Hybrid Theory

Give me rap-rock or rap-metal crossover albums anytime. Give me a *bit* of nu-metal, even. Give me heavy guitar riffs, true rebellion, sharp politically-minded lyrics. Or, on the contrary, give me brutally sincere descriptions of personal malaise. Anything that finds an artistically relevant way to scream: "I'm alive, this world is fucked up, I suffer, but I'm alive!". Give me Rage Against The Machine, System Of A Down, Deftones, the "Judgment Night" motion picture soundtrack... Even the early Korn albums can work out... But don't give me this overbloated, overproduced turd of a record. Heck, turds have taste at least, or so I hear. :) As you can, I won't mince words about this band (and first album). But I've got my reasons. To me, *Hybrid Theory* is indeed the epitome of blandness--nothing in it *feels* honest or authentic. You might tell me Chester Bennington's lyrics drew from his difficult childhood experience, I just can't find a way to *care* about them. Because the end results here are just plain corny--there's none of the strong imagery delivered by his pal Chino Moreno, for instance, or the latter's intense, dynamic performance throughout Deftones' discography. The so-called "rebellion" or "malaise" in Linkin' Park's lyrics actually amount to pointing at nothing in particular, with vague references about "bad memories" and the likes. And those lyrics are just *one* ingredient among others in a mechanical formula. They just have nothing to say. And they even manage to say it badly. The same goes for the cheesy, dated rapping, or the vocal lines for the choruses and singing parts, which are *always* predictable--unimaginative melodies copied-and-pasted over unimaginative guitar riffs, so slick and clean they actually sound like synths. Because no, the instrumentation is not good either, as competent the performers (or production tools) are. The band does the same thing all over again, mostly, with the same sort of lazy, overdone tricks being applied from start to finish. Guitar saturation is here used to raze everything to the same orderly level, devoid of any true *life*. A paradox of sorts, which owes more to protools shenanigans than any thought-out concept behind the music. Which makes sense, given that saturation is also used here to hide the lack of any shred of meaningful idea. That's probably what's "Hybrid" in the "Theory" here--this thing being *both* lifeless AND brainless. Even the electronic/abstract hip hop asides suck, minus the very short "Cure For The Itch", maybe--but to be fair, this minor track towards the end is nothing but a secondhand attempt at a DJ Shadow-like instrumental... And just as everything in the album--that awful cover, for instance--its inclusion in the tracklisting looks like a decision made by a corporate committee, not one made by a real, genuine band showing personality. And just like everything else, it's a stylistic dead end. *Hybrid Theory* made millions, admittedly (not necessarily a sure sign of quality, but OK). It sold a hold a huge lot. Yet it's a dead-end nonetheless. Void. Sterile. We can just all be glad and grateful that teens or kids these days are not listening to such crap anymore. At least, they'll make *fresh* mistakes of their own... In the light of Bennington's still recent suicide, this personal judgment about what is merely a piece of art here might sound harsh, of course, even exaggerated. May the man rest in peace, God bless his soul, and so on... May people who go through what he had to go through, just like Chris Cornell or Kurt Cobain, or anybody else, find the help they need to survive. To be honest, I wish that this band had at least provided Bennington that catharsis he so direly needed to get better. And this aside obviously goes beyond any personal tastes about music. One could have hoped that years after their first commercial success, Linkin' Park's singer might have found some meaning in his life. But things don't always work out that way, even when you manage to "make it". Friends who knew Bennington seem to say he was a good person. I don't know, I didn't know him. But I just hope that fans who are reading this understand I have nothing against the man. I simply didn't like the artist, and the band he was part in. These things happen... As for the rest, be aware that hope comes in many forms, and that if music, good or bad, can't save you, you can *still* find other ways out--through reaching out to friends or a family genuinely caring for you, or through mental health professionals. Anything that can help you get better. But I'd rather hear about who Chester Bennington was as a person rather than having to listen to his music again. It's not for me. In a way, critics' accusations that the band had "sold out" for 2017's pop-oriented *One More Light*--that they now suddenly sounded "as if they were selected by committee", to be more precise--were totally and absolutely nonsensical to my ears. Because to me, they've *always* been this way. A few yellings and heavy guitar riffs here and there couldn't hide the fact that they've never been the sharpest knife in the drawer, musically speaking. And Bennington's offensive public replies to those misguided critics did not only show how fragile his mental state was, but also how lost he was as to the sort of audience his band had entertained for all these years. And there's probably a good reason for that. Because a) that audience had never been picky for sure. And b) it was dwindling album after album anyway. In all honesty, it's a bit of a mystery *who* this music is aimed at today, in 2022 (both for what it was in 2017 AND what it had been in 2000). And this, also, makes me kinda sad... Not for Bennington, this time, but for the standards generally followed by this list of records. So next, please... Number of albums left to review or just listen to: 887 Number of albums from the list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 59 Albums from the list I *might* include in mine later on: 29 Albums from the list I will certainly *not* include in mine (many others are more important): 26 (including this one)

Oh FFS... how in the world did this crap make the list? This style/genre/shameful detour of rock music should be forgotten and lost to the sands of time. And this isn't even their "best" album - it's easily the most cheesy representation of this nonsense.

