Yungblud Archives - Hit Parader

Seeing YUNGBLUD’s sold-out show Friday at the Greek Theater made me realize how important family, community, and human connection really are.

That feeling started when the opening band, The Warning, came out and instantly caught my attention. At first, they just seemed unbelievably in sync. Every drumbeat, every guitar riff, every pause felt perfectly timed down to the millisecond, yet somehow effortless at the same time. I couldn’t figure out why until Daniella Villarreal introduced herself along with the other members, Paulina and Alejandra, and I realized they were sisters.

Suddenly, everything clicked.

They’ve been performing together for over 13 years, starting as a small cover band from Monterrey, Mexico, after their cover of Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” went viral. Now they’re touring arenas around the world. Watching them felt like watching a sibling connection come to life. They were peaceful yet chaotic, intense yet completely connected. And honestly, that’s what siblings are. There’s arguing, forgiveness, chaos, and love all mixed together. Every loud drumbeat almost felt symbolic, like every past argument floating away into the air while they created something beautiful together.

It only felt fitting that my older brother was there with me.

As the loud rock music filled the arena, I started noticing something quieter underneath it all. As I looked around, I realized how many families were there together. Parents with kids, siblings, friends with their arms around each other. For a generation constantly glued to phones, this felt different. This was the only concert I’ve been to where I saw more people cheering together than on their phones recording. People crave real community now more than ever. Everyone was actually living in the moment instead of watching it through a screen. Music was bringing people together in real life.

Then it was finally time for YUNGBLUD to come out.

Cred. Tom Pallant

Before he even stepped on stage, the word “hello” appeared across the screens in multiple languages. It instantly made the entire arena feel welcoming, like no matter what your background, everyone belonged there that night. We were all there for the same reason: to let go for a few hours and just feel alive while jamming out to some rock n roll.

Then, suddenly, confetti exploded through the crowd.

It felt like all of our worries were being thrown into the air alongside it. For a second, nothing else mattered besides just being there in the moment.

And once he hit the stage, the energy completely exploded.

Besides making amazing music, he is one heck of a performer. At one point, he randomly jumped off the stage and started climbing the arena handrails while yelling, “ARE YOU MOTHERF***ERS READY?!” The crowd went insane, everyone cheering, some even holding their breaths… Hoping he didn’t fall. Eventually, he ended up standing on a chair in the middle of the crowd, continuing to scream. From that moment on, I knew this concert was going to be unlike anything else.

Cred. Tom Pallant

When he started performing “Lowlife,” the entire arena loosened up even more. Everyone screamed the “La-La-La” lyrics together, and for the first time, I fully looked around the crowd and realized there wasn’t a single empty seat in the place. I really tried to find one for a good minute, but I couldn’t. Thousands of people from all over Los Angeles had come together for this moment.

One of the most emotional moments of the night came when YUNGBLUD dedicated Black Sabbath’s “Changes” to his late mentor and friend, Ozzy Osbourne. Before starting the song, he told us we needed to sing loud enough for Ozzy to hear us from heaven, especially because Ozzy’s family was in the audience.  As soon as the crowd heard this, they instantly understood the assignment. This is one of my favorite songs, so I was screaming at the top of my lungs.  Everyone sang together like one giant family. You could hear the raw emotion in YUNGBLUD’s voice during that performance, and honestly, it gave me chills.

Of course, in true YUNGBLUD fashion, he made the crowd stick out their tongues. My brother and I doing that together reminded me of when we were little kids. YUNGBLUD even started calling out people who refused to do it, projecting them on the giant screen until they finally gave in. The entire arena was dying laughing. At one point, the cameraman showed this one kid absolutely rocking out with his tongue out, throwing devil horns, and headbanging so hard that it caught YUNGBLUD’s attention enough that he not only brought him on stage, but he put him on his shoulders. I’ve never seen an artist interact with fans so personally before.

But beyond the chaos and fun, what made this concert really special during Mental Health Awareness Month was how openly YUNGBLUD talked about mental health.

Cred. Tom Pallant

When he performed “The Funeral” and the crowd screamed, “I hate myself, but that’s alright,” it didn’t feel hopeless. It felt real. YUNGBLUD has always been open about his own struggles with intrusive thoughts and insecurity, and instead of pretending those feelings don’t exist, he talks about learning how to live alongside them without letting them completely take over his life. I think that honesty matters a lot right now because social media makes it seem like everyone else has everything figured out when they really don’t. He serves as a reminder that even successful artists struggle with their mental health. 

