Damian Wolf didn’t just carry the alt-rock flame into his debut LP—he set it ablaze with every saturated string. On the title single Flying Colors, the Maryland-born 20-year-old commands his solo project with the kind of DIY nerve that rarely finds this much cultivation. Entirely self-recorded, mixed, and mastered in his bedroom studio, the track stands as a defiant declaration: no one else engineers Wolf’s chaos—he shapes it into art with his own hands.
He carved his teeth on early ’90s grunge and hard rock, filtered that influence through the discord of noise rock and post-hardcore, then added his own commercial alt sensibility to the mix without sanding down the edges, resulting in a track that channels shoegaze and grunge into high-octane alt-rock visceral volition. When the overdriven guitars refrain from the production, the choral layers of reverb-soaked guitars are left to synergise with Wolf’s arcanely sweet vocals, which bleed into the mix that’s mercilessly blasted by punk’s percussive pulse.
It may often feel like there aren’t many more alt-rock intersections to explore, but Wolf didn’t just find one—he scorched a new route through a multitude of them with Flying Colors. The title track is the flashpoint, where texture becomes tension, and melody finds its way through the maelstrom. If you want to head back to the alt-90s, take this route. Just don’t expect nostalgia. Expect impact.
Flying Colors is now available to stream on all major platforms including Spotify and Apple Music.
Review by Amelia Vandergast.