The worst. This album actually made me angry.

Awful. Unfair but this album/band comprises almost every single thing that I hated about turn-of-the-millenium nu-rock: massive wall of tuned-down guitars so overly compressed and processed within an inch of their lives that sound more like a steel factory than like guitars... and what.is.up with the Cookie Monster vocals - honestly wtf I never understood how that became a thing for a few years. Hard hard nope. I actually kinda get why some people would like this - but I can't get through this overly aggressive unrelenting assault. Did/could not finish. 2/10 1 star.

I bought this album shortly after its release and listened to it for several years, but then it sort of disappeared from my radar. I don’t really have the rage in me that I still managed then. So what’s it like to come back to this almost 20 years later? It’s great! I remembered right away what I love about Linkin Park… they know how to rock but also have great hooks and modulation to hold my interest. I like their lyrics and the personal themes. Great vocals. Really great to hear this again today. “The End” is an awesome song and is kind of the perfection of the Linkin Park formula, but there are lots of other songs I very much like on this album including “Papercut,” “Points of Authority,” “Crawling,” “Runaway,” “Forgotten” and “Pushing Me Away.” Even though the last twenty years have softened my edges, I guess I still have room for some angry, angsty, cathartic hard rock. Linkin Park’s ability to modulate with softer passages is just the right kind of heavy for me.

Hard-hitting but melodic, this is another album that I think younger me would have really loved. I like it now but it has a ... not juvenile, that seems pejorative, and that's definitely not what I'm going for ... but maybe youthful(?) feel to it that doesn't hold the same appeal as it would have a couple or so decades ago. Still, high marks!

I was 16 when this album came out and I wasn’t the biggest fan of nu-metal to start with. I was into stuff like Pantera, Sepultura, Faith no More, Alice in Chains, NOFX etc – 90s heavy/alternative but not nu-metal – but I also had an appreciation for bands like Korn, Limp Bizkit and Slipknot. I’d been into metal since about 91 so I had the feel of the genre: Korn basically invented the shit, Limp Bizkit popularised it, and Slipknot made it so fucking unpalatable to your parents that you just had to applaud them. Lots of previously "pure"-metal bands were trying to get in on it. But Korn etc all had one thing in common: their songs were organic, there was a legit “what we’re doing isn’t grunge, it’s not standard metal, but we still want a place” attitude. It never felt (at the time) like they were music school kids, writing from a how-to guide, or anything like that. It was popular in the mainstream, but it seemed it'd stuck its head in by force of sheer popularity, and had kinda beaten the odds in that sense. This was still like 98-99 so it was only a year or two into nu-metal’s mainstream run. Those bands (Korn, Slipknot, Limp Bizkit, Deftones etc) really worked for their recognition. Linkin Park’s first album was different. Even as a teenager I picked up on it. When that first “I’m about to break!” song came out I knew it was some kinda changing of the guard moment. It wasn’t nu-metal; it was radio rock pretending to be nu-metal. I remember in 2000 asking my mum to buy me In Flames’ Colony album, and she said “you sure you don’t want maybe Linkin Park instead?”. And that was because Linkin Park had worked out the market: create family-friendly rock with an angsty facade that parents didn’t find threatening. It ticked their boxes and (hopefully) also yours. It was loud, but also commercial as shit, with songs that could've been ANY genre if you'd tweaked them a bit. Most of Hybrid Theory would've made a great Shania Twain record. Not that there’s anything wrong with that (my Slippery When Wet review hopefully explains that) but it was also dishonestly subversive. It pretended to be something it wasn’t. And it’s telling that Linkin Park became the biggest band out of the whole movement, and that radio rock has never really (as of 2022) moved much past their blueprint. Nu-metal is long gone but Linkin Park's style isn't. Sure we’ve dialled back the rap-rock these days, but the core of their song structures, choruses and vague angst remain. That whole “nothin’ but rock” radio movement has been boring and stale ever since. And I blame Linkin Park. Is that a legacy? Probably. But I’m giving it 2/5.

easiest 5 of my life

I get that this was a genre defining album for the time, but the genre is really bad, so I can't condone these actions.

Just when you thought metal could go no lower, along comes to Linkin Park to add the most annoying elements of several other genres (especially emo) to drill deeper still. The combination of sheer awfulness with utter pomposity is potently toxic to the ears of anyone with any taste at all. How it sold 32 copies, let alone 32 million, boggles the mind, but that's popular taste, innit. See The Onion's Winner's History of Rock and Roll for the imbalance.

