Dear About Time,
My name is Aidan. I am 25 years old and would love to share my love of metal and punk and how it has helped change my mental attitude and helped me cope with the hardest parts of my life.
I was raised in a household of my mum and two sisters, and being the only male felt very lonely.
The only friend I found was music, namely death metal and hardcore punk. I grew up with a mother who was always blasting music at home or in the car. Whether it was Slayer or Madonna, Deicide or Portishead or Pantera or The Cure, she was playing it.
I remember our living room used to be filled with hundreds of CDs. My mum is where my love of music came from.
I was 11 when I got into my first band, which was Korn, with their self-titled debut album. I fell in love with the darkness and rawness of it, and the rest was history.
Being able to have CDs sent in has been a heaven sent. I have nearly 40 and would struggle severely without them.
Every time I have a rough day or feel crap, I will pop a CD in and hear the thundering drums, raw and sharp guitars and the intense, cathartic and highly emotive vocals. A lot of people don’t like it, and I understand that, but for me it’s a pure cathartic release and a purging of all the negative shit building up inside of me.
The metal and punk communities are full of some of the friendliest and most accepting people you’ll meet, and the biggest reason for this is that most of these people are the outcasts, the freaks and geeks, the people that don’t feel like they belong anywhere else and are also highly protective of each other.
If I didn’t have my music I would probably not even be alive right now. Metal and punk gave an outcast like me somewhere to belong and something to believe in.
The pure emotion and depth in this music is something I relate to on a deeper level. I know there would be others that can relate.
Some of my favourite bands include: Code Orange, Converge, Slayer, Suffocation, Napalm Death and many, many others.
Thank you for taking the time and letting me talk about something I love.
Dear About Time,
My name is Aidan. I am 25 years old and would love to share my love of metal and punk and how it has helped change my mental attitude and helped me cope with the hardest parts of my life.
I was raised in a household of my mum and two sisters, and being the only male felt very lonely.
The only friend I found was music, namely death metal and hardcore punk. I grew up with a mother who was always blasting music at home or in the car. Whether it was Slayer or Madonna, Deicide or Portishead or Pantera or The Cure, she was playing it.
I remember our living room used to be filled with hundreds of CDs. My mum is where my love of music came from.
I was 11 when I got into my first band, which was Korn, with their self-titled debut album. I fell in love with the darkness and rawness of it, and the rest was history.
Being able to have CDs sent in has been a heaven sent. I have nearly 40 and would struggle severely without them.
Every time I have a rough day or feel crap, I will pop a CD in and hear the thundering drums, raw and sharp guitars and the intense, cathartic and highly emotive vocals. A lot of people don’t like it, and I understand that, but for me it’s a pure cathartic release and a purging of all the negative shit building up inside of me.
The metal and punk communities are full of some of the friendliest and most accepting people you’ll meet, and the biggest reason for this is that most of these people are the outcasts, the freaks and geeks, the people that don’t feel like they belong anywhere else and are also highly protective of each other.
If I didn’t have my music I would probably not even be alive right now. Metal and punk gave an outcast like me somewhere to belong and something to believe in.
The pure emotion and depth in this music is something I relate to on a deeper level. I know there would be others that can relate.
Some of my favourite bands include: Code Orange, Converge, Slayer, Suffocation, Napalm Death and many, many others.
Thank you for taking the time and letting me talk about something I love.
Your contributions are the centerpiece of the paper. If you would like to contribute to our Letters section, please send your letters to the below postal address:
Or via email:
On 1 November 2025, QCS introduced a new pricing model: 20 cents per minute for all calls, mobile or local. A call that once cost 30 cents for 15 minutes now costs $3 – a ten-times increase.
I have been incarcerated for 22 months of a four-year sentence in Queensland jails. This poem is about my own situation.
Reading other prisoner’s stories inspired me to keep my head up and keep going now four months in, thank you all who share your stories and words of wisdom.
I moved units about a month ago and we feed some stray cats here. One even let me pat her last night! It's been over a year since I've patted an animal, so you can imagine how excited I was!
Help keep the momentum going. All donations will be vital in providing an essential resource for people in prison and their loved ones.
All donations of $2 or more are tax deductible. If you would like to pay directly into our bank account to avoid the processing fee, please contact donate@abouttime.org.au. ABN 67 667 331 106.
Help us get About Time off the ground. All donations are tax deductible and will be vital in providing an essential resource for people in prison and their loved ones.
Your browser window currently does not have enough height, or is zoomed in too far to view our website content correctly. Once the window reaches the minimum required height or zoom percentage, the content will display automatically.
Alternatively, you can learn more via the links below.
Leave a Comment
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius enim in eros elementum tristique. Duis cursus, mi quis viverra ornare, eros dolor interdum nulla, ut commodo diam libero vitae erat. Aenean faucibus nibh et justo cursus id rutrum lorem imperdiet. Nunc ut sem vitae risus tristique posuere. uis cursus, mi quis viverra ornare, eros dolor interdum nulla, ut commodo diam libero vitae erat. Aenean faucibus nibh et justo cursus id rutrum lorem imperdiet. Nunc ut sem vitae risus tristique posuere.