Album Spotlight: Cold 2 The Touch by Angel Du$t

By Ryan Germ
 There are few bands more polarizing in hardcore than Angel Du$t, and I’ll be the first to admit that some AD records have missed for me. However this has been one of my most anticipated releases of 2026 ever since they dropped their The Beat over the summer. So enough pussy footing around, let’s get into AD’s new record Cold 2 The Touch.

The first track, Pain Is A Must starts the record off with a nice little fill before the main riff comes in, I immediately got vibes of their track Squeeze with the main riff and some whispered vocals, then Justice does some of his signature screams. There’s some harmonies reminiscent of Thin Lizzy over his yells capping off with a callout of “pain is a must, Angel Du$t” before going into a two step part on the toms. Some more leads begin the second verse which is more of the same as the first before there’s a side to side part into a bigger two step part which goes into a super moshy part over the whispery vocals. Pretty strong opener.

The title track follows that up and it’s more punk sounding, it starts fast and continues the momentum the first track set in motion. At the minute mark there’s a cool side to side part but it’s still super poppy, that goes into a two step part and a breakdown to end the track.

I’m The Outside is fast but it’s still a more poppy track than the last 2. The shouts of the last 2 tracks that interspersed the whispery vocals are replaced with more somewhat whispery singing. This one does have one scream which goes into a breakdown which isn’t too moshy but it’s fun to listen to because it has this nice groove to it.

The next song Jesus Head continues that poppy indie rock esque trajectory with no distortion on the guitars whatsoever. The drumming has these nice little accents on the hats that follow the riff perfectly. The few shouts aren’t the focus and moreso just blended into the background, there’s this nice solo towards the end which I like a lot but then it becomes a huge mess to end the song.

Zero goes back to the more punk stuff that’s more in vein to garage punk than hardcore, so it’s nice to see my old scene and my current one intersecting heavily on this track. The verse has a cool little riff and the chorus has a couple shouts. The main riff giving a spotlight to shine alone around the 1:10 mark to go into a breakdown over a solo is really good, it carries Justice’s whispery vocals until the end of the track, and the final few 45ish seconds is all ambiance.

That goes into the next song Downfall where the main melody is played over somewhat heavy toms to kick off the song, at around 40 seconds the drums switch to the hats and Justice sings in a way that isn’t quite whispery. After verse 1 he lets out some yells, and yells on all of verse 2 before singing the chorus. The main melody is played on the toms and that ends the track.

Du$t continues that melody on acoustic guitar over some of Justice’s softer vocals that he’s showed off on most this record. I thought there wasn’t much to talk about on this song, and assumed it would be a glorified interlude, but at 1:22 Justice kicks off a verse and it gets really punk on ya. Some blast beats also greet you and the main drum part has this groove, and the leads are tasty as fuck. Bass drum hits slow things down over some of Justice’s yells and it slows down with the rest of the track being played on the toms for the most part.

Nothing I Can’t Kill is next and it’s super whispery to start over some light guitar, then the bass comes in with the drums and it feels really complete. The vocals starting at the 45 second mark sounds like a fun part to sing along to Justice’s vocals because he follows the melody. The second verse comes in, Justice says “someone call the cops” and the guitar in the background has a lead that sounds like sirens and it reminds me a lot of Riot Squad by Cock Sparrer. The chorus has this weird slowdown I can vibe with, and the track ends with acoustic guitar and some of Justice’s whispery vocals.

The next track Man On Fire is a more atmospheric track, where Justice is REALLY whispering and it’s barely singing. I’m not gonna knock it though because again it contributes to the atmosphere. The bass part at the 1:10 mark is really groovy. The second verse comes in and it’s more sing-y than whispery, it definitely isn’t Justice but I can’t find any credits for who does verse 2. Anyways after verse 2 it goes super fast, there’s this cool sike out part that makes you think there’s gonna be a breakdown or something but instead it keeps going fast. Justice is screaming on this part, after the fast part there’s a slowdown with the atmospheric melody with Justice singing the chorus to end the track.

The penultimate song The Knife is next, and it starts blistering fast before immediately slowing down, then it makes you think it will speed up but instead it keeps that slow rhythm going and it continues that for the rest of the track until it ends. A crying baby sample ends the song and throws you into the final song.

The record ends with The Beat, which begins with a side to side before a stomp part hits like a train. The song kinda slows to a halt before Justice screams “BEAT YOU LIKE A DRUM” and that signals the fast part, it keeps just nailing you full throttle with its aggression. It goes into this stompy windmill part with Taylor Young making a guest vocal appearance. The song ends with some vocalizations and one last fast part to send you home happy. This record is probably my favorite by AD since Rock The Fuck On Forever, good shit.