Chat Pile – Cool World

★★★☆

Released October 11th, 2024 on The Flenser

A chat pile, as it turns out, is a pile of mining leftovers, mainly zinc and lead. They are highly toxic. In Picher, OK, these chat piles did things like afflict 35% of the town’s children with lead poisoning. Chat piles are a remnant of human industry, and a reminder of the corrosive nature of our civilization’s progress.

Chat Pile, the band, are from Oklahoma and have seen the impact that their band’s namesake have had. Cool World, their second album, is as corrosive as a chat pile. The guitars etch across the soundscape like acid. The drums rattle the earth and cause structures to collapse in their wake. The vocals seethe with the frustration of a world that promises much and delivers little. As far as noise rock records go, Cool World gets high marks. It’s reminiscent of METZ, but the bombast isn’t quite as overwhelming. Chat Pile are better at keeping things dynamic- there are layers to these piles of sludge.

That’s not to say that there isn’t a certain level of sonic oppression at play here. I kept thinking that Albini produced this – it certainly approaches his style of production. Part of that, however, is likely due to the drum/guitar interplay on tracks like “Funny Man.” It is strongly reminiscent of Nirvana’s heaviest moment, “Scentless Apprentice” (itself a rip of a song from Slint’s overlooked first record), which of course leads directly into thinking of the late great producer.

In terms of vibes, Chat Pile definitely meet the contemporary moment. The band says that dread has replaced the American Dream, and they certainly make a strong case for that over the course of Cool World. These are songs that delve closely to the everyday violence that we make space for in our lives. The title is sarcastic, in the same vein as that old Twitter joke: we are now entering the era that historians refer to as the cool zone. Cool to read about; less cool to live through. At least the soundtrack is pretty good.

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