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Feb 18, 2025 By Caleb Campbell Photography by Christian Hernandez

Later this week, LA-based musician Christopher Patrick Gregory is set to share his sophomore album under the moniker Belted Sweater. The self-titled project is due out on February 21st and follows his 2020 debut, i’m fucking delightful, with Christopher once again inhabiting a furious, blistering, and shamelessly colorful style of queercore and screamo. Christopher acts as the singular creative force behind the record, producing and playing guitar, bass, synths, and drums, in addition to doing all of the screams himself. Yet, the album is also equally in conversation with themes of queerness and community.

As Christopher explains, “This album is about what I see and what I want to see in the LGBT community. The first eight songs on this album are kind of about me lamenting what I see as the mainstream gay community’s move to the center. The last song is using my own experiences, full of joy and love, as the reason I want it to be more radical—to push for more social change against right-wing headwinds.”

Christopher already teased the album last month with its lead single, “Cherry Grove,” and today he’s back with an early listen to one of the album’s unheard tracks, “Wilt,” premiering with Under the Radar.

“Wilt” encapsulates the polar opposite tones at play on Belted Sweater. Glittering synth tones and swelling piano harmonies form the track’s backbone, building a foundation that Christopher tears at with searing screams and careening metalcore drums. It offers a careful push and pull, sometimes fading into textural synth passages, only to barrel ahead soon after. The track revels in these contrasting elements, playing off of the pillowy synths and crushing percussion and inhabiting a world entirely of Christopher’s making.

Christopher says of the track, “Musically, Wilt is a super fun one, it combines bright synths, faux double bass drumming, and live piano, basically Rufus Wainwright meets Painkiller by Judas Priest. But the lyrics are about the anxiety of trying to make ends meet, so that’s kind of the dual nature of the record, trying find the strength to get through the shit life throws at you.”

Listen to the track below. Belted Sweater is out everywhere on February 21st via Self Versed Records and Softseed Music.