Villa maintained their unbeaten home record but once again had only themselves to blame for their failure to win.
Bolton were more than worthy of their point with another gutsy performance and amply demonstrated why they are successful Premiership survivors.
Sam Allardyce, Bolton's manager, admitted: "I was disappointed we did not win. We created a lot of chances but again failed to take full advantage.
"I suppose that is why we have to battle against relegation."
Villa boss David O'Leary agreed a draw was a fair result following what he thought was a dire first half performance, commenting: "I don't think we deserved the three points.
"The players let themselves down in the first half but we improved in the second period."
One interested spectator was John Gregory, the former Aston Villa boss who must have reflected on what had happened over the two years since he was in charge at Villa Park.
It was Villa's win over Bolton two years ago that took the Midlands club to the top of the table - the last time they occupied such an exalted position.
So far as Gregory was concerned it was a familiar performance. There was plenty of attractive attacking play but Villa's finishing power was again frustratingly poor with the exception of Angel's opportunist equaliser.
Angel, who was signed by Gregory for a record £9.5 million, gave an early indication that he would get on the goal sheet when his first-half free-kick smashed against the bar.
Wanderers were far from overwhelmed and produced several promising attacks. Just before the break Stelios Giannakopoulos beat both Thomas Sorensen and Mark Delaney only to see his shot go agonisingly wide.
Sorensen suffered a side strain and had to be replaced by Stefan Postma at the break and the first thing he did was pick the ball out of the net a minute later when Kevin Nolan fired a shot past the bemused keeper.
Villa's equaliser in the 58th minute was a bit special. A through ball down the centre to Gareth Barry was played back to Lee Hendrie who set up Angel to fire the ball past Jussi Jaaskelainen from just outside the penalty area.
Five minutes before the end Ivan Campo fouled Angel but the Colombian international saw his spot-kick saved by Jaaskelainen diving to his left.