I'd only ever heard "In the End", and the rest of this is about what I expected. The whole thing comes across as like a 10-year-old's idea of badass music. Chugging alt-metal riffs, angsty lyrics, bad white guy rapping, and production elements that probably seemed dated in the year 2000. It's bad, but it's not even really groundbreaking in any sort of way. They mainly come off as a less fun version of Limp Bizkit. I did not need to hear this before I died, which might be sooner than before I listened to it. 0.5 stars.

I didn't love this. Other than "In the End", I hadn't really heard much by Linkin Park before. Why? Because I get screamed at enough in real life. I mean, I'm the guy who appreciates the Bangles' subtle harmonies, the smooth sounds of Yacht Rock, and the entire catalog of James D. Buffett. What's the opposite of Linkin Park? Jimmy, man. Or Bob Marley - hey angry Linkin Park guys, "Don't worry about a thing, every little thing is gonna be alright". That said, I do understand why people like this (maybe there are supernaturally calm people out there that just want to get their anger on), but I could feel my blood pressure rising the whole time. Neighbors walking by my open garage sped up and gave me the side eye - that must be one angry dude! No man, no. Echo, play Bob Marley Legend....check that. Play Loggins & Messina....

Dense, formulaic, stylistically hollow. Overly produced sound with annoying rap-to-raging vocals. Unmemorable. Fave Songs: None, really. Favorite quote from a fellow reviewer: "I get screamed at enough in real life."

They are the reason I got invested into metal (I'm biased)

4.5 stars. What a debut album! Every track is solid from start to end. Bennington's singing with Shinodah's rapping blends so well. Album is harder/heavier than I remember. "A Place For My Head" is a microcosm for the album and the band.

IN THE END NOTHING EVEN MATTERS

Trite shit. I thought this was 1001 albums to listen to before you die, not 1001 albums that make you want to die. This belongs at the top of the latter and shouldn't even sniff the former. Fuck this garbage. -Chris

i was hoping this would be another one like the SOAD album where i ignored it in my yoof and now i've listened to it i get it. it wasn't, if anything it was the opposite and now i've actually listened to it i like it less than i was expecting. it's super cheddar. give me limp bizkit over this any day - yeah that's right i really didn't like this.

RIP Chester.

The cultural impact of this album really can't be overstated. Growing up when it came out, I can tell you this was everywhere. There were at least 4 huge songs off this album. Despite this, Linkin Park has mostly faded into history, and in the end it doesn't even matter.

As you're going through the list of 1001 albums to hear before you die, remember to save this for last, preferably for while you're in hospice. Half way through you'll be ready to pull the plug.

Linkin Park's debut album is a classic by any standard, but it took me a long time to get to that point. Chester's trauma is thinly veiled in most songs, but the raw power and fury that drove him is on full display.

Already an album I've known and enjoyed for years

Shut up and clean your room, dude.

Thought I was too cool for school when this was originally released and gave it a wide berth. By some weird coincidence, I've been listening to this very album for the last two weeks and have living my best angsty-teen life!

This was very popular when I was in middle school, and I was very much into it. That being said, I thought I would hate hearing it again. However, I'm surprised to say I was impressed. The powerful emotions of these songs give them a timelessness, despite some of the sounds (turntable scratching) that date it. The same things that make it easy to knock also make it impactful. I know I just dissed turntable scratching, but "Cure for the Itch" is still a fucking great listen.

I get that this is a big group in 2000s “rock” but it’s not for me. Too many songs sound the same and it lacks soul.

If I listened to this rap metal style when I was much younger I may have fallen for the soft/quiet -> hard/loud -> soft/quiet changes within most of the songs, but now I find it to be cliched and just plain gimmicky. So... nope.

I don’t know if you’ve ever watched the TV Show ALF, but in the credits, there is a list of “Personal Assistants to ALF” and there’s like 4 people listed. Isn’t that wild? ALF must’ve been quite a handful to require four assistants. How many meetings and appointments did ALF have that required 4 people to plan his day to day activities? I can see him having a stylist and someone to keep track of his schedule…but 4? I had no idea ALF was such a diva.

Not a record to hear before one dies or ever, but rather a record to make one yearn for the silence of the tomb. And so utterly dated – likely the reason the editors dropped it from latest editions.

"I cannot take this anymore." You and me both, buddy. Something about the guitar and vocal tones of this is physically exhausting.

This is horrible. I thought that things could not get worse than the Limp Bizkit album--but this project proved me wrong. Musically it's just as bad, but it's so whiny and angsty. One of the most grating sounding albums I have ever heard. 1 star because I can't give anything less.

