Here's a tiny little shrine dedicated to why this noise rock sludge metal band means a whole lot to me personally.
But first, a list of some of my favorite lyrics:
Something inside me propels me forward, a kind of rage you just never get used to.
- Pamela, God's Country (2022)
I can hit a lot harder, if you wanna find out. Won't matter to me none. Do you wanna see?
- The Mask, God's Country (2022)
*the raw warbled screaming at 1 minute, 54 seconds*
- Rainbow Meat, This Dungeon Earth (2019)
You wanna see what ordinary hands can do to something fragile?
- Dallas Beltway, Remove Your Skin Please (2019)
This can't be real life. If I could just push things back ten minutes, this wouldn't have happened. I would have never come here.
- Anywhere, God's Country (2022)
Back then, I was a believer, a dreamer. I got nothing now.
- No Way Out, Cool World (2024)
I'll toast to my friend while time allows, 'cause I loved you then, and I love you now.
- A Tear for Lucas, In The Earth Again (2025)
During the tail-end of the absolute worst decade of my life, Chat Pile released an album called God's Country in 2022 and it honestly helped me pull through it all. From start to finish, I fell in love with the album, their sound, the lyrics, all of it. I became an instant fan. So, I've kept looping God's Country forever since then, binged all of their other previous releases, got hyped up for singles and hella hyped for Cool World and In The Earth Again. And now, I'm hyped for Who Loves The Sun coming out in September this year, which is what inspired me to make this shrine.
I saw them live in 2023 at in and saw Stin. I didn't talk to him, I just saw him there by the merch table, where I then promptly spent $200 lol. I managed to get to the front of the venue and saw all of them up close, but because I was so close to the stage (like literally up against it), all I could hear for the whole set was Stin's bass, which was fine. I cried heavy during Pamela. I'm a fan of the Friday the 13th series, but I'm not a parent. In particular, the lyrics about unfathomable rage and just waiting to die really hit hard for me during that time and at the concert, which happened about a year after I escaped from that horrible situation. Also!!!!!!!! At the concert I shouted I love you at them and they said it back <3 and it really just made my entire life, seeing them live, hearing that song live. Absolutely cathartic.
Through Chat Pile, I discovered more music I liked through their record label, The Flenser. The most notable bands (for me) are Crippling Alcoholism, Have a Nice Life (whom I've been a fan of before discovering Chat Pile but didn't know they were signed by the same record label), Mamaleek, Street Sects and Uboa. And I'm sure I'll find even more as time goes on.
I just really feel the desire to write about some of my favorite songs, themes, sounds and lyrics. Nothing in particular order, only thoughts.
The first one that comes to mind immediately is Shame. This is the 2nd track featured on Cool World and once again I cried to a Chat Pile song. If it isn't clear, the lyrics directly speak to the tragedy of Gaza and the ongoing genocide there. Though they said themselves that it could also be taken as a general statement for anti-war (the whole album actually), it moved me greatly to see and hear a band I care about speak out about issues that I also care about. Especially from a bunch of white guys from the South.
On that same album, there's also the 6th track called Tape. Lyrically this also speaks volumes, but I want to give my (perhaps inaccurate) interpretation. The band has stated (same link above) that Tape is about bearing witness to horrific deaths online, on your regular clear web social media feed, no filter. Only the line, "if I could, I'd kill them all", for me, is just that all too distinct feeling of helplessness in the face of the foul monsters that control our political scape, our country and our role in the atrocities around the globe. Because if it were so easy as to merely wipe their existence away to save us... who wouldn't? Nothing is easy though and to defeat an overpowering enemy takes guts, countless acts of effort, collaberation and... everything, really.
Needless to say, I like that Chat Pile isn't afraid to let their stance be known, when they certainly could have just been like many others that ignore shit. The closing track on Cool World is a banger which also speaks directly to how I've felt many times in my life. And then there's God's Country. Slaughterhouse, the opening track, was the first song I heard from them, and when they played it live, yeah I was that annoying fucko scream-singing along to it the whole way through. Track 7, musically, scratches a very deep ear itch, particularly at 1 minute and 28 seconds in. I really like that they don't shy away from dark subject matter, real issues that regular people like you (probably?) and me have seen or faced ourselves.
Well, I know if you're a fan and you kept reading through my scattered thought vomit, you might have been curious if I would write about my experience with Grimace_smoking_weed.jpeg. I tried to make a sample out of for a song lol. That's too advanced for a novice like me to make it work though. The rawness of how it's spoken and how I can relate to the feelings of despair is why I like that track. And, well, it's fun to sing too. Unfortunately, they did not play that song live at the venue I went to. And I was most definitely looking forward to hearing Raygun scream GRIMAAAACEE 3':
At some point in the future, after Who Loves The Sun releases, I'll come back here with an additional section to ramble about my thoughts about it.
