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Linkin Park

F0rneus

Tears in the rain
HUGE fan of Hybrid Theory. Loved most of Meteora and The Hunting Party. I prefer angsty nu-metal LP over the pop albums. Really hated One More Light. Fantastic band. Chester's suicide was such a gut punch. Like many others, his voice got me through some dark times. Hell it still does.

Incoming hot take, but I always enjoyed Hybrid Theory more than I did Meteora.

That's....not a hot take. Google LP albums ranked, and see which one is always number one lol
 

Wazzy

Banned
Hybrid Theory, Meteora and Reanimation are my top three albums and the ones I've listened to the most throughout the years. I also think Thousand Suns and Living Things were fantastic albums.

The album I found myself liking the least was Minutes To Midnight. I had a lot of trouble enjoying songs from that album with only a couple I actually liked. Overall it's hard knowing One More Light will be their final album.
 
I've owned/listened to only 1 Linkin Park album. Hybrid Theory was actually responsible for me getting into rock music of any kind. They were never really my style after that album but I always had a soft spot for Linking Park because of this.
 

Gin-Shiio

Member
That's....not a hot take. Google LP albums ranked, and see which one is always number one lol

giphy.gif
 
Hybrid Theory is my favorite - also it holds a special place in my heart as the first rock album I ever got.


Spent alot of time in middle school waiting 2 days to complete the download for anime music videos with In the End, Crawling, Runaway, etc.
 
I love One More Light. I fell in love with it the day it came out and it just has gotten better and better since. Although a lot of the songs have gotten really hard to listen to since last week..

Chester's death has rocked me hard. I broke down crying when I first heard the news last week, and have cried about it every day since. I can't believe that I'm mourning a celebrity, but it feels different with Chester. Linkin Park was the first band I ever connected with. They got me into music. I've loved everything they've put out, and I still listen to them daily. His death hurts. And I know it's not just me - for as much crap as LP have gotten over the years, they reached so many people. Their music has touched so many people going through whatever they're going through.

I don't know. I'm emotional again, and now it feels like I'm rambling. Linkin Park means a lot to me.

RIP Chester. You were loved.
 

TronWayne

Member
I've always enjoyed Linkin Park, the only albums I haven't really given a good listen are their last two. Reanimation and A Thousand Suns are probably my favorite, but Meteora and Hybrid Theory are great too. Minutes to Midnight is no slouch either. They really perfected a Pop-Rock style that appeals to a lot of people. I always gloss over the crap heaped on them because that's just how people are. I can listen to Danny Brown and Lil Ugly Mane but still enjoy Linkin Park. In the end who gives a damn. Chester has a fantastic voice, Mike is a solid rapper, and the instrumentation has always had a really clean sound I enjoy.
 

Velikost

Member
I love both Hybrid Theory and Meteora, the former being my favorite. I still remember when I got it, on a field trip in 5th grade. I'd seen in the back of an issue of the Rolling Stone that it had been on the Billboard charts for like 54 weeks straight, and I figured I owed it to myself to check it out. I wasn't disappointed.

I just looked it up because I wanted to make sure I remembered that Billboard thing right: "While it only reached no. 2 on the Billboard 200, it was the 11th best performing album on the chart during the decade, spending more than 150 weeks on it since its release, sitting in the top ten for 34 weeks"

I dunno if 150 weeks was a regular thing for albums, but goddamn.
 
If we're doing a top 5, I'm including spinoffs

1. The Rising Tied - Probably my favorite album of all time. There's not a single weak track on this mix, and I appreciate the more grounded, down-to-earth type of stories it depicts. It's thematically theme bleak like a regular LP record, but the focus on hip-hop, art, and struggle elevate it to its own podium.

2. Meteora -- Undeniably the most similar of albums to its predecessor in their catalogue, but that's certainly not a bad thing. While I may jokingly call it Hybrid Theory pt. 2, LP managed to tighten up the lyrics and polish the flow of the album. Numb is such a great track to end on.

3. Hybrid Theory - Depending on the day this could easily be number two on my list. The album that started it all -- really what else is there to say? This was where Linkin Park established their voice.

4. Living Things - This album felt like a new take on their original work. You can tell they were listening to fans concerns of deviating from their sound, but at the same time tried to make something new. It also led to Recharged, an album with some of the best remixes I've ever heard.

