If Chat Pile were a film, they would be a dark thriller. The kind that builds tension until the end and, once we reach the third act, still might not ever show the killer. It's plodding and intense and, while I just pulled out a genre reference, the best thing about the band is how much they defy conventional musical labels. They definitely fall into the dark and heavy realm between post-hardcore and noise-rock, but it's more layered than that. They use death metal font and the tempos are often far slower than any of those styles named. Sometimes the vocals are calmly spoken, sometimes they are harshly shouted.
I would personally put "Christabel '26" as one of the standouts and definitive tracks on Who Loves The Sun. At 4 minutes in length, it's sometimes heavy, sometimes plodding, sometimes soft -- but the shifts are never jarring or surprising. It's a steadily shifting emotion. I'd also describe the overall sound as the waste material that oozes out of an industrial processing plant. It's a sludgy, dirty composite. It's usually not a compliment when I say that every song feels longer than it actually is, but Chat Pile manages so much intensity in each song that you feel exhausted (in a good way) by the end. "Deep Blue" would be another good example if you need to test drive before buying.
While they often tread the line of noise-rock volume and post-hardcore pacing, they mix it up constantly. Things get heavier in "PEN I S MALL" with perhaps the most hardcore/metal influence I've seen from the band, but still in a clear influence sense that doesn't recycle the tropes. The album ends on "Family Funeral" and "October All The Time" -- as you can see, the titles give a certain vibe that's matched in substance and style. Both of these songs slow things even more, with "Family Funeral" somehow operating at a slow crawl while feeling like the heaviest song on the album.
If you haven't noticed, it's a bleak world out there. Chat Pile is the soundtrack of our times.
