Chat Pile – Cool World | Album Review

Where do you go after releasing one of the most critically acclaimed debut albums of the decade so far? Oklahoma’s prodigal sludge sons Chat Pile return with the highly anticipated follow up Cool World.

Chat Pile shocked listeners with the release of God’s Country in 2022 for its uncompromising depiction of modern life in small town America. Painting a canvas with a painful dose of reality for many, it left one hell of a lasting impression and fuelled international demand for the band’s intense live shows. Now two years removed, Chat Pile are ready for their second helping of suffering with Cool World. Opening with the unhinged lead single ‘I Am Dog Now’, it exudes a sleazy and uneasy aura from the get go. Almost heavenly sample sounds break with a snare hit into jarring instrumentals, swaying and crashing like a knife-wielding meth junkie backed you into a corner screaming their incoherent threats. The angular, syncopated rhythms are nauseating and effective at laying the foundations of Cool World’s brutality, whether overt or simmering under the surface waiting to reach boiling point. 

Immediately breaking the white-knuckle intensity, ‘Shame’ shows the band further embracing their cursed take on noise-fuelled grunge. It starts off a little lighter, the vocals almost sounding passive aggressive as vocalist Raygun Busch speaks of atrocities and continues to fester as it goes. He reaches a breaking point speaking of the disregard for life, freeing demonic vocal growls and gurgles. “Frownland” continues the slightly lowered intensity with a gnarled bass line and industrial noises, conjuring a harsh energy from the start. The instrumentals are highly infectious as they dissolve into an atonal nightmare and come back together again. 

‘Funny Man’ feels incredibly disturbing in a similar way to ‘Grimace…’ from God’s Country, starting with discordant punches ringing out over a pummelling tom run before locking into a jagged beat, while the haunting guitar melody reflects the manic fear in the lyrics and vocal delivery. The theme of violence runs strong in the instrumental and lyrics, almost lost in a fugue state of following orders to take lives, a partial reflection of the nature of warring foreign conquests. The band have said the focus has been pulled from the micro to the macro, from zeroing in on the degradation of rot of just God’s Country (the US Bible Belt) to a broader outlook globally to the violent toxicity saturating human kind as a whole. There is a greater sense of violence and disgust compared to God Country’s hopelessness and despair.

‘Camcorder’ and ‘Tape’ work as a thematic pair, said to reflect the cycle of creating and passively consuming literal and figurative violence. ‘Camcorder’ makes for a lengthy sonic departure from what’s come before, locking into a mid-paced nihilistic doom stomp that’s broken up by a neck-wringing groove and a macabre industrial hellscapes. A grimy ambience permeates the whole song, it feels dirty listening to it as Busch calmly describes morbid details in a hypnotic delivery. Inversely, ‘Tape’ has a stronger drive as the band kicks, the vocals more strained and swapping between screams and the same indifference as ‘Camcorder’. The instrumental flickers between unruly hooks and almost alt-indie feeling expanses, coming to a dramatic close as Busch gets more hysterical, repeating the line “it was the worst I ever saw” until the final strikes ring out. ‘The New World’ lives off its cacophonous chorus that leans heavy on selling a state of hopelessness. The dissonant instrumentals and expansive air left in mix continue to allow this feeling to smoulder. The intensity ramps up in the final minute, more aggressive percussive hits and the vocals continue to become more deranged. 

Instead of handling the recording process themselves, production was handled by Ben Greenberg of Uniform (who’s also produced Algiers, Drab Majesty, Metz). It makes a significant difference with the sonic presentation of Chat Pile, Cool World feels significantly more polished, as to be expected having the full studio treatment. The drums in particular have more character, not being recorded on an electronic kit this time around. The band as a whole feel like they have a lot more room to breathe, even in the more intense passages it doesn’t sound as claustrophobic. That being said, Cool World still manages to maintain a sense of deep unease that Chat Pile cultivate oh so well across their releases.

‘Masc’ is surprisingly accessible for a Chat Pile track, feels heavily inspired by post-punk and eccentricities of the likes of Pissed Jeans. The subject matter is deceptive in its depth, welcoming a variety of interpretations on living in a world still fuelled primarily by a preset notion of masculinity. A slow paced twisted grunge/alt-rock outing, ‘Milk of Human Kindness’ is mired in depressive suffering. Gently swaying, eyes closed lost in the dreamy pacing with traumatic tendrils poking in from the fringes. Its ominous, slowly unravelling through the run time and losing itself in the disquieting repetitions. Finally, ‘No Way Out’ is a powerful and grim curtain call for the album. Lost in a state of unbridled rage at the the shattering of the protagonists dreams with the arrival of their child, feeling trapped by their kin with ‘No Way Out’. Its seething, waiting to burst, the tension high-strung with great help from the small manic motifs in the guitar work and the atonal staccato punches, becoming more deranged, occasionally breaking into violent blast beats and powerful sludge passages. 

Like a grindhouse bloodbath you can’t look away from that lingers in the back of one’s mind for days after the fact, Chat Pile continue to be one of the most uniquely bleak bands active. They had a lot to live up to following a debut album as highly regarded as God’s Country, it was never going to be an easy task. While it doesn’t quite reach the near insurmountable heights as the previous release, they’re still gripping the proverbial heels with Cool World and deliver a more than worthy follow up.