5. Minutes to Midnight - I remember being awfully upset with this one upon release, but (like every album of theirs that would follow) it started to grow on me in a huge way. This is the first major album of theirs to break out of the nu-metal mold and I respect that. The slower songs, In Between and The Little Things Give You Away, are timeless.

Hybrid Theory: Papercut
Reanimation: Frgt/10
Meteora: Lying from You
Collision Course:Dirt off Your Shoulder/Lying from You
The Rising Tied: Red to Black
Minutes to Midnight: In Pieces
A Thousand Suns: The Catalyst
Living Things: Roads Untraveled
Recharged: Powerless (Enferno Remix)
The Hunting Party: Rebellion
One More Light: Heavy
 

creatchee

Member
Of the first two albums, yes, that was their concept, on their following four studio albums, however, not really?

No, it's not. I guarantee you can't find even a quarter of their songs that fit that.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/a-look-at-linkin-parks-top-selling-albums-and-songs/2017/07/21/15af6e0c-6e1e-11e7-abbc-a53480672286_story.html

Their first two albums (and be honest - a lot of their third) was rapping and screaming). Their biggest albums were screaming and rapping albums. Their biggest songs skew towards, but are admittedly not exclusively, rapping and screaming songs. On the Linkin Park timeline, rapping and screaming sold more. More people bought it. More people were exposed to it. The further they got away from it, the less people bought and listened. If you ask 100 people to name a Linkin Park song, I would estimate that 90 of them would name a rapping and screaming song.

THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH ANY OF THAT. Artists are allowed to rap and scream and be known for that. Artists are allowed to evolve and change their sound, regardless of impact on sales and exposure. In fact, one might say that those who do not change with the times are detrimental to themselves and music as a whole. But don't try to tell me that Linkin Park isn't MOST WELL KNOWN as the band with the rapping and screaming, because that is patently false and intellectually dishonest. And besides that, there is nothing disrespectful or distasteful in saying as such. Linkin Park sold a lot of albums and reached a lot of people from screaming and rapping. IT'S NOT A KNOCK ON THEM OR CHESTER SPECIFICALLY.

Shit.... Chester dying is a tragedy. I have an immense sadness that he is gone and that another light was extinguished far too soon. Art, whether we like it or not, can only be made by artists, and when an artist leaves us, there is a hole that can never quite be filled, even by somebody similar. I wish that he had somehow gotten better and not taken his life. As this thread and other sources from all over the world has shown, he and his band meant a lot to great many people, regardless of what style of music they were currently producing.
 
A Thousand Suns is hands down my favorite album. I listened to Living Things and The Hunting Party a few times, and I thought they were fine, but I never really cared to listen to them again. Didn't care for One More Light, but I haven't gone back and listened to it since he died.

Favorite songs are Waiting for the End and Faint. I also really fucking like In Pieces, and I'm convinced I'm the only Linkin Park fan that really like that song. I'll Be Gone is also really good, I always thought that would of been a better single then Lost in the Echo or Powerless
 

Peccavi

Member
I always liked Linkin Park, but the lyrics always seemed generic teen angtsy, "Screw you parents." Chester's childhood was the missing piece of the puzzle for me. It wasn't generic teen angst, those songs were very personal, and the albums with that context are much more powerful. It's like i'm finally hearing these songs I've listened to a thousand times for the first time.

Rest in peace, Chester.
 

nekkid

It doesn't matter who we are, what matters is our plan.
Hybrid Theory hit me right in the teenage angst. It's hard for many other albums to have fit a better time of my life.

There was another, better, non-LP album, but that has since been ruined.
 

kaskade

Member
While they aren’t the best, Hybrid Theory and Meteora will always be 2 of my favorites. They hit me at a great time, I wasn’t really too angsty of a kid when they fist came out but they enlightened me to those awesome heavy riffs. Plus, CDs were all you could listen too at the time so it was just a constant rotation of those songs. Now my music habits are so much more scattered thanks to streaming to don’t get the chance to really absorb myself into an album as I used to. At least not without effort.
 

Haruko

Member
Favorite songs are Waiting for the End and Faint. I also really fucking like In Pieces, and I'm convinced I'm the only Linkin Park fan that really like that song. I'll Be Gone is also really good, I always thought that would of been a better single then Lost in the Echo or Powerless

In Pieces has a fantastic build up.

I like I'll Be Gone, but ever since I head the longform demo version I've wished we had gotten that on the album instead
 

xam3l

Member
In Pieces has a fantastic build up.

