking as the lyrics were - the difference here is that Raygun is more than happy to point a finger at the perpetrators. Lyrics like “please don’t tell me we couldn’t stop this [...] cause this is what you always wanted” and “don’t let them hide” show him directly placing the blame for this on the CEOs and governments, and anyone who’s ever told you that we all have a part in preventing this - and it feels more like a call to action than an acknowledgement. All this over pounding drums, a cold and metallic bass tone underpinning the verses, and a vocal performance that switches between tired almost-speak-singing in the verses, and blood-curdling screams in the chorus that aptly match the words being spoken.

Creature also features uncharacteristically melodic guitar parts, and as noisy and abrasive as the guitars themselves might sound, it wouldn’t be out of the question to call them catchy - but it’s nothing compared to the next track and first single Deep Blue, which confidently announces its presence with the most memorable set of hooks in the band’s entire discography. Stin claims that “...it sounds like CHAT PILE doing a BILLY SQUIRE song. It’s our Lonely Is The Night, which is actually a fake LED ZEPPELIN song so who knows what the hell we’re actually doing here?”. And in fairness, we don’t fully know what he meant by that either. That same distinct suffocating atmosphere present in CHAT PILE’s music is very much present here, and the emphasis is suitably placed on those wailing guitars, but something just feels different about it, and to some extent comparing it to a classic rock track makes sense - this is hook heaven. The lead riff implants itself in your head immediately, there’s the spidery pre-chorus riff, and a complete change in chord-progression during the chorus which seamlessly connects itself back to that lead melody. Just incredible stuff all around.

Same Rules, in spite of its title, shakes everything up. The first two and a half minutes of this consist of straight-forward gothic rock. Just listen to those electronic drums, sharp, bright guitar tone, and creeping bassline and imagine one of the gothic rock icons of the 80s singing over it rather than Raygun, whose vocals on here are the one grounding element. That combined with a breakdown in the second half, both reminding you that you are, in fact, listening to a CHAT PILE record. It feels like living in one of the 80s b-movies that Raygun loves so much, and it’d be hard to believe that it’s not a huge influence on this song.

https://youtu.be/kIfoN_Q1TIY

All that being said, Same Rules, as great a song as it is, also serves to slows the pace of the record down a bit, winding the listener in before the utterly monolithic fourth track, PEN I S MALL. The thing you have to remember when listening to CHAT PILE is that when they appear to be at their silliest on the surface, you’re likely about to hear one of the best songs of the year (also see Grimace_Smoking_Weed.jpg). The title is actually in reference to a vandalised sign in Penn State Mall, with the song itself following construction workers at a mall, Greg and Ray, as well as their manager Simon. Lyrics like “Greg dreams about owning a Harley. Greg and Ray live under the same boot.” and “Hard to believe but your whole life can pass, as a series of acts of subordination” are chilling reminders that not only the American dream, but capitalism as a whole preys on peoples’ aspirations and the basic need to exist.

The exploitation of workers and physical conditions people are put in just to survive is present just from the opening lines - “it’s time to work under the blazing hot sun, it’s time to smash your shins to bits”. All this is complimented by the heaviest instrumentation in the band’s entire body of work. The real standout here, though, is Raygun’s performance. It’s made from the stuff of nightmares, with an absolutely demented, almost militaristic delivery on every line. It sounds like he’s in physical pain while performing this, as if he’s forcing the lines in the chorus out through gritted teeth. The song slows down in the second half, accompanied by a bong rip and a few coughs, before launching into a sustained breakdown that challenges the intensity of even the most unrelenting of a genre like no wave. When they perform the chorus again, much slower this time, to close out the song, it feels as though the song is destroying itself, consuming itself in a fashion akin to the ouroboros. A perfect anthem to personify the horrors of simply trying to get by day-to-day.

We’re not even halfway into the tracklist yet and CHAT PILE still have plenty of tricks up their sleeve. Shrine and its constant push and pull between quiet and loud, seemingly switching between the two on a whim. It feels like a song structure pulled straight out of something from one of the great 90s grunge albums, an era whose music the band have never been shy about adoring. Intruder is the first and only time you’d be able to call a CHAT PILE song “groovy”, with a tight, mid-tempo rhythm, a ridiculously catchy bridge to the chorus featuring backing vocals from Claire Hannah and Brittany Sawtelle, and a manic vocal performance in the chorus. Passages like “someone told me a storm is coming, someone told me this house needs haunting” make it feel like a gothic folk story, told from the perspective of the monster hiding under the bed.

There’s more gothic imagery elsewhere on this album too, second to last track Family Funeral is absolutely full of it. The conversational tone of the lyrics is reminiscent of what they were doing on God’s Country, with every line sounding like Raygun is on the verge of some sort of nervous breakdown. It’s a story about the narrator moving elsewhere with a partner to find a new life, with no way back. “Where am I supposed to go? Where am I supposed to go now?” Raygun yells in a passage before revealing that the narrator has killed their children and themself, ending on the line “and though it hurts me, I needed to hurt you”. HAYDEN PEDIGO returns on this track, lending his hand in helping to make a slow-paced five-minute track go by in what feels like mere moments. The song devolves into insanity during the last minute as more and more layers of vocals and tape noise are added, before abruptly ending.

At this point, we reach closing track October All The Time. Compared to the rest of the album, this feels like a brisk walk in the park. Mostly centred around a single acoustic guitar being strummed, it’s the perfect way to wind the album down after forty minutes of sheer insanity. Of course, it ends on a noisy breakdown, but you were probably already expecting that. Of course, CHAT PILE realise this as well, and being ever-subversive, keep it brief. The distorted guitars and drums are present on here for less time than the 30 seconds of relative silence that close the song out. To quote one of Raygun’s main literary influences on this album, T. S. Eliot, “this is the way the world ends, not with a bang, but a whimper” - perfectly in keeping with the theme of apathy underpinning this entire project.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbNjkexjl9E

CHAT PILE have once again proven that they can effectively do anything. God’s Country was a great album, but ultimately it felt like a showcase of a band who had the potential to do something incredible. Cool World was nearly that album, it just suffered from a few misses in the production department and a few tracks that slightly missed the mark. Who Loves The Sun, however, is that album and more. Every problem that either of those previous albums might have had are no longer present here, and there’s a noticeable increase in ambition and variety here. It’s hard to point to one song and say it sounds exactly like another, there’s so many different styles they manage to tackle here. Even so, they pass each assignment with flying colours, with some utterly transcendent moments - perhaps at least one you could point to on each individual track. This is the CHAT PILE we’ve been waiting to hear all these years, and easily their definitive release - dare we say their masterpiece, and hopefully the first of several. The sheer level of craftsmanship on display here is unparalleled, orchestrated by a band at their absolute peak. All we can do is hope for more.

Score: 10/10

Who Loves The Sun will be released on 4th September 2026 via The Flenser.

Words: Noise Leonard

Photos: Ryan Lawson