Chat Pile

Chat Pile take their name from the heaps of lead-zinc mining waste that turned the Oklahoma town of Picher into one of America's most toxic ghost towns, which tells you most of what you need to know about the four-piece's disposition. Formed in Oklahoma City in 2019, the band builds its sound from grinding riffs, distended bass, and the unhinged shouting of vocalist Raygun Busch, who writes about pain inflicted by others and oneself with a specificity most bands avoid. Their 2022 debut God's Country drew near-unanimous critical acclaim, and 2024's Cool World widened the lens to disasters at home and abroad without softening the assault. The members perform under pseudonyms, a habit that began as a way to keep their day-job employers from learning what they did at night. Loosely filed under noise rock and sludge metal, the music resists a single label, borrowing from industrial, post-hardcore, and nu-metal grooves in roughly equal measure.