Sometimes you hear a band that shatters your mind, and the latest to do that to us is chest. The post-punk act from Paris found themselves on NME’s 100 to 2025 list, following a string of mammoth singles, and will be taking that enthusiasm on tour with DITZ. Today, they release All Good Things End, a debut EP that feels less like an introduction and more like a boot to the face.
On this month’s Peeled Back, we had the pleasure to discuss All Good Things End with the band, as well as dig a little deeper into their three-sound-engineer-strong lineup, and how that helped create a sound that pushes the boundaries. The EP is a brutal onslaught of noise, and is very unforgiving when it comes to delivering that sound, but there’s also a desire to get things moving too. With a deep set of grooves embedded inside this beast that makes it move fast as much as it hits hard.
Hello chest. How’s it going? We’re all good thanks!
Your debut EP, All Good Things End is out now. What can you tell us about it? We’ve only played our first gig in April 2024 and since then it’s been basically non stop. We’re all quite impatient people and we write songs quite quickly together so we wanted to release material as soon as we could. So I would say that “All good things end” is a summary of our first year as a band (but hopefully it won’t end too soon!)
With three of you being sound engineers, did that make perfecting the production easier? and to touch on it now, the production quality is excellent. Every instrument and vocal sounds so distinct and brutal. How were you able to achieve that? To be honest it makes everything easier. Thanks to that and the fact our rehearsal space can be used for recording, It means that from the first idea of a song we can record stuff and work it out from there. It also means that we’re pretty much self sufficient, we were able to record, mix and master the whole EP by ourselves. We recorded the whole thing in our drummer’s (Thibault) living room.
Your sound is one that’s raw and has a lot of intensity, but also has a part that’s groovy. Was that something you wanted to establish from the start? I think ‘Men At The End’ illustrates the two styles best. It wasn’t a conscious sort of thing. We’re quite impulsive as a band and we do a lot of writing without thinking too far ahead. We just do stuff that we think sounds good. We like songs that have different feelings within them, I guess it just comes through naturally.
A lot of the lyrical themes heard seem to depict somebody who’s conflicted, and quite defeatist in their thoughts. What can you tell us about these themes? Elliot’s lyrics usually have some political element to them and seeing the state the whole world seems to be in at the moment there will of course be conflict and defeatism in his lyrics. Although I don’t quite agree as I also think there is hope in the lyrics too, it’s more about trying to speak to people who maybe feel as pessimistic as he does about certain things and trying to find some light in that.
Chest. do not ease up from the second the drum beats hit on the first seconds of the title track. The lyrics are depicted as twisted and hopeless, yet come with a sense of hope that perhaps somewhere, light will begin to flood this individual. Musically, the band pick the best elements of Post-Punk, Punk and Noise Rock and filter them through a machine that stomps about, but also has a hinge that makes it a little catchy too. You cannot deny how quickly ‘Self Sabotage’ hits the hips. Enough to catch you off guard from the sheer volume of single ‘Blood On Your Doorstep’.
I wanted to highlight ‘Song 008’ from the EP, as it stands out from the other songs with its more melodic and slower approach. Was it a song that came about early in the songwriting process? It came about quite late to be honest. Originally it was just one of the many small ideas we have that come from throwing ideas around and one day we started trying it out all together and it all came really quickly: the textures, the slower tempo, the more melodic singing, they all just fell into place.
It’s been stated that you look to refresh the genre rather than revisit it. Does that mean we could expect to hear further boundaries pushed, and different directions explored on future releases? Yeah definitely. A lot of the songs we’re writing at the moment have a much more dance-y element to them, I think in the future we want our shows to feel more like massive parties where people occasionally mosh pit.
Who have you been listening to lately? We’re all listening to a lot of different things but these days we’re really into Adult DVD, the 113, PALES, Moonpols and Van Houten.
And finally, what’s your favourite fruit? Really really moldy bananas.
All Good Things End is fantastic and one of the best EPs we’ve heard this year. chest. might already be receiving enough praise, but this little blog that’s obsessed with oranges also likes them too, and we implore you to check them out if you haven’t done so already.
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If you enjoyed this article, feel free to have a read of last month’s Peeled Back with NYC band partygirl, where we discuss their newest single ‘fine fine fine’, and talk about their upcoming album.
‘Blood On Your Doorstep’ was included in our Dead Good Noise playlist.