Chat Pile - God’s Country
The Flenser
The debut album from Oklahoma's own, Chat Pile, feels like a storm that has been brewing on the horizon; waiting on the wing. Plotting to destroy everything in it's vicinity for years, the wait is now over; it's time has come. The storm has arrived, and the forecast was right all along. Store away the family heirlooms, lock down your personal belongings, put the pets in the pantry. Back to back releases in the 'This Dungeon Earth' EP and the 'Remove Your Skin Please' EP in 2019 provided enough of a taster for the intervening years between then and now. The buzz surrounding the Chat Pile name has garnered enough power to fire a mega-tonne train down the dingiest of tracks.
The sound of Chat Pile is like being tarred by sonics; molasses infiltrates the mindset. Clogged and claustrophobic, the cluttered gutters in which God's Country oozes down contorts in ways that the mind suffocates under. Smothered under layers of viscous sludge, train of thoughts end at sinister stops - far from home, no end in sight. The weight of words held behind clenched teeth exist on an incomprehensible scale - misanthropic notions lie dormant.
The production on God's Country is gritty enough to graft skin, yet clear enough to pick out exactly what is going on, and when; polished chaos - shiny, yet dangerously destructive. The clarity in mix allows for the growling bass to sit subterranean, holding things together like atlas. The cavernous size of the drums resonate on a level that can only be referred to as primal. Sitting atop of the visceral rhythm section are truly gut-wrenching vocal performances and corrosive riffs and guitarwork.
Atmospheric additions in soundscape lead to seductively malevolent moments of beauty - 'Anywhere' and 'Pamela' being a prime example of this. The pulling back of brute force allows for something a bit more twisted to take hold - the monster isn't as out of control as it may seem; it's deeds are often done with harrowing underhand. It's a dynamic which was somewhat absent from Chat Pile's material leading up to the release of God's Country. Penultimate track 'I Don't Care if I Burn' harnesses the pulled back aesthetic before the ferocious final track 'grimace_smoking_weed.jpeg' decimates the sinister air conjured up in the preceding moments. Acting as thunder to humid atmosphere, 'grimace_smoking_weed.jpeg' clears the heavy aura which builds up over the playtime of God's Country; the dam's about to burst, and with it the grueling, grungy sewers.
Chat Pile reset the standards of the sadistically inclined side of the music spectrum with God's Country. Pulling things back to relative square one is an underrated move. Back to basics - ever-effective and timeless.
WHY.
