Sludge and noise rock can be an acquired taste, when it’s done well it’s an all-encompassing blast of pure primordial toxicity, when it’s done badly it can not only a chore to listen too, it can actually be painful (in all the wrong ways). So there’s Chat Pile, an Oklahoma based band who do it very well indeed.
Ramping up the dissonance, brutality and suffocating atmosphere while also increasing a sense of poignancy and grim acceptance within their music Cool World is their second studio album and reflects their view on how the American dream is dead and only the void remains. Named after and written for the 90’s film of the same name, where Roger Rabbit met L.A Confidential, Chat Pile is brimming with as much disgust and confusion as the critics had about that film.
The entire album is built upon the bass, it’s an ever present throbbing heart, like a serial killer just out of shot, slowly engulfing you in the thick molten grooves until you sink into a blackened deep below. The mix of Ben Greenberg, the first time Chat Pile have entrusted their work to an outside influence, is off-kilter, angular and treats each song as its own piece of performance art, it can be jarring if you’re listening to it on speakers as it fades in and out of fuzzy warmth, brittle sparsity and dissonant white noise.
The entire album is built upon the bass, it’s an ever present throbbing heart, like a serial killer just out of shot, slowly engulfing you in the thick molten grooves until you sink into a blackened deep below. The mix of Ben Greenberg, the first time Chat Pile have entrusted their work to an outside influence, is off-kilter, angular and treats each song as its own piece of performance art, it can be jarring if you’re listening to it on speakers as it fades in and out of fuzzy warmth, brittle sparsity and dissonant white noise.
It’s very unlike any other record you’ll hear this year, from a purely engineering standpoint. Musically Chat Pile take that approach to, building on their concrete foundations of sludge/noise with ferocious hardcore, jangling indie and downbeat post metal, tracks such as The New World inviting controversy as they deal with the overall concept of anger and conflict, while Masc elevates post punk with a math rock twitchiness.
Cool World is an experience, not a comfortable experience I give you, but an almost vital one. Like a restricted release thriller only in the artiest of arthouses, Chat Pile invite you to experience the not so cool world around you with their audio exsanguination. 9/10
Bedsore - Dreaming The Strife For Love (20 Buck Spin) [Rich Piva]
OK I grabbed this record to review based on the boss’ description in the promo folder, which was “1970s Prog Psych Rock”. Of course I took this, but in the back of my mind I knew I had heard of this band before, but let it go until I dug into the six tracks on the new record from Rome’s Bedsore, Dreaming The Strife For Love.
For those who feel like prog is not exciting and needs some edge, Dreaming The Strife For Love is the remedy for what’s got you down. This is less an album and more of a prog/death symphony and is the most unique record I have heard all year. Great stuff, even if it is way out of my normal wheelhouse. 9/10
Wolvencrown - Celestial Lands (Avantgarde Music) [Matt Bladen]
Nottingham atmospheric black metal act Wolvencrown retun after 5 years in the wilderness with their second album Celestial Lands. Many of the songs here have been a part of their live set for a couple of years now so, these are I presume the definitive versions, the ones that they will play going forward and rightly so as the songs on this record improve the entire Wolvencrown presentation massively. A band who have always leaned on the atmospheric synth-driven side of the black metal spectrum, Celestial Lands evokes the likes of Wolves In The Throne Room, Winterfylleth, or are own Ofnus.
Insistent blasts of glacial black metal punching holes in the elongated keyboard passages that create the dreamlike atmospheres, witnessed in the Prelude and Interlude, giving a foundation to all of the labyrinthine tracks on Celestial Lands. Their music, like Winterfylleth, Saor and others is inspired by the natural world, how man has affected it for the worse, from the melodic pangs on The Path Of Life or the full bore blasting of Angered Spirits Leave The Wilderness, there’s an ever-present synth beneath the surface as blast beats, trem picking and raw vocal screams, the epic Until The End using a piano to underscore the emotion as the title track brings a kind of catharsis from the repeating riff and harmonised guitars.
Cool World is an experience, not a comfortable experience I give you, but an almost vital one. Like a restricted release thriller only in the artiest of arthouses, Chat Pile invite you to experience the not so cool world around you with their audio exsanguination. 9/10
Bedsore - Dreaming The Strife For Love (20 Buck Spin) [Rich Piva]
OK I grabbed this record to review based on the boss’ description in the promo folder, which was “1970s Prog Psych Rock”. Of course I took this, but in the back of my mind I knew I had heard of this band before, but let it go until I dug into the six tracks on the new record from Rome’s Bedsore, Dreaming The Strife For Love.
Now the band name does not exactly evoke the description in the folder, but the first few minutes of Minerva’s Obelisque, the opening track, does, with its keys, weird tempo changes, Yes-like guitar work, and Floyd-eque female background vocals. I think I even hear some sax in the mix. Well, after those six-plus minutes the weirdness continues on Scars Of Light, but now is when I figured out that this Bedsore is the same Bedsore on 20 Buck Spin. So, add “Death” maybe even “Blackened” at the end of the “1970s Prog Psych Rock”. Hear me out though, because it is awesome. Yes, track two sounds like 70’s Prog with a death metal singer, but holy shit how those keys work with those growls (I hear some flute too!).