Shit

Why is this on the list

I got Hybrid Theory for Christmas in 2001. In January I listened to it maybe 60 times all the way through on my bedroom CD player. In February I took it to the hairdressers because I wanted Mike Shinoda’s hairstyle on the back cover. In March I listened to it laying on my mate’s bed at a sleepover while we looked at glow in the dark stars on his ceiling and took it in turns to do the singing bits and the rapping bits. In April it was the first thing me and the hardest lad in the year talked about that didn’t involve a threat of immediate violence being visited on me. In May I decided “Points of Authority” was my favourite when it came on Radio One as we drove past a petrol station in Barnsley. In June I learned how to play “In the End” on a keyboard (in Barnsley, too). In July and August it was summer holidays, playing “Crawling” loudly on guitar in someone’s music room in the morning before booming around on bikes until it got dark. Through September and the rest of the year it was time to talk about something else, while also still watching that world tour VHS every couple of nights for all the live footage. A year of a life, at that time of a life, is a long, long time. You pack a lot in, and don’t much think about what that’ll mean for you. And as sure as I’ve a nicotine addiction to this day — I still struggle to look past Linkin Park’s Hybrid Theory. At 14 I saw them play Leeds, at 28 I sat on the couch in Finsbury Park as we got our heads around Chester’s passing; at 32 we had a table at our wedding named for “Points of Authority”. This is an album I’ll carry around for life, now. What joy it is that I’m still finding things to love about it.

I've really enjoyed this album for a long time. In listening to it again, i certainly heard more Limp Bizkit in it than i remembered, and they certainly took different trajectories. Fred is a bit of an embarrassment while Chester improved with time. There are still enough energetic creative aggressive items on here to make it a home run.

Iconic sound. LP hit a vein of gold and then milked it for all it was worth. This album was for all those angsty teens existing without normalized therapy and proper mental health awareness. Hits like a greatest hits album.

Nu metal with emo vocals. I can see how this would appeal to angsty 13 year old boys, but I was 30 when it came out, and it just sounded like adolescent white boy whining over repetitive nu metal backing tracks; so many crunchy guitars, so much screaming, so much bad rapping and extraneous scratching. It's not as bad as the obnoxious misogyny and violent white boy entitlement of your Korns and Bizkits Limp, but I can still live without it. But I get why the young people dug it; Chester Bennington understood your pain, dude. Some reviews talk about the "innovative musical hybrid" sound of the album. Seriously, hip hop and industrial beats with metal guitars and samples and/or turntables had been done plenty of times before, going back to Tackhead in the 1980s. Hell, here's a really good Australian example from 1992; Peril's s/t album (https://youtu.be/_NjJ7nxJRdA?si=PdS4QzIV0J8c0-Wa) A lot of the credit/blame for this album's success goes to Andy Wallace, the go-to mixer for 'alternative' hard rock albums in the 90s. He had his process down pat by this stage, and the album has that super compressed gated guitar, loops, and voluminous drum sound (largely created with triggered samples) that pops on radio, but is exhausting to listen to all the way through. This album is not really my cup of tea, but it has two things in its favour: 1- it's not Limp Bizkit 2- it is appropriately brief. 37 minutes only. I'm so grateful they resisted the urge to fill the whole CD. Great call, gentlemen. For that, I give 3 stars.

Glad it's only 37 minutes long. But even then still couldn't get through it. Sure, some ok songs. But his voice doesn't do anything for me. No thanks.

Bland American rock. One of those albums that will only work for folks who grew up with it (for better or worse).

I tried, I really did, but yeah, nah.

Hybrid Theory For the first 2 seconds of Papercut I thought this might not be as poor as I expected, but then that annoying little guitar figure appears, then the ‘heavy’ riffing starts and then the terrible sing/rapping kicks in and it is truly awful. Obviously I’m not at all predisposed to metal or nu-metal, and despite having a soft spot for a couple of not very good Limp Bizkit songs, I was always going to struggle with this. But it is truly awful. It’s very, very dated, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but it sounds so bad, the guitars, despite their ‘metalness’ are insipid and limp, his vocals, whether singing or rapping, have a really irritating tinniness and thinness, the lyrics are the worst kind of moody adolescent crap, total I’m 14 And This Is Deep vibes. Forgotten’s ‘in the middle of my thoughts’ is pure Lonely Island There aren’t even any sort of enjoyably silly moments, it’s all run through with hollow, pompous self seriousness, completely lacking in any sense of light or shade, self awareness or any glimpse of humour. And all combined with such a safe amount of metal edge - despite not being keen on the metal we’ve had at least with most of it there was a kind of sense of them meaning it, whereas this sounds so self importantly calculated and cynical. One listen is enough. Woeful. 🛝 Playlist submission: Honestly who gives a shit?

God I love bubblegum metal.

