By: Nick Cianciotti
I first discovered Chat Pile right after their second album Cool World in 2024 and instantly realized that I was late to find them out. The album’s mix of noisy production and howling vocals instantly captivated me. Who Loves the Sun, which follows their collaborative album with Hayden Pedigo, not only perfects the sound that originally entranced me, but adds to it in a substantive way.
I was instantly surprised with the album opener “Creature.” While I was expecting a noisy, fast paced heavy hitter like “I Am Dog Now” from Cool World, the album started off on a more brooding and slow start. “Creature” perfectly mixed together that track’s intensity with the style of “Slaughterhouse,” the opener from the group’s debut God’s Country. This sound was continued with “Deep Blue.” On “Same Rules,” though, the sound really opened up. For most of the track, there’s little distortion. However, it crescendos into a massive and noisy end to the track. I found myself intrigued with the production choices all three of these tracks individually offered. Compared to some of their other records (especially God’s Country), the tracks already felt so much more open. To fill in those gaps, they added in some extremely catchy melodic guitar parts that really filled out the sound.
As opposed to “Same Rules,” “PEN I S MALL” delivered a sound that was closer to what I was expecting they would open this album with. A big barnstormer, the track has an unmistakably commanding presence. Subsequently, this was my favorite song off the record. I’m not quite sure if it’s because it was closer to what I expected or if it truly is the best song on the album, but it was a phenomenal song either way. The massive guitar sounds were accompanied with genuinely phenomenal vocal delivery and the banging of gargantuan drums that completely enveloped the mix (and don’t get me started on that breakdown).
“PEN I S MALL” started off a string of songs that closely fit the signature Chat Pile mix of noisy rock and sludge metal, while adding so much to their existing sound. Take, for example, the hypnotic and genuinely catchy guitar melodies on “Shrine” or the excellent production on “Intruder” that features a prechorus that is very unique for the band. “Christabel ‘26” plays it a little safe in my opinion, compared to these other tracks, but is still a solid song. On “Influence” the band delivers massive riffs that are unmistakably theirs.
While I tend not to focus on the lyrics in music – a personal preference, I find melody and production more interesting – I found the lyrics of the next two songs “Family Funeral” and “October all the Time” to be so remarkable that they needed their own discussion. Throughout the Who Loves the Sun, Chat Pile rails against capitalism, mass surveillance, human failures, and pitfalls of social media. On “Family Funeral,” though, the lyrics are shifted towards the story of Medea and Jason, which originates from Greek mythology (I had to use genius as a bit of a crutch for this, so please forgive me if I’m incorrect). In this story, Medea (Jason’s wife) kills her children and Jason’s new wife after Jason leaves her. It is a story about the powerless and how they react when in extreme circumstances.
To me, “Family Funeral” seems like the climax of the album thematically, which gives “October all the Time” an interesting meaning. An acoustic song, the track is about as far away from a Chat Pile song as possible. While I don’t find the song itself completely interesting, the lyrics delve into the concept of “so, what?” Throughout the album, Chat Pile muses over several issues going on in the world. With this song, it faces the fact that these issues are here to stay, and deals with the idea that we have to continue despite them. It was a really intriguing concept. The song, both lyrically and instrumentally, was completely different from the rest of the album – which frankly made it stick out a little bit– but that doesn’t take away from the core message of the album. There is a tomorrow ahead.
Listen Below:
Leave a Reply