“In Guitar Center, people would think I was playing for the first time – but I promise you, my band makes better music than 80% of them”: Meet Chat Pile, the sludge metallers shouting down the “tone lords” and “goobers” ruining guitar culture

Chat Pile.

Named after the toxic gravel heaps left by mining lead, Chat Pile formed in 2019 to spawn music no less ugly and imposing. Their 2022 debut God’s Country captured the bleakness of Midwest life through atmospheric and dissonant noise rock, while their sophomore album Cool World looks at the interconnected nature of global violence.

Whether playing a bone-rattling blend of noise-rock, sludge and nu-metal, country songs on horror soundtracks, or covers of Sepultura, RATM and Nirvana, Chat Pile always sound like themselves. Bassist Stin and guitarist Luther Manhole agree that their quintessential riff is Rat Boy – a frantic run in an asymmetrical yet pummeling time signature – nicknamed The Spider Song due to the riff’s crazy fingering.