Hybrid Theory is the debut album from California’s genre-defying band, Linkin Park. The band has been currently on an indefinite hiatus since 2017, as sadly, that year, the band’s lead singer, Chester Bennington committed suicide. The band consisted of the late Chester, vocalist/guitarist/keyboardist Mike Shinoda, lead guitarist Brad Delson, bassist Dave Farrell, DJ Joe Hahn, and drummer Rob Bourdon. Shinoda, Delson, and Bourdon founded the band in 1996, as high school friends. The rest of the band joined later, with Bennington joining in 1999, a year before their first album was released. Hybrid Theory was released on October 24th, 2000, making it a year or so shy of 25 years old, but this album has had a massive impact on rock and popular music, so I’m making an exception.

   Linkin Park, in my opinion, is the only nu metal project whose sound has aged well. Delson and Shinoda’s heavily distorted guitar riffs don’t just sound like metal guitars, they almost sound industrial as if they’re robotic machines in a factory. The riffs aren’t usually super complicated, but they sound refreshing and new at a time where nu metal as a genre had grown kind of stale. Some of my favorite guitar riffs on the album are on tracks like “Papercut,” “One Step Closer,” “Crawling,” “By Myself,” “A Place For My Head,” and “Points of Authority.” Vocally, Shinoda’s rapping and Bennington’s powerful singing and yells, really hammer home the emotional tone of the lyrics. The lyrical content isn’t the most deep or profound, but it doesn’t have to be, it’s very effective and relatable. Written by Bennington and Shinoda, Mike described the lyrics as “interpretations of universal feelings, emotions, and experiences.” “Papercut,” does a very good job of describing paranoid feelings, for example, and the visual description of “a whirlwind inside of my head,” is gnarly to think about. “One Step Closer,” I first heard on the rhythm video game, Rockband 2, and I loved playing it on that plastic Wii guitar. Me and one of my friends would always be shaking our heads to the chorus. “Everything you say to me, takes me one step closer to the edge and I’m about to break!” “Crawling,” has an incredibly catchy chorus, and Bennington really demonstrates his talented vocal range throughout the track. I like how the instrumentally and vocally, the verses are very calm, but as it slowly builds up to the chorus, it gets more intense and builds to a climax of heavy guitars and thrashing drums. The themes of emotional detachment and insecurity is incredibly relatable, and you can tell how genuine it feels just by hearing Bennington’s vocal delivery. And who can forget the iconic track, “In The End,”? Whether it’s that memorable piano instrumental, or that well-known chorus. Even people who don’t listen to Linkin Park know the hook of that song.

   On paper, rap and metal, don’t sound like two genres that would mesh well together, and in many cases they don’t (*cough cough* Limp Bizkit), but Linkin Park makes it work. Their sound was unique to them, and had a more mainstream appeal in comparison to a band like Disturbed, a band whose production and instrumentation sounds incredibly cheap and lowbrow in comparison to Linkin Park. Linkin Park’s overall musical sound, sounds grand and majestic. That being said, while most of the album is very strong overall, there are some weak tracks, like “With You,” and “Cure For The Itch.” I like Bennington and Shinoda’s dynamic together, and I don’t think the band can ever recreate that magic, now that Chester is no longer with us. It just wouldn’t be the same without him. The band just wouldn’t be Linkin Park without Chester, and I think all of his fellow bandmates would agree. All in all, it’s an album I still enjoy all these years later, and I look forward to reviewing more of their discography in their future, as it gives me an excuse to re-listen to their stuff. The next album of theirs that I’ll be reviewing will probably be 2010’s A Thousand Suns. 

Overall Score: 8/10

Favorite Tracks: “One Step Closer,” “Crawling,” “By Myself,” “A Place For My Head,” “Points of Authority,” “In The End,”

Least Favorite Tracks: “With You,” “Cure For The Itch,”

Listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qlCC1GOwFw

Genres: Nu Metal/Rap Metal/Alternative Metal