Since heavy and alternative music incepted, certain rock and metal subgenres dominate particular decades more than others The thrash and punk waves of the 80’s, the hardcore and death metal waves of the 90s, Gothenburg influenced metalcore of the 00’s. The 2020’s have been shaping up to see that noise rock has that time to shine, and at the front of that pack is Chat Pile. The fourth studio album from the Oklahoma quartet is a refined version of their chaos that they’ve been expounding on since 2022’s God’s Country. Without sugarcoating it, Who Loves the Sun is everything that was good about Chat Pile from the beginning cranked to 11 while the band has dialed themselves into a degree we’ve never seen and produced their best work to date. The guitars are honed in and the riffs are filled with bounce and groove, the drums and bass fills an entire audio spectrum all on their own and expertly dance with dynamics, and vocalist Raygun Busch has a ferocity in his voice that is equal parts vicious and desperate as he screams and laments the woes of a disillusioned middle American in 2026.
Opening with ‘Creature’, the band wears their The Jesus Lizard influence on their sleeve and deliver a haunting and heavy groove that prepares you for the journey you’re about to embark on. The three song run of ‘PEN I S MALL’, ‘Shrine’, and ‘Intruder’ is just incredible, peak Chat Pile that leaves you wondering if there’s a way they’ll top it in the future. Something happened in the last few years that awoke the beast inside Raygun, and the vocal performance delivered on these songs leaves the listener rustled and unsettled by the desperation. Ending the record with the mostly acoustic ‘October All the Time’ leaves the listener much more depressed than they started, in the best way. Chat Pile culminated an album that spoke to all of our deepest frustrations, from the climate to AI to wages and everything in between, and that shared misery between the band and the listener allows one to just sit in a peaceful moment with a friend that is Who Loves the Sun.
Rating: 97/100
Notable Tracks: PEN I S MALL, Shrine, Intruder, Christabel ‘26