Youth in an album

Neck workout

relisten. if you didn't grow up with an older sibling in the 00s you probably don't get it. i feel like every time i listen to this album it's better than i remembered

Hybrid Theory is the debut album by American rock band Linkin Park. This critically acclaimed rap rock / alternative rock album and its four singles launched the band into mainstream popularity - where they have stayed to this day. The four singles remain the band's most successful songs to date, and they are: "One step Closer", "In the End", "Crawling", & "Papercut". The album peaked at number 2 on the Billboard 200, is certified 12x platinum (diamond), and is the best-selling rock album of the 21st century. This is the first time that I have listened to Linkin Park's debut album in one sitting (I've heard its singles many times) and I have to say it was pretty awesome! The nostalgia this gave me for the early 2000's is unmatched and listening to this album today made it a great day. Well produced, amazing hooks, and aggressive lyrics shape this album to be a cornerstone of modern rock. You'd be hard pressed to find anyone that hasn't heard at least one of these songs before, but everyone needs to listen to this album.

A classic of my preteens. Full of angst and alienation that I can still relate to. Love the aesthetic of the cover. I don't think I've paid super close attention to what the guitar does before. I know this album pretty well tho. Or at least the hits. Some of this stuff gets kinda heavy tbh. Riffs are more Nu Metal-y than I recall — which should be obvs because this was one of THE nu metal albums of that era. This album feels like the soundtrack to dissociating over angst and abuse and inner pain. The band does way more interesting stuff instrumentally on the non-singles. The Mr. Hahn track (Cure for the Itch) was pretty sick, ngl. This band's instrumentals are kinda fun. Pushing Me Away feels like a blueprint for Numb, similar vibe, similar simple guitars over melodic synth/electronic with simple guitar chords coming in for the chorus. It's youthful and earnest as an album, and I see why it's one of the best selling rock albums of all time. LP wrote some good pop, riffs, melodies, compositions, raps, lyrics, etc. here. Feels pretty focused ngl.

Loved it, not my usual listening material, familiar with alot of this but was never my genre... Great to listen to something that I wouldn't normally choose... Felt like a step back to the noughties...

so good, brings me back to my teenage years! top songs: obvs In The End, and Pushing Me Away

No. 297/1001 Papercut 4/5 One Step Closer 3/5 With You 4/5 Points of Authority 3/5 Crawling 3/5 Runaway 4/5 By Myself 3/5 In the End 5/5 A Place for My Head 3/5 Forgotten 3/5 Cure for the Itch 3/5 Pushing Me Away 4/5 Average: 3,5 At times really good, at times a bit repetitive.

во первых, почему сайт опять прикольнулся и подкинул ЛП после новости о камбэке, как былло с оазис?) во вторых, я конечно этот альбом пиздюком гонял как сумасшедший, но как подрос то перестал это слушать. и не слушал ЛП уже много лет. сейчас вот переслушал и чисто ностальгически кайфанул. а некоторые трэки прям сладкие. но в целом засчёт того, что ЛП от меня отлепились естественным образом поставлю не пятерку. а ещё идите нахуй хуесосы кто говорит что это музло для школьников, не тру роцк. это идеальная точка входа в рок, а уже потом из этих детей вылупятся снобы говноеды типа вас мудачков )))

Hell yeah

I get why they were popular but they sound very dated already.

Reasonably well mixed album. That said the lyrical content leans more on the side of edgy cringe than genuine angst. The sound is hard and heavy, but the punch pulling softens the overall appeal.

A classic nümetal album. However, even if it's very well known today, perhaps the most well known, it was not really genre defining at the time and does have its weak points.

An amazing album to hear as a pre-teen. All that pent up child/teenage angst released with a nice bit of rap/rock/nu-metal. Then a few years later I turned 16 and never played it again. Listening back as an adult I'm torn between hearing the songs as I heard them then and loving it and hearing it afresh now and realising it's pretty naff. 4* and 2* respectively for those two versions of me.

Not my favourite new album experience in this project.

