Chat Pile – Who Loves the Sun

Fed up with all the apologies, alt-metal crew Chat Pile offer a distressing call to arms in an increasingly apathetic society on their third full-length album. Since forming six years ago, the Oklahoma City-based quartet has touched on similar thematic terrain, rendered more effectively on their debut, 2022’s God’s Country, which detailed the systemic failures of capitalism as they manifested in the band's hometown. Now articulating in broader strokes, the band’s scathing, less-direct missives go beyond US-related concerns.

The message is more than clear on the album opener, “Creature.” “Please don’t say we couldn’t stop this/please don’t feed me all that bullshit,” vocalist Raygun Busch snarls, delivering a no-nonsense meditation on environmental ruin that perfectly encapsulates the band’s purpose through both sound and fury. Whereas on the gritty yet melodic “Deep Blue,” which recalls early Godflesh, he implores that “the time is to act now” over a chugging, death-march groove that builds toward an ear-catching chorus.

Coming from Chat Pile, the bluntness is expected—even if their raw instrumental power would benefit from them delving deeper. Take the more intricately laced “Intruders,” one of their most notable tracks yet, which redirects their aggression through a post-hardcore lens. Softened by guest vocalists Claire Hannah and Brittany Sawtelle from Nightosphere, the track’s exploration of class disparity hints at a band pushing outside of its tense, sludgy dirges. While the song points toward an exciting direction for the band, lines like “There's no difference between me and you/except all of the pleasant sights you see/of which the piper also promised me” call for more reflection.

It’s also completely understandable if you only come to Chat Pile for the intense performances. And “Influence” more than delivers on that promise, sticking to a seething, steady-paced rhythm that only stops for one of guitarist Luther Manhole’s herky-jerky riffs. Paired with the activist-minded themes they present, the band has become something of an anomaly in the hard rock space in more ways than one—openly referencing unlikely sources like enduring English cult rockers XTC as they seek to upend their genre’s constraints. Their outlook may be bleak and uncertain, but their future as a unit is rife with possibility.

Who Loves the Sun is out now via The Flenser.