Chat Pile - God's Country
Chat Pile
God’s Country
By: Nate Cross
God's Country is truly an ugly record. It forces listeners to find the hopelessness created in these songs within themselves and reflect.
"Chat" is classified as a wasteful byproduct of lead and zinc mining. In the first half of the century, lead mining was so common that this "chat" would build up into hills, even mountains, of wasteful toxic dust, churning in the air for the surrounding public to breathe.
Oklahoma City noise and sludge rock band Chat Pile take their name from this poisonous sludge, and their first full-length album, God's Country, sounds as if the band is trying to conjure it back into the environment.
Chat Pile do not paint God's Country as a pretty site.
The grime-covered guitars fill the songs with filth and debris. They throw the listener down a deep hole to be buried alive. Even the drum thumps of the opening track "Slaughterhouse" sound like they were recorded from within a void dark enough to make a swarm of bats fly away in terror.
It's bleak and terrifying, like a look into this country's future.
Photo shout: Bayley Hanes
The lyrical themes match the grotesqueness of the instrumentation. They're sung as if they're being shouted during a manic episode, unable to be questioned or reasoned with. Similar to Daughter's frontman Alexis Marshall's vocal style, but with less care for style or control.
Whether they're singing about grounded topics like the nightmarish living conditions of the homeless on "Why" or hallucinating demonic horrors on the closer, "grimace_smoking_weed.jpg," you feel the despair all the same.
The record shines the brightest when it's slow - trudging through each riff and line at a tortured pace.
However, Chat Pile know how to handle faster tempos as well. "Wicked Puppet Dance" and "Tropical Beaches, Inc" are both chaotic bangers made for the most violent circle pits.
The only downside is the grittiness of the guitars tend to overpower the speed, making it hard to tell what's even going on in the song--like running through the woods at midnight, getting whacked in the face with branches that you didn't know were there.
Chat Pile doesn't forget to make room for melody through all the chaotic noise.
The grooves of "Anywhere" and "Pamela" sound like radio hits dug out of Code Orange's Grammy-worthy songbook.
However, the lyrical themes would never let these tracks have a spot between all the flaccid alt-rock being played on the radio. Many faint-hearted "metal" fans wouldn't be able to hear "Stare at the lake, biding my time, waiting to die" without calling their therapist.
In fact, the band doesn't even need the mired filth of the guitars and drums to sound brutal. The spoken word track "I Don't Care If I Burn" grimly depicts images of exacting revenge. Aside from some unsettling hisses and bangs, there's little standing in the way between the listener and the chilling words about premeditated harm. The silence makes it just as heavy as the rest of the tracks.
God's Country is truly an ugly record. It forces listeners to find the hopelessness created in these songs within themselves and reflect. Whether it's on personal anguish or the shear brokenness of society, Chat Pile are holding our eyelids open.
