What has made Angel Du$t one of the best bands going to watch every step of the way over the last decade-plus is how driven they’ve been to fuck with the status quo, even when it comes to what they are. Before the journalistic cliché of “hardcore music that’s pushing the boundaries of what hardcore is” became a stylistic trope, the Baltimore hardcore crew were well ahead of the curve as the O.G.s of thinking outside the proverbial box without giving any consideration to outside noise or trend. Where last we left off, Justice Tripp and company had reached a stride in refining the more melodious pop wig-outs from their experimental hardcore infusion with some psychedelic swerves to bat on 2023’s BRAND NEW SOUL. It gets even more gonzo to their betterment on Cold 2 The Touch, the band’s sixth studio album and first as part of the Run for Cover Records roster.

The objective here hasn’t changed in wanting to smash the genre’s limits — all fire while being the epitome of cool in both sound and a dangerous fashion sense — but maybe the temperature here feels more cohesively funneled through its creative chaos because it’s all come together full circle. Recorded with Brian McTernan, who helmed their 2014 debut, A.D., the listen reaches new very aggressive peaks on “PAIN IS A MUST”, “COLD 2 THE TOUCH”, and “Zero” without dissolving the big hooks within them. Melody equally coexists with spaced out head trips on love and Angel Du$t’s own take on a higher plane on highlights like “Jesus Head”, “DU$T”, and “Man On Fire”, doubling as reminders that their music can be a spiritual experience as much as it is a physical outlet intent for the pit. The knife is exacting. The beat goes hard. Two things can be true.

While Tripp remains the band’s only day one constant, his chemistry with sophomore members in guitarist Steve Marino and bassist Zechariah Ghostribe and new recruits in drummer Nick Lewis and veteran scene guitarist Jim Carroll (of the Suicide File, the Hope Conspiracy, and American Nightmare) is undeniably in sync in far out shredding and banging that drum. Guest vocals from scene heroes like American Nightmare and Cold Cave frontman Wes Eisold and TERROR’s Scott Vogel, an under-heralded man-at-arms like Twitching Tongues and God’s Hate’s Taylor Young, and its future in Restraining Order’s Patrick Cozens are scattered about. Every individual brings their own instincts on unbridled intensity that sharpens the abrasive edges of Angel Dust’s deep folds. Their collective presence establishes the ever-expanding hardcore community as something that pulls into collision its best parts of the past, present, and future to keep it moving forward. Angel Du$t are at the center of it all, reshaping it in the outside.

Highlights: “COLD 2 THE TOUCH”, “I’m The Outside”, “The Beat”

Angel Du$t’s COLD 2 THE TOUCH is available now on Run for Cover Records.

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