CHAT PILE – Who Loves The Sun

Just a year after “In The Earth Again”, the record on which Chat Pile explored their acoustic side alongside fingerpicker Hayden Pendigo, the Oklahoma City band return on their own for a third chapter, once again steeped in the most devastating and nihilistic noise rock. “Who Loves The Sun” is a mocking title: if it were followed by a question mark, we'd already know how Raygun Bush and co. would answer: “Not us!”.
Just look closely at the cover, this time framed in turquoise, to confirm the point. In the distance you can make out three skyscrapers, homes to artificial intelligence, finance, or vaults of global data, all three bathed in sunlight. The photo, however, is shot near a rundown housing project, its doors torn off and walls smeared with tar. Once again the band watches the West's glittering decline while clinging to a spot far away from it.

The mechanical groove of Cap'n Ron's drums, Luther Manhole's guitar dripping with debris, and Stin's industrial bass, together of course with Bush's feral declamations, kick up a racket right from the opener “Creatures”, which invites us into an uncompromising record, one without the alternative metal and grunge concessions of its predecessor, 2024's “Cool World”. “Who Loves The Sun” has two missions. The first is to mock and curse the modern world, the second is to reach the stature of idols like Jesus Lizard, Godflesh and Scratch Acid.
While the following “Deep Blue” still leaves traces of melody in the vocals, unhealthy and psychotic as they are, and “Same Rule” is a dark, dissonant nod to new wave, everything that happens from the mocking “Pen I S Mall” onward is pure auditory devastation. The guitars on “Intruder” scrape like nails on a chalkboard, and when they open up they flood the air with noise; the bass on “Shrine” is tuned to make the ground shake, while “Influence” is set ablaze by crossfire of metal riffs. The hiccupping sludge gait of “Family Funeral” leads us to the bleak, inexorable finale of “October All The Time”.

It's the end of a nihilistic journey through American violence and horror culture, of which Chat Pile knowingly recognize themselves as a product. “Who Loves The Sun” thus hits both its targets, cementing the Flenser-signed outfit as one of the most menacing and celebrated forces in noise on the planet.

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01/09/2026