COLD 2 THE TOUCH is the latest offering from Angel Du$t, the brainchild of Trapped Under Ice frontman Justice Tripp and part of the constellation of Baltimore-originating bands alongside Turnstile, Diamond Youth, and Trapped Under Ice that form the hardcore version of New York City's Crack Rock Steady bands (Leftover Crack, Choking Victim, INDK, etc.). Few artists have done more to not just move hardcore into mainstream consciousness but shape the direction of the genre itself over the last two decades than this cohort, and, laudably, it's been on their terms. On this, Angel Du$t's sixth full-length, proto-punk, 70s punk, 80s hardcore punk, 90s rock, and TUI's controversial (but also their best selling) 2017 record Heatwave are simultaneously current in the alternate sonic universe that's been created. In keeping with the modern hardcore zeitgeist Tripp was instrumental in creating, the LP eschews the kind of clean and polished (and critics would argue sterile) production that defines so much of modern heavy music and beyond in favor of a more organic sound well-suited to the contents of the record. Angel Du$t is about a spirit and an energy rather than a specific sound, which, along with the fresh perspectives introduced by new members as the band continuously shifts line-ups, explains why Angel Du$t is not sonically static or stagnant. As Tripp states, "The band was created with a real set of guidelines but has expanded way outside of them because finding that free-spirited energy has always been the goal, and the sound has to change to keep finding that…The flow of energy is a big part of what we do. Angel Du$t needs to incite movement—I’m not down with people chilling while we play, that’s offensive to me—so having a genuine hardcore influence without making hardcore is important to the band. Melody is another huge ingredient, so is the authentic influence of bluesy, chromatic rock & roll constructs. So punk, hardcore, rock & roll–they're all just different flows of energy that we're trying to use.” This has enabled Tripp to explore various creative avenues without the project feeling directionless or losing vitality, which are the perils of a wide musical vista on the one hand and personnel changes on the other. For Tripp, "The band has always been about me funneling other elements coming in from other people–I make a lot of music based on where I feel like the collective consciousness is going. I think this is the most collaborative Angel Du$t record.” With new drummer Nick Lewis and guitarist Jim Caroll (Suicide File, The Hope Conspiracy, American Nightmare) now in tow, and with a number of hardcore A-listers and legends adding their voices as features, we can hear that born out.

Album opener "Pain is a Must," featuring Terror vocalist Scott Vogel, is at its core authentic, impassioned rock and roll, Exhibit A of not just the seamless melding of sounds, which we'll get to in a second, but as Tripp told Rolling Stone, "The current state of rock & roll music is hardcore. You go to the hardcore show and you're getting the most stripped-down, raw, organic version of rock & roll music. And for me, I'd like to keep that as pure as possible." People are craving authenticity and realness, and in an era of so much artifice, there's a reason Angel Du$t has the rabid following they do, and there's a reason hardcore is in the best shape it's been in in at least fifteen years. The opening riff of "Pain is a Must" is reminiscent of a slowed-down-a-tick "Nitro (Youth Energy)" by The Offspring, and Tripp almost sounds a little like Tom Petty when he's singing. There's definitely some Trapped Under Ice energy running through this one, and that becomes more explicit on the circle pit-inducing second track, which feels like it easily could have been on Heatwave.

"I'm the Outside" starts out sounding like Sparkle and Fade-era Everclear mixed with a lighter, more upbeat Stone Temple Pilots but if they were somehow possessed by Iggy and the Stooges before injecting a healthy dose of TUI-style hardcore into the mix. "Jesus Head" is like The Wallflowers mixed with some vintage Woodstock-style rock, a sprinkling of greaser rock, and even a soupçon of gospel in there. "Zero," featuring Wes Eisold of American Nightmare and Cold Cave, starts out as a kind of 70s punk pogo-inducer before switching gears into something that sounds like the soundtrack to the red-eyed sixth hour of a ten-hour drive at two in the morning while you're bombing down the highway in the middle of nowhere. The ambient outro segues into "Downfall," with Restraining Order's Patrick Cozens, which rides a slowed-down version of a riff that could've been on Every Time I Die's The Big Dirty and oscillates between more hardcore energy and accessible rock. "Du$t" is a total head-fake: it begins as a brooding indie-folk-type song before exploding into hardcore fury. "Nothing I Can't Kill" is a solid alt-rock cut, and "Man On Fire," featuring the legendary Frank Carter (Gallows, Frank Carter and the Rattlesnakes), follows a similar progression as Du$t, albeit with more of a darkened speakeasy vibe. The penultimate track, "The Knife," kind of just breezes by and, for me at least, didn't really add much to the record. "The Beat," with Taylor Young of the HardLore podcast, Twitching Tongues, God's Hate, and a slew of other bands (he's a busy man), closes out the album with a nasty TUI-esque burst, although its brevity does leave the album feeling a little unfinished.

COLD 2 THE TOUCH is a brazen and unapologetic offering from a band at the vanguard of the what's old is new—or in their case what's old is re-configured into something new—movement in hardcore. Where many other genres have essentially ceased to exist, become completely stale, or morphed into something unrecognizable from the original, hardcore is an interesting case study where it allows for a certain amount of cross-pollination, usually in cycles, without losing the thread that stretches back to—and in cases such as this record, before—its birth. It's an exciting time to be a hardcore fan, and COLD 2 THE TOUCH is yet another reason why.