It's Like A Whirlwind Inside Of My Head 1001 Albums Generator 13 (04/21/2025) Recently, I have seen discourse among music discussion boards that the introduction and overuse of the word "mid" has effectively destroyed music criticism. It is a word that can be employed endlessly and requires no justification. However, I would argue that the "mid epidemic" is the latest of a string of meaningless criticism - an evolution from a criticism that Linkin Park was all too familiar with: "edgy". In the 2000's-2010's, there was nothing worse that you could be than cringe (which edgy was a subset of), and Linkin Park was a total edgy cringefest. However, Gen Z is embracing the formerly cringey. As a wise man once said: "Kill not the part of you that is cringe; kill the part of you that cringes". As such, this band, especially this album and Meteora, have seen quite a critical reevaluation by the youth as of late. Is this an instance of Gen Z rebellion against their uncool Millennial counterparts, or is it a well-deserved reframing of an unfairly disrespected band? The hits off of Linkin Park's debut, Hybrid Theory, are really quite good. The opening track, Papercut, is probably my favorite song by the group. It features a really interesting electronic sounding guitar part and a great, catchy chorus. One thing that Linkin Park does not get nearly enough credit for is their pop sensibilities. It really is no surprise to me that they got as popular as they did. This song also has this really cool drum thing where halfway through the verses, the drums switch from a closed hi hat to open, which to my ears gives the impression of going into a halftime grove, even though the timing hasn't actually changed; it's just pure genius on display. In addition to this song, the two biggest hits on this album are the oft memed In The End and Crawling. The two biggest sins of Linkin Park in the eyes of the cringe police are on this album, and both of them are honestly pretty good in retrospect. The verses of Crawling are very forgettable, but that chorus is electric. In The End is the finest example of LP's songwriting trope of Mike Shinoda rapping on the verse and Chester Bennington belting the chorus. This song is iconic, and no amount of calling it cringe will change that. Outside the hits, there are a couple of other bright moments. A Place For My Head has a great Phrygian groove and is probably the most memorable guitar part on this album. It also has one of the heaviest moments on the album in its bridge. Pushing Me Away is good but ultimately comes off as a slightly worse version of In The End. By Myself has a really heavy riff, but a terrible verse part that feels so whiny. The vocals on this album in general just do not sit well with me. I feel so bad saying that about a hometown hero like Chester Bennington (the house he lived in when he tragically took his own life was really close to where I grew up), but I've just never really bought his whole thing. There are moments on this album, such as the chorus of Forgotten, where his voice sounds more nasal than oral. In general, the mixing on this album is very much a product of its time. Anyone familiar with the contemporary history of music production will know what I mean: Hybrid Theory is a victim of the Loudness War. This thing is compressed to fucking shit. In spite of this, there are production moments that I like. The electronic elements can be really cool, especially seen on Papercut and the interlude Cure For The Itch. The guitar tone on this is also one of the best that I have heard in nu-metal. So, is the critical re-evaluation Gen Z rebellion and counterculturalism or well-deserved and long overdue? Well, Hybrid Theory has high highs and features iconic pop-oriented choruses with great guitar tones. However, it has lots of filler, rough mixing/mastering, and a dated sound. I would say the good and bad elements just about outweigh one another, so unfortunately, the jury is still out. 2.5/5, rounded down to 2/5. Favs: Papercut In The End A Place For My Head Least Fav: Runaway

"The best-selling rock album of the 21st century". What if that said more about the state of rock than it being an endorsement of this?

I was prepared to give this a go, but I just do not like it. Nu-Metal crossed with bad rap. I can appreciate some of the creativity, but I won't be spinning this one again.

linkin park has not aged well. still fun despite its corniness but the hits on this thing still hit. you're better off just listening to the top songs of this n skipping the rest

Like bits of this, but similar to a lot of nu-metal it can feel a bit plastic to me. Not sure what itis, maybe over production, too much compression...not sure, but everything feels like it has a sheen, like it's somehow restrained and lacking depth. Lyrically, the overuse of first person moaning about relationships can get tiring, there is a lot of 'tell' and not much 'show' going one, with lyrics telling us how the singer feels, but not giving much story / context.

I was surprised this album was included on this list, but then again, there's probably not a record that epitomizes the execrable early '00s hard-rock era like this one. After hearing many of these song a bazillion times on the radio during that era, it's hard to separate it from one of the most mookish spans of music. I hadn't listened to this end to end since I reviewed it on original release. I remember then thinking that it was a successor to PWEI, and, man I sure was optimistic (stupid?) in that regard. These days, it comes off just like a slightly less idiotic Limp Bizkit, and most of non-stupidity comes from the fact that Bennington seems unable to sing about anything other than his feelings - no context for them, no situations, nothing but emo, emo emo. Yeah, someone else has probably already pulled on that rather uninteresting thread since his suicide. There are dozens of other albums from his epoch that are probably worse if you're going to go back and listen, but why would you? Millennial tough-guy-with-feelings hard rock is something we just need to let go. Forever.

How? How is this band so beloved? Limp Bizkit is so hated that even me, someone who was in diapers at the time of their musical relevance thinks that Limp Bizkit jokes are overused. (rightfully so I may add) And yet Linkin Park is beloved? I mean I've heard a few of their bigger songs before and they really weren't my style but I expected better than whatever this is. You have to be max age of 14 to find this cool. Is nostalgia really that powerful for people? 1/10

👎

I remember borrowing my brother's Linkin Park CD as a kid and skipping through the songs. I thought the CD or player was broken because every song sounded exactly the same. It's nice to revisit them as an adult so I can confirm I wasn't just being a closed minded kid Cure for the Itch is interesting and different For the most part the lyrics felt like something I would write which is not a complement

I already noticed it was crap when I was 13 and this was released. Everybody that I knew that were more or less interested in music agreed that this was indeed an utter crap. The fact that 25 years after it, some music lovers respect Linkin Park, they play in Festival, they get recommended in lists like this, etc. annoys me at so many levels. MTV crap for stupid fake rebels teenagers, not rock, not metal, not counterculture at all. Fuck off.

