Bands Who Were (Mostly) Teens When Their Debut Album Came

This Loud List video features rock and metal bands who were (mostly) teenagers when their debut album came out.

As a teenager, finishing high school is quite a grand accomplishment, much less having your band already signed to a record label with your first album out and some touring experience under your studded belt.

Today, we’re inundated with musicians who are playing well beyond their years and are absolutely shredding at seriously young ages, some even being pre-teen marvels. The access to resources to become such a proficient instrumentalist at that age are so widely available, that, in a way, it has started to become natural to expect kids to play like professionals.

READ MORE: 15 Rock + Metal Bands Featuring Kids of Rock Stars

And that’s what makes the achievement we’re talking about here so amazing, because most of the acts released their first album before the internet was “a thing” or, at the least, an overwhelmingly present force in our day-to-day lives. Back then, the internet felt like a luxurious, leisurely bonus, not a tool essential to our very survival as humans in an advanced society.

For example, Children of Bodom‘s Something Wild features neoclassical shredding, exhibiting a level of musicianship many will simply never reach in their entire lives. And it came out in 1997, so it’s not like Alexi Laiho just dialed up YouTube videos and became a whiz kid!

Watch the video compilation, which features plenty of early performance footage, directly below.

Bands Who Were (Mostly) Teenagers When Their Debut Album Came Out