In 2022, during my summer vacation by the beach, I discovered (probably at the same time as many people, unless it was just me who was late) the rock and sludge metal band Chat Pile with the album God’s Country. I was captivated by their brutality, their incisive lyrics and their horrific scenarios (don’t be fooled by a title like grimace_smoking_weed.jpegthis song is TERRIFYING). After such a striking first opus, a question was already on everyone’s lips: how were they going to be able to surpass themselves next? What did they have in store for us?
Here we are now with their new opus, Cool World. And I warn you right away: NO, the title doesn’t quite correspond to the general atmosphere of this album, and that’s a good thing for me. The first track and also first single, I Am Dog Now, launches hostilities (literally). It’s violent, it’s nihilistic, it’s cynical, in short, it’s everything that makes Chat Pile this group so powerful and committed. On the other hand, from the second track, the group reveals itself to have more than one trick up its sleeve. Shame aims to be a surprisingly melodious piece, but with spine-chilling details. Hearing the guttural voice of Raygun Busch, the group’s main vocalist, and theother consisting of white noise, we realize that throughout our listening, the horror will never truly be behind us. On the contrary, it will follow us wherever we listen.
As the album develops, my first real observation turns out to be this: the guitars are amazing. Each riffa gift from guitarist Luther Manhole, roars with fervor and has its own character, injecting a dose of mysticism into each track. Mascfor example, leaves a lot of room for these heavy, noisy and viscous electric guitars that leave no one indifferent. Additionally, the band seems to be perfecting the art of insidious melody. If the performance of God’s Country could bring to mind a formidable kraken swallowing up a lost ship in one bite, Cool Worldit’s a bit like a mermaid wanting to coax a gullible sailor before taking him with him into the abysses of the sea. Indeed, Busch gives us an impressive plurality of voices: he sings, screams, laments, mumbles, moans and delivers performances that are all as tortured as each other. The piece Tape is also particularly trying, with its mantra, “It was the worst I ever saw”, completely devoid of hope.
In the same vein, The New World immerses us in the thoughts of a man helpless in the face of a world that does not correspond to his vision of things. It leads us to ask ourselves the question: are we condemned to suffer in this world, beyond the reach of our dreams? We remain without an answer, but we come away rather shaken. Cap’n Ron’s frantic drumming adds an element of urgency and oppression to the already very dark song.
We are left wondering if we will manage to find the light at the end of the tunnel, but like the last track of God’s Countrythe last track, No Way Out, is the apotheosis of the protagonist’s suffering. Here, he seems to be screaming in the face of a tunnel which will inevitably close in front of him, offering him no escape route. He expresses his utter disillusionment with this cruel world that was sold to him as beautiful; as the embodiment of the American dream. It is not for nothing that the element that stands out the most from the gray and gloomy cover of the album is a simple white cross, an American religious symbol veering into the deleterious, in a country where hope for a future better fades from year to year.
To be lost, to be whole, to be bought, to be sold
To losе hope, to lose God, to find hate, to find law
Most are dragged kicking and screaming out
– The New World
In short, that’s a lot to take in. What is clear is that if you were looking for a horror album to hit the mark for the month of Halloween, no problem: Chat Pile is here for you.
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