I like I'll Be Gone, but ever since I head the longform demo version I've wished we had gotten that on the album instead

I feel like In Pieces is criminaly underrated. I was lucky enough to ear that live in one of the first times they included it in their setlist. I've felt things I have never felt before.

Looking back, I'm also very fond of Jornada Del Muerto. It was my soundtrack, every single time I did my early morning shift some years ago. Incredible stuff to ear at dawn.
 

Nowise10

Member
Been listening to One More Light for the first time, as it caught my attention after his passing. A lot of amazing songs in there just like all of their albums.

I feel like Linkin Park had a ton more music in them. I really hope they continue their journey, and find a way even without Chester's magic.
 

LycanXIII

Member
If we're doing a top 5, I'm including spinoffs

Hybrid Theory: Papercut
Reanimation: Frgt/10
Meteora: Lying from You
Collision Course:Dirt off Your Shoulder/Lying from You
The Rising Tied: Red to Black
Minutes to Midnight: In Pieces
A Thousand Suns: The Catalyst
Living Things: Roads Untraveled
Recharged: Powerless (Enferno Remix)
The Hunting Party: Rebellion
One More Light: Heavy

What about Out of Ashes?

DBS_OutOfAshes_cover.jpg
 

janoDX

Member
For me, it's very tight on the scores.

1. Meteora: 9.8/10
2. A Thousand Suns: 9.5/10
3. Hybrid Theory: 9.2/10
4. The Hunting Party: 8.8/10
5. One More Light: 8.2/10 - Yes, I changed my perception of the album over time, it is good, but not top 3 good.
6. Minutes to Midnight: 7.5/10
7. Living Things: 7/10

Others:
Reanimation: 9.5/10
LP + Jay-Z Collision Course: 9.3/10
Recharged: 6/10
A Decade Underground: 7.8/10


Top Songs:
1. Breaking The Habit (and maybe every other song of Meteora but I will only include one because it would be too much put every song of that album)
2. Waiting For The End
3. Final Masquerade
4. The Catalyst
5. Somewhere I Belong
6. In The End
7. Leave Out All The Rest
8. Heavy
9. Burn It Down
10. Papercut
 
Leave Out All The Rest will forever be my favorite Linkin Park song. That melody has got me to question a lot of things about what I've become and whether I'm truly a good person or not.
 
Hybrid Theory and Reanimation were my favorites. After listening to Meteora again I think my nostalgia for it faded. I found myself skipping through half the songs. After Meteora I stopped listening to them because of the combination of my music taste changing and jumping on the "Linkin Park is lame" bandwagon. Maybe I'll go back and listen to what I missed.

Favorite songs:
My December (Reanimation remix)
Numb
With You
Shadow Of The Day
In The End
Breaking The Habit
Nobody's Listening
Runaway
Pushing Me Away
 

Ramsiege

Member
A Thousand Suns has been my favorite album of theirs since I first heard it, and Waiting for the End my favorite song of theirs. I'm glad to see more people on here giving it a chance as it's truly unlike anything that they had done up to that point or since.

Minutes to Midnight is another one I really enjoyed. I loved how the guitars sounded more 'raw' and less perfect on it. No Roads Left is a great B-side from this album I highly recommend if you haven't heard it. Across the Line is another good one, as is Blackbirds.

Overall, I've loved all their albums and it sucks that I'm no longer going to have a new album to look forward to. They've been my favorite band since I was 13 and I'm 30 now. I always appreciated them trying new styles with their albums and making music they wanted to make. Every time I think of their specific albums it's like a time stamp and takes me back to a different point in my life. I hope the band continues to make music, even if under a different name.

RIP Chester, you sang the soundtrack to my life so far.
 
A thousand suns is my favorite album and The Catalyst is their masterpiece, it's such a unique song with a cool build up. Demands to be played loud.

I find it fascinating in a very sad way how Chester's death had given a lot of their songs a new life and angle to them. The lyrics that a lot of people dismissed as melodramatic now gives us an insight into someone who truly felt that way and ultimately let it get to them.
 

TWILT

Banned
Meteora still remains my favorite (though I admittedly haven't given their newer stuff a good enough listen.) Too many iconic songs like Breaking The Habit, Numb, Somewhere I Belong, Faint and Easier to Run for me.

I used to be taken aback with how softer sounding Minutes to Midnight sounded (I used to only listen to What I've Done, No More Sorrow and Given Up haha), but it's really grown on me to be my second favorite. I love Shadow of the Day, Valentine's Day, and In Pieces now.

