Pile have announced their new album, All Fiction, with a video for its eruptive lead single “Loops.” On their eighth record, the ambitious group assembles its most texturally complex material yet—despite the fraught inspiration underscoring its restive lyrics. Alongside the blistering drums and scorched-earth riffs that first galvanized Pile’s dedicated fanbase, the band has incorporated elegiac strings, mystifying vocal corrosions, and haunting synths.

“Loops” finds Rick Maguire questioning his motives as a songwriter, scrutinizing the border between his lived experiences and the stressors he sings about. “Throughout most of Pile’s existence, I’ve used songwriting as a means to work through personal issues and to express uncomfortable feelings in what I’ve perceived to be a healthy form of processing emotions. While doing this I’ve also been working hard to create a career in writing music,” Maguire explains. “The song ‘Loops’ is about the confusion I’ve experienced in the place where those two roads meet, and reflecting on whether what I’m creating is for personal growth or for personal gain has ended up leading to more questions than answers.”

All Fiction is an ornate, carefully paced study on the subjectivity of perception, the data-shaping despotism of big tech, and the connections between anxiety and death. In its most vital moments, it’s also a resolute recommitment to the restorative significance of art and imagination.

All Fiction is available for pre-order now and due February 17th via Exploding In Sound.

Photo Courtesy: Emme Rovins