Album Review: Chat Pile – Who Loves The Sun
Reviewed by Rob Barker
Much anticipated, and preluded with three fantastic single releases earlier in the month, Chat Pile’s Who Loves the Sun unleashes exactly what we were all hoping for in the bands fifth studio album. The nasty-sounding Oklahoma quartet’s particular brand of racket has affected and inspired the airwaves for a few years now, with a unique and pretty special brand of noise-meets-sludge-meets-hardcore, with a post-punk twist of despair thrown in for good measure.
Creature starts off the album with a trademark ugly aggression, helped along by the pure filth of the bass tone, twisting into the crashing rhythms of one of the pre-released tracks Deep Blue. The album progresses to Same Rules with an unsettling atmosphere that reminded me a little bit of some of Earthtone9’s slower and darker sounding tracks.
PEN I S MALL comes in next with a notably more aggressive and abrasive feeling to it, more straightforward aggression than the dark nastiness of previous tracks; another one that was released prior to the album coming out and for good reason – this is a track to play to your mates who don’t know the band and show them what Chat Pile are all about. Shrine and Intruder both show off a pretty cool throwback 90’s sound whilst also remaining modern and innovative with really cool and noticeable guitar riffs as a main hook, and Kayo Dot vibes in relation to musical artistry.
Sinister, sludgy and noisy are the main focus of Christabel ’26, before back to more heavy, gross guitar-led stand-out track Influence. The bands true avant-garde and artistic side shines through next with the spoken work horror show that is Family Funeral reminiscent of some of Oxbow’s finer work, before the finale of October All the Time wraps up the album as though it’s the aftermath of something truly awful and despairing (totally in a good way!).
This is a cracking album. If you’re a fan of Chat Pile anyway you won’t be disappointed by any means. It delivers what we’d like it to in terms of just about everything really, and delivers it well, with gusto, aggression and a foul taste. Newbies to the band will be impressed with the bands unique and innovative approach to the genre, almost the perfect balance between art-rock and no-bullshit. Play loud and play often.
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