This was absolutely nightmare! longest 37 minutes in my life

In middle school I had a best friend, I'll call her Veronica. We were two parallel yet distinct flavors of edgy, and we were for a time inseparable (and I am pretty confident no one I met from school ever understood me more than she did) but we were also still middle school girls at our emotional nadir. And eventually this would cause a rift between us until we stopped speaking to each other in 8th grade and never spoke again since. What actually happened is that she stopped talking to me, just as the rest of our friend group started to wane from me around the same time (I'm sure because of something I did, I was a real asshole to be around at that age.) And not wanting to accept the reality of being rejected again, because around that tender time the only family that was regularly around was my single mom who was always at work and wasn't really able to be around outside of that, I wrote Veronica a long letter of why I didn't want to be friends with her anymore even though she clearly made the decision first. Anyway. Her favorite bands were Green Day and Linkin Park. I was obsessed with Björk and Radiohead. We both thought we were tortured souls that no one understood and wanted for someone else to notice how tortured we were. She wore fingerless gloves and wore her hair over her eyes and I dressed normal but I would cut my hair short, or would face my iPod conspicuously when a younger and more hip-looking substitute teacher would be in proximity in the hopes I could talk to them about Elliott Smith and they could tell me I had very good music taste for my age. The reason why I tell this story is so you can understand why I gave this record a 1. It's not because it's bad or too edgy or juvenile, it's because when I was 12, it was very important to me that the world understood that I wasn't *this* kind of edgy, I was a *very specific and different* kind of edgy, so god please, somebody notice. Just like it was for Veronica.

To be fair its not a bad song, but did they have to record it so many times?

I dont like this band

Not sure if there is another band with a bigger delta between how well liked they are and how little I understand the appeal. This is Korn for people who are scared by actual menacing heavy metal. Rap for people who need their music to sound bland and white. Rock for Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC fans who want to think they are bad asses. The production is overwrought and heavy handed. The lyrics are like what you would find in a high schoolers diary. The songwriting and structure are predictable, sloppy and cheesy. I can usually find redeeming qualities in the most saccharine of pop music confections and popular wide appealing music, but this feels like heavy metal done by a committee and focus groups to provide the widest appeal possible. This is in here because it sold a lot of records, not for quality.

Is this the oldest album to get the hook from the book? I didn't realise they'd gone back as far as 2000 to make room. Happy with that though, there's nothing particularly special about this band, they should go back further to pick out the duds or stuff that time hasn't been kind to, instead of removing one of the 3 records they pick for later years as if no important music happend after 2015. Fact I'm talking about the book rather than the album tells it's own story. One Step Closer was fun at the time ( and isn't now), I have almost no time for anything else here. Every song is almost exactly the same - one listen to the second and third singles was enough to realise Oh, right, they're just going to do this exact thing again and again - hence I never felt compelled to listen to the album before and was instead listening to the few good nu metal bands, and ska punk instead. I should have been target audience still, being 21, but this was obviously shit to my ears, so oh well, onto the next thing. One million clones of this irritating, uninteresting, overproduced music sprang up following this album, and soundtracked the entire WWE Attitude Era. Which is definitely the only acceptable context for them. Background wallpaper for fighty acting and athletic exploits. For which it worked pretty well. I was waiting for this to end from the very first track. Thank the lord Jesus Christ and all the other fictional sky lobsters that this CD-era album is a reasonable length. At least Wikipedia hasn't labelled this as metal, metal showing up as one of my worst genres is quite funny as a metal fan, but almost all the metal choices in this book are an abomination.

I am sorry but I simply cannot take this music seriously

Whiny voices and indecipherable guitars to be "edgy" , utterly unlistenable and probably in the worst 5 albums on this list.

Trash

This is embarrassing to listen to. Lyrics that the kid failing school because he didn't try but blamed the school relates to and record scratches that puts Jet Set Radio to shame, there is nothing here that I enjoy. The fact that System of a Down is lumped in with this whiney rap-rock bullshit because the era of nu-metal just happened to be going on is awful. Everything here just sounds the same, and the best part here is that it is relatively short compared to most other albums on here.

An album of angry anthemic fight songs. Was never a fan of the punk, pop era. Chester's thrash metal vocals sound forced (to me) and the constant rapping over the top just doesn't appeal, but each to their own, probably a generational thing and I'm too old for it. It's like nine inch nails origins, but hungry for commercial success has made it niche, conceited and inauthentic. Glad it's only short. Sad about Chester though, rest in peace.