RIP Chester. Thanks for everything and I'll miss you so much.
 

DragoonKain

Neighbours from Hell
Believe it or not one of my favorite tracks from them, if not me overall favorite is Session. It has no lyrics, but I love the melody. In the End was probably my favorite vocal track of theirs. Haven't listened to their stuff in a while though.
 
A Thousand Suns is hands down my favorite album. I listened to Living Things and The Hunting Party a few times, and I thought they were fine, but I never really cared to listen to them again. Didn't care for One More Light, but I haven't gone back and listened to it since he died.

Favorite songs are Waiting for the End and Faint. I also really fucking like In Pieces, and I'm convinced I'm the only Linkin Park fan that really like that song. I'll Be Gone is also really good, I always thought that would of been a better single then Lost in the Echo or Powerless

I feel like In Pieces is criminaly underrated. I was lucky enough to ear that live in one of the first times they included it in their setlist. I've felt things I have never felt before.

There's isn't a single song in their catalog that deserved to be a single more than In Pieces. To me, it should've been their centerpiece over What I've Done. The xylophone or whatever the heck they had playing in the background was magnificent. I remember being convinced it would have a huge music video, then being shocked when a the song was promptly forgotten about.

What about Out of Ashes?

DBS_OutOfAshes_cover.jpg

I enjoyed this side project as well. It's been forever since I gave it a listen, but I still remember listening to My Suffering on repeat for a good while.

And if we're going to dig even deeper. Fort Minor: We Major's Spraypaint & Ink Pens probably took up a good month's worth of play time on my radio.

And if we're digging even deeper than that, And One from their time as Xero also deserved more notoriety.

"Breaking a part of my heart to find release!
Taking you out of my blood to bring me peace!"

And that closing verse, my God!

Spit drips from the jaw of the witless witness
Cryptic colloquialisms shift your midriff
Dog-paddle through a bog of shadows and smog
With my thought catalog, analog, rap battle log

Keep my distance, and fear resistance, hurt by persistence
The twisted web of tangled lies strangles my hope to waste and numbs the taste

And I'm forced to face these hate crimes against the state of being, feeling the weightlessness, press me to the ceiling, reeling around rooms, riding a bubble of sound tuned to the frequency making your chest shake with every boom

Involuntary muscle contraction
Ignoring your neck's breaking, musical gas fume euphoria
The sound pounds to make the dead flush
To hand you a head rush with read rhymes and said stuff
 
Gonna be the strange one and say Living Things is my favorite album of theirs. I adore the discography, but this one just has a little bit of everything in it. Going from "Victimized" to "Castle of Glass" is such a crazy jump in tone and style, and LP pull it off without effort.

I really love One More Light as well. It's different and it took some getting used to, but lyrically it's their best work.
 

Mathieran

Banned
Hybrid Theory was my favorite album. They sounded fresh and different to me at the time. Also as an angsty teenager the lyrics spoke to me. I still think it sounds good, but sometimes the lyrics can get in the way of me enjoying it. Same thing happens when I try to listen to Korn.

Meteora is also still pretty good. I never really liked anything they put out since that album.

Edit: I guess in light of recent events the lyrics don't seem so melodramatic though. A person genuinely struggling with their demons.
 

Avalanche

Member
Favorite songs are Waiting for the End and Faint. I also really fucking like In Pieces, and I'm convinced I'm the only Linkin Park fan that really like that song. I'll Be Gone is also really good, I always thought that would of been a better single then Lost in the Echo or Powerless

As a casual listener, In Pieces and Waiting For The End are easily their best two songs in my mind and probably would be among their most appealing work for people who didn't think much of the band. Very melodic, not overly heavy and great big final choruses.
 
Gonna be the strange one and say Living Things is my favorite album of theirs. I adore the discography, but this one just has a little bit of everything in it. Going from "Victimized" to "Castle of Glass" is such a crazy jump in tone and style, and LP pull it off without effort.

I really love One More Light as well. It's different and it took some getting used to, but lyrically it's their best work.

Living things is my second favourite album, castle of glass is awesome
 
THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH ANY OF THAT. Artists are allowed to rap and scream and be known for that. Artists are allowed to evolve and change their sound, regardless of impact on sales and exposure. In fact, one might say that those who do not change with the times are detrimental to themselves and music as a whole. But don't try to tell me that Linkin Park isn't MOST WELL KNOWN as the band with the rapping and screaming, because that is patently false and intellectually dishonest. And besides that, there is nothing disrespectful or distasteful in saying as such. Linkin Park sold a lot of albums and reached a lot of people from screaming and rapping. IT'S NOT A KNOCK ON THEM OR CHESTER SPECIFICALLY.

