EntertainmentPosted at: Sep 5 2026 7:25PM

Chat Pile – 'Who Loves The Sun' album review: Visceral, cutting edge, melancholic madness

By Anand Venkitachalam
New Delhi, Sep 5 (UNI) Ridiculously heavy and abrasive to the extreme, American sludge metal/noise rock/experimental band Chat Pile are back with their fourth album ‘Who Loves The Sun’, and the Oklahoma quartet is just as furious, confident, and pessimistic as ever.
Now right off the bat, Chat Pile is not for everyone. Their mix of chugging sludge metal riffs with the raw aggression of hardcore punk and abrasiveness of noise rock is not exactly the kind of music to grip everyone’s ear; but for those who like their music heavy, beefy, and raw, then they are in for a treat.
Screamed vocals with some cleans, harshness, and just a really sinister vibe to them, Chat Pile bury you instantly into a cacophony of extreme violence with the opener ‘Creature’, and from thereafter it’s a relentless barrage of sonic madness with tracks like ‘Same Rules’ and ‘PEN IS MALL’ where it reeks of manic melancholy and negativity.
The band also experiments more with their sonic soundscape here, going a bit into melodic territory – though not the conventional type of melody mind you. By the time one gets to ‘Shrine’ and ‘Christable ‘26’ the franticness here only increases, it sounds like the despaired howling of a madman belting out a hateful symphony.
And even after all that, if it was possible at all, the band dials it up all to a 11 on ‘Influence’ where it just sounds like pure insanity.
The album closer ‘October All The Time’ ends on a bitterly morbid note, featuring acoustic guitars and just a very uneasy vibe to the whole thing.
Just 43 minutes of pure straightedge visceral shock, the band’s musicianship has been honed to greater levels here and is more refined with probably a greater focus on the metal side of their music; but fear not there is plenty of hardcore and noise rock here.
At times you will be reminded of Nirvana while at other times you will be transported to the sonic scape of sludge metal masters like Melvins, Eyehategod or even mathcore pioneers like Dillinger Escape Plan, and hardcore legends like Black Flag.
There is plenty to go around for both rock and metal fans. There is no sunshine here, no light at the end of the tunnel, not even a flicker of optimism here.
Just the sheer darkness of this album makes it more brutal than it has the right to be, and that just makes this album even more delicious.
In the end, listening to ‘Who Loves The Sun’ is like being deluged with just a ton of brutally heavy riffs layered with sonic dissonance, which sounds as vicious, raw, bleak, and malevolent as possible. Score: 9/10
UNI ANV RN

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Tags: #Chat Pile – 'Who Loves The Sun' album review: Visceral # cutting edge # melancholic madness