Boston’s Pile’s new album ‘You’re Better Than This’ finds the four-piece once again joining the dots between Fugazi’s DIY punk, the down-tuned sludge of Shellac and arty otherworldliness of Slint. It’s an alchemy that made their last release, 2012’s ‘Dripping’, a masterpiece in blunt force trauma post-hardcore, and is honed to moody perfection on this fourth full-length. Guitars clank like junkyard wrecking machines, drums are pummelled mercilessly while frontman Rick Maguire howls angrily into the ether. Its lighter moments, such as acoustic instrumental ‘Fuck The Police’ and paranoid, strummed slow-burner ‘Hot Breath’, caress more tenderly than last time around, while their jagged bursts of aggression are more even more brutish than before, pushed into horror movie soundtrack territory by torturous stabs of distorted guitar on the vicious ‘#2 Single’. The result’s a chiaroscuro rock nightmare you’ll never want to wake from: a record that devastates both emotionally and physically. ‘You’re Better Than This’? It doesn’t get much better than this.
‘The World Is Your Motel’ is the album’s blistering opener, underlining in fierce, bludgeoning tones why Pile are so vital. Give it a listen below. ‘You’re Better Than This’ is released on March 3 via Fierce Panda, with UK shows on the horizon in May. Till then, ‘Dripping’ is available on their Bandcamp: If the solo on ‘Prom Song’ doesn’t make you break out into a fit of air-guitar, there’s something medically wrong with you.