In response to the bolded... yeah, in this context it is.

This was supposed to be a discussion about people's favorite albums and songs in the bands catalogue in the aftermath of Chester's death, and very possibly the band's dissolution. Basically everyone else is talking about the little things that made each album special and different, and I for one never knew so many people shared my love for "In Pieces".

But instead, you just couldn't help but rush to make the first comment a reductive and dismissive stereotype about the band. That's poor form in the best of times, but given recent events is completely without tact. You don't get to be the indignant one here because people take issue with that.
 
Haven't listened to all of their albums yet, but I would probably say it's a toss up between Hybrid Theory and Living Things. I always really enjoyed Living Things and my favorite song is probably between In The End and In My Remains.
 
My ranking, such as it is after being a fan since Meteora first dropped:

Living Things
One More Light
A Thousand Suns
Meteora
Hybrid Theory
Minutes to Midnight
The Hunting Party
 

RDreamer

Member
Been listening nonstop for the last week. Their discography is surprisingly solid all throughout, honestly. I think people wrote them off way too much. I wrote them off too much.

I'd probably rank them something like:

Hybrid Theory > Meteora > A Thousand Suns > Living Things > Hunting Party > One More Light > Minutes to Midnight

Hard to really say though since HT and Meteora come from a very different place and have a lot attached to them. Nowadays they're hard to listen to because I played them so ridiculously much.
 

Darkatomz

Member
At this point in time, my album ranking and top highlights from each record would be as follows.
  • Hybrid Theory (Papercut, Crawling, In The End, A Place For My Head, Pushing Me Away)
  • Meteora (Lying From You, Faint, Breaking The Habit, From The Inside, Numb)
  • The Hunting Party (Keys To The Kingdom, Until It's Gone, Final Masquerade, A Line In The Sand)
  • Living Things (Lost In The Echo, Castle Of Glass, Powerless)
  • Minutes To Midnight (Leave Out All The Rest, Shadow Of The Day, What I've Done, The Little Things Give You Away)
  • One More Light (Nobody Can Save Me, Sorry For Now, One More Light)
  • A Thousand Suns (Waiting For The End, Iridescent, The Messenger)

Other notables not found in LP's official discography:
  • And One (LP's first song with Chester)
  • Dedicated
  • High Voltage (Remix)
  • Primo (I'll Be Gone Demo)
  • In The End Demo
  • It's Goin' Down
  • L.O.A.T.R.
  • My December
  • No Roads Left
  • Numb/Encore
  • Part Of Me
  • Rolling In The Deep (Adele cover)
  • So Far Away
  • Walking Dead
  • We Made It
  • White Noise
  • Rock AM Ring 2004 (best concert)


Between all of the difficult things going on in my life right now, I'm still struggling with the loss of Chris Cornell and now Chester Bennington. Most probably have some idea of just how influential Linkin Park have been to the world (they are the only artist to have two songs on Spotify's Timeless 10, pioneered a completely new genre, and is the most popular modern rock band today), but one of the many reasons why I (and many others) idolized the group, especially Chester, was for the way that they were able to capture and distill the raw tension, frustration, and anger into an art form to help people get through dark and difficult times. Lots of people hated on them, but that seems to have changed quickly after people really started to learn what he went through in life. To me, this feels worse than losing a close friend or even family member...I've had the chance to meet him and the band 5 times, and have seen them a total of 10 times. Projekt Revolution '08 stands alone as my favorite concert moment ever when Chester and Chris shared the stage. Between Linkin Park and Chester, both are the reasons why music is one of my passions.

Rest In Peace to the fucking legend
 
Honestly, I hadn't listened to an album of there's since picking up Minutes to Midnight the day it dropped 10 years ago. However, I had already been meaning to purchase "New Divide" for a while now (I guess that was a Transformers single?) and judging by this thread I owe it to myself to check out a bunch of albums I've missed.

Even though I hadn't kept up with them in quite a while, Chester's death last week really hit me harder than expected. Probably the most memorable voice from my teenage/early adult years, and as many have said, the first 2 albums were practically the soundtrack to my life at one point.
 

FaintDeftone

Junior Member
I haven't cared about a Linkin Park album in over a decade and I started going through their discography lately and found that Living Things is kinda dope.
 
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