Chat Pile

Chat Pile are a four-piece sludge metal/noise rock band from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma that began in 2019. Following two EP's and a split with Portrayal Of Guilt, this band has absolutely blown up with the release of their debut album, God's Country, this week. It's garnered a ton of praise and attention, and I have to say that it is all absolutely deserved. This is an unbelievably innovative record, fusing together a litany of sounds to create a statement that is visceral and impactful, conjuring up the image of an industrial dystopia, a burning earth, and the despondent howls coming from within it. 

The band utilizes the heavy, down-tuned riffs of sludge bands such as Eyehategod, the metallic mechanical rhythms and nihilistic overtones of Big Black and Shellac, along with the angular, off-kilter aspects of a band like Unwound. Vocally, they switch between spoken hopelessly and screamed furiously, with a standout cathartic vocal performance. This isn't to say that Chat Pile just echo the sounds of the past, they just pull aspects from it to create an entirely new statement. It reminded me of listening to You Won't Get What You Want when it first came out, and the manic, painstaking response that it evoked. Not to compare the two, they're just both very dark and heavy records in an emotional sense.

Through the opening chants of "Slaughterhouse", the spine-snapping riffs of "Why", the strangely melodic "Anywhere", the haunting "I Don't Care If I Burn", and the absolute insanity of closer "Grimace_Smoking_Weed.Jpeg", this record completely floored me. Not to mention the stellar production, which the band handled themselves. This is without a doubt one of the highlights of this year, and I cannot recommend it enough. This band has earned all the praise they're getting, and they're just beginning. Enjoy.

This Dungeon Earth (2019)

1. Face

2. Rainbow Meat

3. Rat Boy

4. Crawlspace

Remove Your Skin Please (2019)

1. Dallas Beltway

2. Mask

3. Davis

4. Garbage Man

Portrayal Of Guilt/Chat Pile (2021)

1. Portrayal Of Guilt - Touched By An Angel

2. Chat Pile - Brutal Truth

Send The Pain Below (2022)

2. Roots Bloody Roots (Sepultura cover)

Note: Compilation here

God's Country (2022)

1. Slaughterhouse

2. Why

3. Pamela

4. Wicked Puppet Dance

5. Anywhere

6. Tropical Beaches, Inc.

7. The Mask

8. I Don't Care If I Burn

9. Grimace_Smoking_Weed.Jpeg

Tenkiller / Lake Time (Mr. Rodan) (2022)

1. Tenkiller

2. Lake Time (Mr. Rodan)

Brothers In Christ (2023)

1. Nerver - Kicks In The Sky

2. Nerver - The Nerve

3. Chat Pile - King

4. Chat Pile - Cut

Cool World (2024)

1. I Am Dog Now

2. Shame

3. Frownland

4. Funny Man

5. Camcorder

6. Tape

7. The New World

8. Masc

9. Milk Of Human Kindness

10. No Way Out

In The Earth Again (2025)

1. Outside

2. Demon Time

3. Never Say Die!

4. Behold A Pale Horse

5. The Magic Of The World

6. Fission/Fusion

7. The Matador

8. I Got My Own Blunt To Smoke

9. Radioactive Dreams

10. Inside

11. A Tear For Lucas

Note: Collaborative album with Hayden Pedigo

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Angry Son

One post, two bands. Strangely enough, this isn't the first time that's happened on here. I recently heard this fantastic new EP by the Angry Son from Japan, which reminded me of the American Angry Son from the early 90's, so it seemed fitting to cover both.

Angry Son are a screamo band from Japan that have been around since at least 2021. They've released three EP's so far, with two out this year. They play a blistering, chaotic style of screamo with some scorching vocals, which balances out with quiet arpeggios and gorgeous, shimmering tones. Not much more needs to be said really, from the first minute of "Sublime" off their latest Pranks For The Memories, they had my undivided attention while I delved into the rest of their discography. This is some amazing stuff, and no doubt a highlight for the genre in 2022. Fans of bands like Loma Prieta,     Funeral Diner, and Sans Visage should definitely check this out. Enjoy.

3 songs (2021)

1. 祇園の夜

2. 散歩詩

3. 鴨川

4 songs (2022)

1. Indifference

2. Dialogue

3. Flicker

4. 回想録

Pranks For The Memories (2022)

1. Sublime

2. Transmit Failure

3. Sinking

4. Untitled

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Angry Son were a four-piece hardcore/emo band from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma that were around from 1990 to 1991. They played a melodic, heart-on-your-sleeve offshoot of punk directly influenced by bands like Rites of Spring, Embrace, Swiz, Moss Icon and The Hated. I've covered my fair share of relatively obscure bands from this early era of "emo" here, and I cannot understate how hard it is to find info on these bands, as most of them only exist in decade-old vinyl rips and a one-line bio on Discogs or something of the sort. There is an entire website dedicated to the documentation of Angry Son, including pictures, flyers, setlists, band history, etc. This is unprecedented, so I do encourage everybody to check it out here. An interesting anecodote, it does credit their name to the lyric from "Hidden Wheel" by Rites of Spring. It's often forgotten that the phrase originated there, years before Indian Summer came along and cemented it in one of the genre's most landmark songs.

Below is the majority of their discography. Their biggest release was the split with Fuel, which is all I had heard from them prior to this post. It's a fantastic split on both sides (the Fuel song in particular is incredible), with the cleanest sounding production. Diving into the demo and Yesterday were pleasant surpises, with the shaking vocals, melodic bass lines, and bright chords making for a raw take on a sound still in its early stages, similar to contemporaries like Admiral or Downcast. As for their other material, admittedly the audio quality of Skinny Criminal's Demo is pretty abysmal. I don't know if it's the original recording or the mp3 rip, but it's pretty rough to listen to. Same goes for Live At Trees, though that's more expected considering it's a live set. It's cool to have these for posterity's sake, but besides that, it's best to steer towards their other material. Enjoy.

Demo (1990)

1. Unlimited Supply

2. Violation

3. Walk The Line

4. For Keeps

5. Dragnet

Live At Trees (1990)

1. Unlimited Supply

2. Head

3. Stained

4. Resist

5. Bullet

6. Suffocation

7. Fast

8. Window

9. All Is Now

10. My Little Friends

11. For Keeps

12. Dragnet

13. So Typical

14. Walk The Line

15. Yesterday

16. Thrown Away

17. Violation

18. The Pillar

Skinny Criminal's Demo (1991)

1. Touch This

2. Yesterday

3. Fast

4. Head

5. My Little Friends

6. Black

Yesterday (1991)

1. In Deep

2. Bullet

3. Big Picture

4. Resist

5. Yesterday

Fuel/Angry Son (1991)

1. Fuel - For Lock Of Better Words

2. Angry Son - Thrown Away

3. Angry Son - Suffocation

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