I’ve always had a problem with Linkin Park The singer sounds too much like James Hetfield and their songs just all run together

soup

One of the best nu-metal albums of all time, simple as. Solid 5 Stars.

Yeah, that’s a 5. That’s my first time listening to a Linkin Park album in full, and I think I finally, finally understand just why nu-metal struck such a chord in 2000: it just sounds cool as hell. Even when we got the Limp Bizkit album on the list 275 days ago, I very consistently gave a lot of love to the instrumental side of that album, because I’m a sucker for nu-metal production tricks & soundscapes. The only thing that dragged that album down is Fred Durst’s goofy-ass voice, which I called a “gift from God” in the comedic sense. Chester Bennington, rest his soul, has a genuine gift from God on this one. The amount of power he’s able to belt with on this album is crazy It might not be everyone’s tea, and I’m sure a younger version of me would’ve dismissed it as some form of “melodic yelling” that couldn’t possibly stand up to "real vocalists". I’d tell that version of me to shut the fuck up nowadays – Chester gives an insanely captivating vocal performance that drags out every inch of emotion it can possibly muster, on some lyrics that are incredibly effective. It’s not super flowery language, nor does it evoke the sort of imagery that Stevie Wonder waxing poetic about the morning rain might, but it’s perfect in the way that it captures a specific feeling & a specific frame of mind, enhanced further by how well the instrumentation plays into it. Everything is in a harmony here that’s hard to describe, but easy to feel. All the credit in the world to Mike Shinoda, by the way; his rap verses & flows slide in perfectly to compliment Chester's vocals, and they absolutely glide on the instrumentals. Trust me, I’m someone who’s generally huge on lyrics, but I didn’t feel like they were deeply necessary to capture the mood of each track. That said, I need to go back and check them further, because I’m sure there are some moments that feel a bit more “poetic” than I’m giving this credit for. Regardless, I equate the overall performance to something more like slam poetry, where body language and intent matter just as much as the lines themselves do. These are brilliantly performed, and they never really overstay their welcome. A few tracks didn’t quite hit the same as others, but that’s to be expected with an album where the criticism of “all the tracks kinda sound the same” is somewhat valid (if a bit stretchy). With that said, much like AC/DC’s Highway to Hell, I’m willing to ignore it when the quality of every track is just that damn strong, and if you’re not willing to ignore it, you’re never, ever, EVER gonna like this album. Is it possible that I’m getting a little swept up in a first-time listen? I dunno, maybe. I don’t think I really care if I am or not – I mostly just feel like I’m beyond late to a party that I should’ve gotten into years ago. Hell, I don’t know that I would’ve appreciated this album as much without some of the metal-oriented stuff we’ve gotten on this list to this point. This is the nexus point of nu-metal in a lot of ways, because I do think everyone in the genre tried to chase the sound of this album after seeing just how damn successful it became. I’ve seen people say Meteora is better, and I may just have to listen to that one for myself. As far as this one goes… yeah, it’s a super easy 5. At the end of the day, it just kicks ass. Not one complaint from me.

Lieb ich, schon immer

Love!

Linkin Park are a certified classic for a reason. The music sets the mood for the entirety of the album and the vocals only add to this. Definitely an album I could listen to on repeat, though I do wish there was more screamo personally.

Még mindig 5/5

Looooved this album as a kid. Still slaps.

Amazing, Literally one if my favorite albums of all time

Awesome

The only good nu-metal album

Love it

Excellent cohesive album integrating multiple genres

God, this brings me back! This is one of those album I can't objectively rate it - it has too many memories attached. 14 year old me is too busy rocking out to it. Points of Authority hits especially hard in today's political climate.

A high school me favorite. Still hits hard 25 years later.

One of the best rock albums of this century

This is the DSOTM for nu-metal/rap-rock. If you're between the ages of 26-34 and you didn't listen to this religiously, that is a self report that you had Xx_N0-Fr13nd5_xX. Perfect album from a shit genre.

All day I've been asking myself, am I really going to do it? Am I really going to give Lincoln Park a 5/5? Such an awesome time capsul, more than that it is so unbelievably well produced. The sound isn't for everyone that's for sure. It's needlessly edgy, but not splatter edgy. Which path white boy, the sickness or hybrid theory? But it doesn't do this album justice, it's no wonder this album is beloved by morons who like I prevail and prentious music nerds alike. There's something to it man, mastering a genre commands respect. Bout to pump a white monster, punch dry wall and blast this all over again. 9/10

Always knew this was gonna be a 5/5. Say what you will say about nu rock but man Linkin Park in its own level. HAVING SAID THAT, everything prior to Transformers is gold, post Transformers, it dropped for me at least. Now when it comes to this album? It has in the end man, what else to say. Started it all. 5/5

How was this their first album? Such a complete sound, so many bangers, what a treat.