Linkin Park

Hybrid Theory

Originality and production surpass the nu-metal cliche

Review Score:

(10/10)
The year was 2000. The advent of the millenium upon us spawned that altogether wonderful and awful genre oddly titled nu-metal.

I distinctly remember as a junior in high school feeling in direct opposition to the angsty, depressed, and anger-driven thrash that threatened to obliterate the line between rap and metal. To me, bands like Limp Bizkit and Papa Roach were going to be short-lived fads, gimmicks just like many genres that disappeared in the wind. It was my contention that the only good bands to come out of this hatefest were Incubus and the Deftones.

In 2000, I think i was still stuck back in the early-to-mid 90's. Grunge was the height of my listening palate: all I yearned for was that meat-and-potatoes distortion and actual SINGING instead of rapping. Five years later, I'm a senior in college. My tastes expanded drastically as i picked up a love for alt and art-metal like Tool, progressive rock acts like Dream Theater, and eclectic early Nu Metal like Faith No More. How could I have guessed that I would come full circle, back to the realm of that which I rejected 5 years ago.

Linkin Park's "Hybrid Theory" is an enigma to me. I suppose the stellar production of said album lent this palatability. The songs profess a progressive quality alien to much of average nu-metal...lent partially by the rap-rock mesh that works so much better for this band, but mostly by the textures, structures, and ear-candy repetitions.

Joseph Hahn's samplings and creations bring to mind D.J. Kilmore of Incubus, yet the fact that such innately musical moments are brought so much more evoke Utra-era Depeche Mode as well as Trent Reznor in his early years. The album title "Hybrid Theory" was to be the original band name for Linkin Park, and probably should have stayed that way. It is so much more faithful to the identity of the band: for the "nu-metal" outfit is exactly a hybrid: breeding musical quality with earth shattering guitar, courtesy of Brad Delson, vocals that are both scathing and melodic by Chester Bennington, and poetic rapping by emcee Mike Shinoda.

Pop-friendly hits like "Papercut" and "With You" comprise of simple verse-chorus-verse structures, and brand the vocal "motifs" of the songs into the listener's heads. Alternately, the popular "Crawling" shows an impressive amount of range in its sound textures, "In The End" showcases Shinoda's constant sense of presence and Bennington's steady vocal qualities. "A Cure for the Itch" puts the spotlight on aptly talented Hahn and creates a much-welcomed break from the rap-rock thrash.

"Hybrid Theory" is a superbly crafted album, and has surpassed the short-lived nu-metal label to become something more appropriately titled: Progressive Metal.

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