He constantly reminds fans that they are not alone, and he backs those words up with action. He has worked with organizations like Mind, where he pledged to donate £1 (up to £25,000) split between Mind and Sound Mind Live for every use of the “Breakdown” CapCut/TikTok template. He continues encouraging open conversations about mental health instead of avoiding them.

One of my favorite moments of the entire night was when he told everyone to turn to the strangers next to them and say, “Hello motherf***er,” and then, “I love you.” It sounds ridiculous, but in that moment, it actually felt genuine. For a few seconds, thousands of strangers became one giant family.

The concert ended with “Zombie,” a song inspired by watching his grandmother struggle with alcoholism and slowly losing herself. The song captures something so many people are scared to admit: the fear of becoming a burden, the fear of appearing weak, and the universal feeling that you have to go through your darkest moments alone. But standing in that crowd, surrounded by thousands of other people screaming those lyrics together, I didn’t feel alone at all.

Cred. Tom Pallant

That’s what made this concert so powerful to me.

In a world where social media usually only shows people’s happiest moments, YUNGBLUD doesn’t run away from the darker emotions. He dives directly into them. He talks about grief, insecurity, loneliness, anxiety, and self-hatred openly instead of hiding them. And I think that’s exactly why so many people connect with him so deeply.

By the end of the night, there had been screaming, laughing, crying, and complete chaos. But more importantly, I walked away realizing something I think a lot of people need to hear during Mental Health Awareness Month:

No matter how alone you feel sometimes, you never truly are.

Hit Parader #1: Yungblud Edition

October 2025 — $12.99

YUNGBLUD is bringing the rock star back to rock. At just 27, the British firebrand stunned 45,000 fans and the world at Ozzy Osbourne’s farewell show with a jaw-dropping, emotional cover of “Changes.” Critics and legends alike are calling it one of the greatest live performances of the past 25 years. In a genre starved…

In This Issue…

Rico Nasty By Nature

Too Hardcore for Pop, Too Pop for Hardcore: A Conversation With Scowl

Controlled Chaos: The Rise of Die Spitz

The Cost of Momentum: Nova Twins Reflect on the Years That Changed Everything

From punishing riffs to moody alt-rock and punk swagger, February’s standout songs prove the month was anything but subtle. These are the tracks that were impossible to ignore, from sombr’s guilt-soaked indie-pop confession, to Knocked Loose tearing through feral hardcore with Denzel Curry, Genesis Owusu turning paranoia into propulsion, and Lana Del Rey drifting deeper into her mythic Americana. Check it.

01:

Knocked Loose – Hive Mind (ft. Denzel Curry)

This is Knocked Loose at their most feral. The Louisville hardcore band barrels through two minutes of serrated riffs, blast-beat drums, and Bryan Garris’ throat-shredding howl, all aimed squarely at the suffocating pressure to fall in line. Lyrically, it’s a rejection of herd mentality — a middle finger to trend-chasing culture and the social machinery that punishes anyone who steps out of formation. The real curveball comes when Denzel Curry storms in, matching the band’s intensity with a venomous verse that blurs the line between hardcore and hip-hop. The result is pure pit fuel: chaotic, confrontational, and built to detonate live. The music video, filmed at the David Armstrong Extreme Park in Louisville — a graffitied skatepark near the iconic Louisville Slugger Field — is pure cinema. This is Knocked Loose not just at their most feral, but their finest.

02:

YUNGBLUD – Suburban Requiem

YUNGBLUD is trading his usual anarchic swagger for something more cinematic and bruised. This track, the closer on the all-new Idols (Complete), out now, swells with moody guitars and widescreen alt-rock drama as he sketches a portrait of small-town stagnation — empty streets, restless youth, and the creeping sense that life is happening somewhere else. But instead of pure nihilism, YUNGBLUD leans into melancholy catharsis, turning suburban malaise into a sing-along anthem for anyone who’s ever dreamed of escape. It’s big, emotional rock music built for raised lighters and late-night drives.

03:

sombr – Homewrecker

Sombr’s “Homewrecker” turns romantic guilt into glossy indie-pop theater. Over a funky guitar groove and polished pop production, the 20-year-old songwriter pleads his case to someone already taken. The tension between restraint and temptation fuels the track’s hooky chorus and aching vocals, a mix that’s become Sombr’s calling card as one of alt-pop’s fastest-rising voices. His performance of Homewrecker at the BRIT Awards has been tagged as unforgettable, even if him being attached on stage was… staged. It’s one thing to drop a massive debut album that has you on top of the world, but it’s another to quickly follow that up with another successful hit single. Sophmore slump… not here.

