Throughout parts of the mid-western United States lie towering mounds of the waste residue
from early 20th Century lead mining operations. Comprised of what is known as “chat,” these
hills of toxic, metallic dust dot the countryside as if they were headstones for communities
destroyed by industrialization such as Picher, Oklahoma. These effigies would come to be the
namesake for the Oklahoma based band, Chat Pile, whose grotesque and pummeling brand of
noise rock has managed to terrorize listeners worldwide in only a matter of months.

Intent on raising as much havoc as possible, Chat Pile was spawned from the bowels of the
OKC underground music scene in February of 2019. Consisting of Raygun Busch (vocals),
Luther Manhole (Guitars), Stin (Bass), and Captain Ron (Drums), the quartet brings with them a
sludgy and starkly nihilistic take on noise rock. Channeling everything from the oppressive
sludgy beat downs of Godflesh, the vulgar absurdity of The Jesus Lizard, and the rebellious,
post-modern experimentation of Sonic Youth, the works of Chat Pile are bleak, brutal and
genuinely terrifying.

Few bands have a level of self-understanding as Chat Pile. Despite the infancy of the project,
Chat Pile continues to be a standout among the sea of D.I.Y. music projects to come out in
recent memory. Their brand of crass, crushing, and poignantly cynical noise rock fills an
otherwise unaccounted for niche in today’s underground music landscape.

– Evan Mester/Yer Scene

A real big rock band from Kansas City, MO.

Sophomore LP ‘CASH’ is out now via The Ghost is Clear Records & Knife Hits Records.

What’s in a name? Calling your band Empire State Bastard is a statement-of-intent: riff after motherfucking riff, battering ram rhythms and feral vocals from death metal growls to black-hearted howls. The band: Simon Neil (Biffy Clyro) + Mike Vennart (Oceansize, Biffy live guitarist), probe almost every dark crevice imaginable of metal and genre-adjacent extremity.

The pair would spend downtime on tour sharing the heaviest, most avant-garde or confrontational music they found. When embarking on their own sonic wasteland, Simon already had the band name, leaving Mike with a particularly grotesque challenge: what music could he write to live up to it?
The result: “a spectrum of wide-ranging versions of pure sonic annihilation. I’d written songs which didn’t directly relate to each other, but I like to think they all make friends with each other.” Simon’s contribution to ESB is almost exclusively vocals: his voice more varied than ever, from shrieks and gasps to guttural death growls.

Underpinning the duo is a drum performance akin to a runaway train, pulverising and grooving in equal measure. Mike programmed the initial drums, but the pair had a dilemma – who can play like Slayer legend Dave Lombardo? Simon’s solution? “Let’s just ask Dave fucking Lombardo!” He quickly accepted.

So what’s in a name? Simon coined it, Mike defined it: “I set about making the most fucking poisonous vile music I possibly could, just unabridged hatred in musical form.” That’s Empire State Bastard.