A Playlist of Music I Wish Had Been Around When I Was A Teenager

I might be done moshing. I can’t say for sure, as every so often I’ll see a band crush it so hard live that I can’t not fling myself into the pit with reckless abandon. But nine times out of ten, I just feel too old, tired, and worried about how heinous I’ll feel the next day. And I’m fine with that. Moshing’s fun, but it’s not something I feel I absolutely need in my life.

But it sucks when I hear some of the incredible contemporary stuff coming out, and I know I’ll never rage to it the way I used to rage as a teenager. When I was in my teens, the only way to truly appreciate an amazing song was to lose my mind in the pit while witnessing it live. No band was 100% worth my time until I’d anointed their music with sweat, blood, spilled beer, and a bruised rib.

It wasn’t just moshing, either, it was love. My reverence for that band would also reach the point of being called religious mania, complete with rituals and holy icons–buying the shirt, learning every song, wallpapering my room with centerfolds from metal magazines. These days, I’m too concerned with “real life” to spend hours reading the lyrics booklet by candlelight. So when a new band pops up on my radar who absolutely slays, I often wonder where the Hell they were when I was fifteen and would have worshipped them like gods.

So here is a playlist of music I wish had come out when I was a teenager, or which makes me wish I was a teenager now. The rage and creativity behind sparks in me avid fandom which, during a time when I didn’t pay taxes and could instantly bounce back from any injury or hangover, I would have lived and died for, but which now simply results in me headbanging at my desk like a chud.

Anyone you wish you’d heard as a teenager? Let me know in the comments. Otherwise, enjoy the following tracks that are probably wasted on these damn kids today with their sagging pants and vape pens.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAXcMq3laHlipwEtM6Iu1rsJQ-qW0FPWI