ADOLESCENTS - Adolescents LP (Colour Vinyl)

Label: Frontier Records

The Adolescents' debut is seminal - the nihilism of the American suburban youth writ large for all to see for the first time, with a primal ferocity and disinterest in success that separates them from those who followed in their footsteps (even though they stand as the only of the first wave of American Hardcore to score a hit single). This was a howl in the darkness. The howling is the act, whether anyone hears it is inconsequential. It is life as a zoo - a simulated habitat with tacit borders yet no one admits that those bars exist, or can agree on what the zookeepers' intentions are.

Most of all, this is an album chronicling the boredom, frustration, and depression of being a teenager who does not (and does not want to) fit in. Intelligent, focused spew of hate and anger at the surrounding conservative society and the roving gangs of violent youth (while also examining their roots as the same stultifying boredom that is driving everyone else insane). The centerpiece is the brilliant five and a half minute "Kids of the Black Hole" depicting the hellish California punk youth lifestyle. Fucking essential.