Review Summary: An unlikely collaboration that comes together to create a meaningful album, worthy of standing by itself
Band collaborations are nothing new. The novelty of two artists coming together has proven a boon for artists reach and creativity ever since RUN DMC started rapping alongside Aerosmith, but usually you expect most collabs to offer something new or interesting. Chat Pile is a noise rock/ sludge outfit that has teamed up with neo-Americana acoustic guitarist Hayden Pedigo creating an album that plays to both artist's strengths to do just that. It's worth noting that neither of the two acts is a stranger to experimenting with other bands or their own sound in the past, be it with Chat Pile's own splits and the soundtrack to "Tenkiller" or Hayden playing alongside members of This Heat or Faust. What ultimately makes this joint venture so enrapturing is the passion and homeliness of each act's representation in the areas they live. Pedigo's work has always revolved around the life of growing up in Amarillo,Texas just as Chat Pile's work has revolved around the desolate feeling of urban Oklahoma. Both are very good at creating sounds that are identifiable with their place of residence. There is always a sense of bittersweet love for the places they have lived in and alongside their family and friends, a feeling that makes "In the Earth Again" emerge as a more heartfelt work for a band like Chat Pile whose work usually feels satirical or derisive. Hayden Pedigo also has the advantage of vocals playing along with his intricate finger work leading to a fulfilling collaboration for the two acts.
The album starts with soothing guitar plucking mimicking the title of "Outside" giving a calm feeling as if out on a front porch as the sun sets and the crickets come out to play their own songs. The slow guitar work of Pedigo continues into "Demon Time" before Raygun begins to drawl out words in his monotone stupor of demons returning to a world on fire, low and slow power chords striking behind his words. It all feels like a lead into the much more aggressive "No Time To Die", a first act crescendo with haunting vocals, manic cries, and an all too somber feeling of playing to the damnation of a dying world and being left behind in it. It sounds like a mission statement for the album, and a worthy song for the anguish Raygun is so good at conveying while maintaining a traditional song structure. Songs like "Fission/Fusion" and "Behold a Pale Horse" are slow and intimate affairs, showing off the interplay of Pedigo's tender sound against a more doom-tinged Chat Pile. "The Magic of the World" almost feels like a duet between Raygun and Pedigo as the harmonic strings flutter to a more earnest, genuine Raygun creating an endearing soliloquy. "The Matador" feels like the cap to a second act of a play, an immensely loud and lumbering track at almost eight minutes in length, slowly building into an energy akin to "No Time To Die" only with the fury Chat Pile excels at on their own albums. There's little comfort found on the track before Hayden Pedigo answers with his own blunt in "I Got My Own Blunt to Smoke". The two songs feel like they could be their own split and feel very much like each artists' respective style of song, but fill in well on the narrative the album is pushing.
The last act of the song feels the most focused and most evident of what the collaboration could achieve. Pedigo explained in an interview that he wanted to achieve something akin to Swans where he could shed beauty and levity to the doom and gloom of Chat Pile's usual MO. They work so well together on Radioactive Dreams, the album begins to morph into a eulogy of all the people that couldn't join you anymore on your journey, and you miss them so much you wish you could just join them back in the Earth again. The instrumental "Inside" is the end of the road when the crows come home to roost, ultimately leading to the most vulnerable track on the album. "A Tear for Lucas" is one of the very few tracks powerful enough to make you feel the loss of someone you don't even know. I get choked up as I can hear Raygun get that lump in his throat, struggling to eek out his words. You can hear his emotions so plainly in the song, it's so affecting to the listener to the point i think it usurps entertainment and becomes something more worthwhile. I adore Chat Pile's solo work but have no reservations saying it is the most powerful song they've created all from an eclectic collaboration with Hayden Pedigo.
"In The Earth Again" is not a flawless or accessible album, it's actually a bit peculiar in a way I think will turn quite a few people off, especially if you just expected more bangers from Chat Pile. It's a dour and depressing album full of personal matter that would be considered inappropriate to mosh to under circumstances. It's a bleak reminder of where we are and who we were with, who we can't see anymore because they can't be with us in one way or another. It's a feeling of burying yourself to be with the ones you know are only with you in memory. It's a work of art born from two artists that could only come about from building relationships in music and all the love that it entails.
