Baltimore’s Angel Du$t have jumped between genres for each release, but ‘COLD 2 THE TOUCH’ shows them at their most intense.

Stream: ‘COLD 2 THE TOUCH’ – Angel Du$t

Even if you put a hardcore kid in an indie band, he’s still a hardcore kid.

While there’s always been more experimental flanks within the scene, the past few years have seen certain bands rising out of their genre confines with more melodic music that’s akin to Oasis or Death Cab for Cutie than Madball or Terror. We’ve seen one act rise to a borderline household name, winning a Grammy. Still, you can feel the roots that these bands grew from the other bands they tour with, their posturing, and in their live shows, which usually still have crowds two-stepping and stage-diving. Angel Du$t manage to flex both their hardcore credentials and their alternative-inspirations in their new record COLD 2 THE TOUCH (out now via Run for Cover Records).

Baltimore’s Angel Du$t is the more experimental ground for vocalist and founder Justice Tripp. Where his original band Trapped Under Ice plays hardcore punk at the top of their game, Angel Du$t has always felt like the space where Tripp could spread out and do whatever he wants. Yes, records like A.D. or Rock the F**k On Forever were punk albums, but there are some major curveballs in their discography. Pretty Buff leans towards jangling power-pop that could’ve played at a major festival. Yak: A Collection of Truck Songs is a whimsical take on folk punk, with just a touch of that stomp-clap sound that millennials adore. 2023’s Brand New Soul incorporated their pop, rap, and funk influences into probably their most out-there sounding record. Still, each of these albums had songs that reminded you where Tripp cut his teeth. Now COLD 2 THE TOUCH is the band’s fastest, heaviest record yet, and much to my delight, it rides up the closest to Tripp’s work with TUI.

COLD 2 THE TOUCH rips out of the gate with “Pain Is a Must,” and it never relents. Tripp’s ability to fluctuate between his cool and composed vocals and his reckless yell gives the record so much personality. Like so many punk albums, the lyrics examine loneliness, where we fit into our lives, and how sometimes, we don’t need to forgive those who wrong us.

Then a song bird landed on my shoulder
‘Cause his heart was too broken to fly
And his name was mine
I let him go because I know pain is a must

Tripp’s delivery is what really ultimately sells the existential dread and questioning what you’ve become.

“DU$T” is an album highlight that starts as a wistful ballad, with clean vocals and acoustic guitars. Just a few lines after the singer genuinely borrows some Catholic prayer lines, he shouts “I got a gun in my hand,” before he laments how he’s “become someone I said I wouldn’t become.” The shock of this ballad flipping into a scorcher will grab you.

I never found, I always lost
Nailing myself to the cross
No matter how hard I try
It stays colder inside

Even though this ultimately feels the most like Angel Du$t’s “hardcore album,” repeated listens show the intricacies that show up throughout the album. “DU$T” and “Man on Fire” share similar progressions from softer, slow-tempo tunes into dog-pile inducing rock songs. While songs like “The Beat” and “Downfall” may play out as straight hardcore songs, you’re going to hear more intricate guitar-playing than you might on even some of the biggest bands in the genre’s records.

Yes, you can mosh to just about every song on this record, but there are plenty of moments that remind you that this band also has its share of left turns.

The title track retains some of the funk rhythms that made earlier records unique. “Nothing I Can’t Kill” has moments that can recall the fervor on the first Arctic Monkeys album. Then there are moments where it feels like Tripp is simply showing off his ability to bang out great songs like on “Jesus Head” or “I’m The Outside,” which recall late aughts/early 2010s indie rock in the best way.

As much as COLD 2 THE TOUCH feels like Tripp letting his hardcore roots shine with Angel Du$t, it’s also exciting, because it doesn’t necessarily seem built to last. The band has zig-zagged in so many directions from album-to-album, and even though COLD 2 THE TOUCH feels like the perfect marriage between the band’s scene and the weird directions they want to go in, it’s also reassuring to know that the next album could be something completely out of nowhere and still carry the same ethos that Tripp always has.

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 © Nat Wood

COLD 2 THE TOUCH

an album by Angel Du$t