Who Loves the Sun, the new album by Chat Pile may have been my most anticipated album of 2026. The band's three previous albums, including last year's collaborative album with Hayden Pedigo, all earned the number one slots on my personal best of the year lists. So obviously, my expectations were high, and I am thrilled that I've had the opportunity to listen to an early review copy. Does it live up to expectations? Read on to find out. 

As I wrote about in my recent exploration of Chat Pile’s catalog, the band has, in its relatively short existence, established itself as a group that’s unafraid to take chances and push itself in unexpected directions. After the critically acclaimed debut album God’s Country, the members of Chat Pile could have contented themselves as the compassionate voice of red state America. That album, particularly on tracks like “Why?” and “Slaughterhouse,” felt like distinctly American horror stories. Cool World explored more global evils like the devastation unfolding in the Gaza Strip (“Shame”) but still felt centered on the tragedies of life in the United States in the 21^st century. The song “Funny Man” is about “the USA grinding the poorest families in our country to fucking dust every generation,” according to singer Raygun Busch. “Masc” explores the deeply American idea of toxic masculinity and how it forces men to greet their feelings with suspicion and self-loathing. Who Loves the Sun broadens the scope out towards a more all-encompassing look at the terrors of the world globally in 2026. It is a paranoid and apocalyptic record that could almost be read as a concept album about people who are forced to work thankless, menial jobs while the world crumbles into ruin. That subject should feel relevant to anyone experiencing *gestures broadly at everything* you know, all of this. 

Given Chat Pile’s excellence at sketching out specific, relatable stories of darkness and injustice, some may feel initially at sea withWho Loves the Sun, which deals in much more abstract concepts. Many songs dabble in more obtuse and ominous imagery than the band’s previous work. The opening track, “Creature,” features a chorus that reads as a world in ruins: “On every creature / Led to slaughter / Every city / Underwater.” In the lead single, “Deep Blue,” the narrator is living amongst devastation but still has things to do: “Landfill has crept into our home / Demons are dancing in the halls of empty domes / Washed away beneath the chemical dirt / Might be a bug now but I still gotta get to work”. Similarly sinister lyrics play out over the course of the entire album. 

Who Loves the Sun, however, does have its more grounded moments. The awkwardly titled “PEN I S MALL” is the heaviest song on the album and perhaps in the band’s entire catalog. It is also, I would argue, the single best song that the band has produced to date. Not only is in a new direction for the band sonically, with its full-throated embrace of true metal heaviness, but lyrically it may be the single best distillation of the band’s perspective and philosophy. On the surface, it’s a story about Raygun’s soul-crushing experiences working a dead-end job, but a few seemingly simple lines reveal a much deeper meaning: “It’s time to jerk off under the stairs again / It’s time to get high in the parking garage / Greg dreams about owning a Harley / Greg and Ray live under the same boot”. 

That’s an incredibly economical way to paint a vivid picture. The world is ugly, but we’re all trying to cope with it the only ways that are available to us. And no matter where you are in the hierarchy, there’s always someone oppressing you from above. But rather than greeting that oppressor with hostility, you should understand that they’re victims of the same system as you. When we can all see that we have the same struggles, then perhaps we can find a way forward together.

Lyrically, the rest of the album after “PEN I S MALL” is more obscure – the entire back half of the record in particular has a David Lynchian, nightmarish vibe. Earlier Chat Pile records focused on the end-of-the-line manifestations of human cruelty, but Who Loves the Sun is more focused on the very nature of evil itself. While the lyrics may be more cryptic, sonically the album sees the band stretching further than ever before. "Same Rules" is the band at moodiest, with a stalking bass line, stabbing guitar, and some of Raygun's most haunting vocals. “Intruder” opens with an almost Talking Heads-esque jangling guitar, adds in repetitive, chanting backing vocals provided by the band Nightosphere, swerves into perhaps the band’s most explicitly nu metal territory ever, and ends with some big, catchy, indie rock riffs. It’s quite the journey but it works. The closing track, “October All the Time,” sounds so much like Leaving Meaning-era Swans that I had to create the chintzy Simpsons meme below.

The latter half of the album also contains a second appearance by Nightosphere (“Influence”) and a return collaboration with guitarist Hayden Pedigo on “Family Funeral.” “Christabel ‘26” seems destined for Halloween playlists everywhere, with its haunting repetition of “All they really need / every drop of blood”. Collectively, it is a dark and blood-drenched journey into a world of skulls and suffering. But, as always with Chat Pile, the most terrifying things are the most human. “I never wanted to be in love / Awful thing, dreadful thing” Raygun sings on “Family Funeral.”

Who Loves the Sun is an excellent but challenging record from a challenging band. When they first burst onto the scene, tracks like “Why?” tackled dark situations but also suggested solutions – there are people with no place to live, and we have empty buildings all around us. This record shows us the darkness and presents no straightforward answers. In fact, there are no answers at all. But that isn't nihilism, that's trust. Remember, Greg and Ray live under the same boot. We all do. 

The world of Who Loves the Sun is our world. 

We are all in the darkness together. Together, we will find a way out. 

Chat Pile’s Who Loves the Sun is out September 4th via The Flenser.