It is like a weird death metal opera. I am in way over my head reviewing this record, so let’s just say the epic A Colossus, An Elephant, A Winged Horse; The Dragon Rendezvous, otherwise known as track three, is like nothing you have ever heard before and leave it at that. OK, maybe a bit more to say, given that this is almost 12 minutes of just about any genre you could throw into a heavy music pot and simmer on low for, like, decades. I especially love it around the four-minute mark where the prog and death interlock again.
Realm Of Eleuterillide brings some seriously cool keys and more of the heavy-ass prog goodness with some really hard turns tempo-wise, but when it rips it destroys. Spooky church organ opens up the more reasonably sized Fanfare For A Heartfelt Love which is weird and wonderful and fits perfectly in the mix amongst the super-sized pieces that make up the record. Fountain Of Venus is an epic psych/prog closer, acting as a final act to this bonkers production.
For those who feel like prog is not exciting and needs some edge, Dreaming The Strife For Love is the remedy for what’s got you down. This is less an album and more of a prog/death symphony and is the most unique record I have heard all year. Great stuff, even if it is way out of my normal wheelhouse. 9/10
Wolvencrown - Celestial Lands (Avantgarde Music) [Matt Bladen]
Nottingham atmospheric black metal act Wolvencrown retun after 5 years in the wilderness with their second album Celestial Lands. Many of the songs here have been a part of their live set for a couple of years now so, these are I presume the definitive versions, the ones that they will play going forward and rightly so as the songs on this record improve the entire Wolvencrown presentation massively. A band who have always leaned on the atmospheric synth-driven side of the black metal spectrum, Celestial Lands evokes the likes of Wolves In The Throne Room, Winterfylleth, or are own Ofnus.
Insistent blasts of glacial black metal punching holes in the elongated keyboard passages that create the dreamlike atmospheres, witnessed in the Prelude and Interlude, giving a foundation to all of the labyrinthine tracks on Celestial Lands. Their music, like Winterfylleth, Saor and others is inspired by the natural world, how man has affected it for the worse, from the melodic pangs on The Path Of Life or the full bore blasting of Angered Spirits Leave The Wilderness, there’s an ever-present synth beneath the surface as blast beats, trem picking and raw vocal screams, the epic Until The End using a piano to underscore the emotion as the title track brings a kind of catharsis from the repeating riff and harmonised guitars.
The UK is rapidly becoming a go to region for this atmospheric, mystical, cinematic black metal sound and Wolvencrown deliver a brilliant offering with their second album. 8/10
The Gates Of Slumber - The Gates Of Slumber (Svart Records) [Rich Piva]
The Gates Of Slumber have been slinging there version of traditional doom to us since 1998 straight out of Indianapolis, with a break in the middle, reforming part time in 2018 or so with a very well received reunion tour until the pandemic put an end to any more plans for the band. Main man Karl Simon had a plan though, and the culmination of that plan is album number six from the band and their first since 2011, the self-titled The Gates Of Slumber. These guys are doom legends, so listen and learn.
Slow and heavy, this is traditional doom at its finest given to us by experts in the genre.
The Gates Of Slumber - The Gates Of Slumber (Svart Records) [Rich Piva]
The Gates Of Slumber have been slinging there version of traditional doom to us since 1998 straight out of Indianapolis, with a break in the middle, reforming part time in 2018 or so with a very well received reunion tour until the pandemic put an end to any more plans for the band. Main man Karl Simon had a plan though, and the culmination of that plan is album number six from the band and their first since 2011, the self-titled The Gates Of Slumber. These guys are doom legends, so listen and learn.
Slow and heavy, this is traditional doom at its finest given to us by experts in the genre.
Embrace The Lie is slow, plodding, heavy doom with cool vocals and slow, meandering riffs. We Are Perdition leads with some heavy and looming bass with more riffs and the perfect combination of pace and heaviness. Love the solos on this one. There is nothing pleasant of happy on this record, as it should be. Full Moon Fever in not a Tom Petty cover, but it is killer, with the most up-tempo pace on the record, reminding me a bit of something from Curse The Son, which would be a great touring match up. I got legit scared around the 2:30 mark where I think a werewolf ate someone but I am not totally sure. At Dawn brings a riff that reminds me of Cathedral and is probably my favourite track on the record.
This one could hang with any trad doom song that has dropped this year. Great stuff. The one-two punch of the last two tracks, The Fog And The Plague are a great way to end the record with fourteen minutes of straight up doom goodness. The Gates Of Slumber sound great on their return record. The band is tight and the production is spot on. These guys could teach some of the new bands out there a thing or two about what makes a traditional doom record stand out amongst the masses of band bringing the heavy today. A solid return to form after such a very long wait for The Gates Of Slumber. 7/10
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