04:

Genesis Owusu – STAMPEDE

Genesis Owusu turns paranoia into propulsion once again on the all-new heater “STAMPEDE.” The Ghanaian-Australian shapeshifter builds the track on a twitchy, bass-heavy groove that feels like it could collapse at any second, while his vocals swing between sneering rap cadences and manic punk urgency. Lyrically, he’s staring down mob mentality — the kind of cultural pile-on that moves fast, loud, and without much thought. The result is equal parts dance-floor burner and social critique, a reminder that Owusu thrives in the chaos where funk, hip-hop, and post-punk collide. This single, following on the heels of two other solo standouts, “DEATH CULT ZOMBIE” and “PIRATE RADIO,” is setting the stage for a massive follow-up album to 2023’s incredible STRUGGLER.

05:

Wage War – SONG OF THE SWAMP

Wage War are back and diving headfirst into Southern-fried heaviness. The Florida metalcore outfit layers churning downtuned riffs and stomping grooves that feel tailor-made for festival pits, while Briton Bond’s vocals swing between throat-ripping screams and arena-ready hooks. There’s a sense of menace baked into the track’s murky atmosphere — part swamp-metal swagger, part modern metalcore precision — as the band leans into their heaviest instincts without sacrificing the massive chorus that’s long been their trademark. It Calls Me by Name, their new EP featuring “five tracks shaped by Florida” and their “signature sound amplified and pushed further into metal than [they’ve] ever taken it,” is out April 17th.

06:

Lana Del Rey – White Feather Hawk Tail Deer Hunter

Her first single since April 2025’s back-to-back hits “Bluebird” and “Henry, come on,” “White Feather Hawk Tail Deer Hunter” finds Lana Del Rey drifting deeper into her mythic Americana. The track unfolds slowly, wrapped in dusky piano chords and hazy strings, as Del Rey sketches images of wilderness, longing, and spiritual solitude with her signature cinematic melancholy. Like much of her recent work, the song trades pop immediacy for atmosphere — letting the lyrics linger like fragments of a half-remembered dream. The result is another haunting entry in her ever-expanding catalog of poetic, West Coast gothic ballads. Presumably, this means the delayed and yet-to-be titled album is coming soon?

07:

Mitski – I’ll Change for You

On “I’ll Change for You,” Mitski leans into the kind of heartbreak most artists try to dress up — the pathetic, late-night kind where pride disappears and the only thing left is longing. Built on a breezy, almost bossa-nova-tinged groove, the song pairs warm instrumentation with lyrics that spiral into quiet desperation as Mitski pleads for a lost lover to take her back. It’s classic Mitski — tender, self-aware, and uncomfortably honest about the humiliations that come with love. Her new album Nothing’s About to Happen to Me is receiving positive reviews across the board, and this song, the album’s second single, is already a standout.

08:

Dead Pony – Eat My Dust!

Dead Pony are hitting the gas and not looking back. The Glasgow outfit fuses their punchy pop-rock roots with a new snarling metalcore twist on “Eat My Dust!,” while vocalist Anna Shields delivers the song’s killer chorus with the kind of swagger that turns frustration into fuel. It’s a breakaway anthem at heart — loud, defiant, and built on the thrill of leaving whatever’s dragging you down in the rearview mirror. Excited to see where this new direction takes the band.

09:

Social Distortion – Born To Kill

Social D is back… right when the world needed them. Returning to their gritty, leather-jacket roots on “Born To Kill,” and delivering a tight, no-frills punk anthem that bristles with menace and swagger. Mike Ness’ gravelly vocals carry tales of rebellion and fatalism over stripped-down riffs that clang like street-side sirens. It’s classic Social Distortion: lean, direct, and unapologetically tough, a reminder that punk isn’t just music — it’s an attitude, and some instincts can’t be tamed.

10:

Terror – Still Suffer

Hardcore lifers Terror have spent more than two decades preaching resilience through volume, and “Still Suffer” hits with the same bruising conviction. Their first song in four years and first on Flatspot barrels out of the gate with breakneck riffs and Scott Vogel’s unmistakable bark, channeling the band’s classic mix of frustration and perseverance. Lyrically it’s blunt and unfiltered — a reminder that survival doesn’t mean the pain disappears, only that you keep pushing through it. In under two minutes, Terror deliver exactly what they’ve always done best: no frills, no compromise, just pure hardcore momentum.

Tag: Yungblud

YUNGBLUD at The Greek Theatre