Review by Shadowdoom9 (Andi) for Chat Pile - Cool World (2024)
Taking its name from a Who Framed Roger Rabbit-inspired live-action/animated film from 1992, the second album by Chat Pile, Cool World takes through our world's reality of violence and decay. I say the music is cool while the world itself is not. Their noise-ridden sludge/alt-metal sound is something worth listening to, remembering the toxicity of different places while staying safely in your home...
Since 2019, the band consisting of vocalist Raygun Busch, guitarist Luther Manhole, bassist Stin, and drummer Cap'n Ron have taken on a journey full of songs ranging from minimalistic to anthemic. In Cool World, you can hear the noise-ridden sludge/alt-metal in full force with elements of goth and industrial within these grooves.
Opening track "I Am Dog Now" has a brief ambient intro before the crushing riff rolls through as Busch yells the track's title, "I AM DOG NOW!" (I prefer to be a cat, I'm a cat person). There are some Today is the Vibes around here. Busch imagines himself to be an uncaged animal yet having "nowhere to go at all". Then "Shame" shines more interestingly with soft grunge melancholy, as Busch sings "And the world was quaking open, with all our fathers smiling". The bridge contradicts that motive with brutal death growls. Beating through "Frownland" is some groovy industrial bass. "Funny Man" has similar lyrical themes to the previous tracks with lyrics like "the blood of my sons is just a new beginning". It gets close to nu/groove metal territory, maybe even a bit of rap metal, while obviously not going the Limp Bizkit route. "Not evеryone gets to hide."
"Camcorder" sounds a bit out of line and stretchy in this attempt at a 6-minute epic. At least I can give the earth-breaking outro some good points. After that, "Tape" is more gothic-ish in the clean singing while the shouts are never compromised. "The New World" is the track that has everything to expect in an album like this one; beauty and brutality, sounding both accessible and not, all in its f***ing glory. The lyrics are so intriguing despite its bleak darkness, "I couldn't take on the weight of existence, I couldn't watch them execute my friends".
"Masc" heads back into the earlier catchiness. "Milk of Human Kindness" allows you to walk this world that would make you feel confident while losing hope at the same time, and apparently, Busch "screamed about it all night". The last bit of killer destruction appears in "No Way Out", reaching a climatic height as Busch's let out his final cries of "NO ESCAPE! NO WAY OUT!!!"
In a world that was once made for us to live but now has taken a backwards turn in that objective, Chat Pile's shall have listeners' ears opened to its sound and the horrors of the world while turning away from it. Goodbye, cruel world, and hello, Cool World....
Favorites: "I Am Dog Now", "Shame", "Funny Man", "The New World", "No Way Out"