Hybrid theory is a really middle of the road

[LeftOurEyes]

Whiny is perception though. To some Scott Weiland probably sounds whiny

Chester always sounded whiny to me

Oh I agree which is why I said that he sounds that way to me, art is subjective and others may love his voice. My favorite band is Deftones and I have definitely heard a lot of people rip on Chino saying that they think he sounds whiny.

I just never felt Linkin Park was interesting in anyway myself but judging by their popularity lots of people must have enjoyed them.

 

[ThePhilosopher]

Mike Shinoda's remix of Enjoy the Silence is the best version of that song IMO

This version is the best version of Enjoy the Silence...Martin > Dave > Mike

 

[AwakenTheSkies]

worse bands *cough* Disturbed *cough*.

The guitar player from Disturbed Dan Donegan can really play though. He's got some really cool solos and always had great guitar tones at least on the earlier albums..

 

[gh0styboi]

Ironically no, Mike Shinoda was in the band (not actually Linkin Park yet) before Chester came along. Not sure if Mike sang or rapped before Chester became their vocalist, but he wasn't shoehorned into the band by a label.

It was just rap without cleans before Chester came in. They had some cool stuff back then too. I'm dating myself by saying this, but I still remember that first Xero EP.

 

[Randy]

The Edgelording in here, my goodness

 

[philkilla]

Was it complex, heavy or menacing?

No not really.


Was it catchy and easy to listen to with large groups of friends while having fun?

Absolutely.

 

[Grindspine]

Chester's vocal sound so much like Jonathan Davis, same barky scream going on.

I liked heaps of the nu metal stuff, I can understand why a Slipknot or SOAD got a career out of taking the playback of the time and adding their thing to it. But LP was so milquetoast.

Milquetoast was Helmet's album... wrong genre, wrong years.

In what world does Chester sound like Jonathan?

They were both on different versions of the Queen of the Damned soundtrack. That is the closest I have ever seen a comparison of the two.

This version is the best version of Enjoy the Silence...Martin > Dave > Mike

Lacuna Coil had a great version of Enjoy the Silence, as enjoyable to hear as the Depeche Mode version.

 

[budda]

Was it complex, heavy or menacing?

No not really.


Was it catchy and easy to listen to with large groups of friends while having fun?

Absolutely.

It was heavy in comparison to other music that was mainstream at the time, which is what a few people in this thread have pointed out. The gateway to heavier music for sure.

 

[CTID]

Linkin Park came around in a time where I just thought I hated music because I didn't enjoy what my parents or sister really listened to. Randomly heard Numb on the radio and that turned it all around. I have a core memory of playing Sonic 3 on a laptop from 1993 while listening to Meteora over and over and over and over and over again. After a while I realized that all of my favorite songs from them were the ones with screaming, and hey, my friend has a Linkin Park tour shirt that also has the names Metallica, Limp Bizkit and Mudvayne on it, so let's check these bands out. Ended up getting Lost & Found from Mudvayne and listening to that a billion times, then I found Slipknot, then I found videos of Derek Roddy and George Kollias on the embryo that was youtube and got into shit like Nile and Necrophagist.

I think it's important to remember that in the late 90s - while there was internet, it wasn't what it is now. At least to the layman, it wasn't where you'd go looking for new music except for a couple bands that were really hip to where shit was going and jumped on early (I think They Might Be Giants was one of those?) so you were still kind of at the behest of what was on the radio and readily available in stores like Best Buy or FYE, or hunting down a record store if you wanted to find bands - and that wasn't something my 9-year-old self was going to do.

I don't really listen to too much LP anymore and I fell off hard after Meteora but they're still a pretty important band to me.

 

[gh0styboi]

Milquetoast was Helmet's album... wrong genre, wrong years.

They were both on different versions of the Queen of the Damned soundtrack. That is the closest I have ever seen a comparison of the two.

Lacuna Coil had a great version of Enjoy the Silence, as enjoyable to hear as the Depeche Mode version.

Lacuna Coil's cover of Enjoy The Silence was stellar. Such a great cover...

 

[Captain Shoggoth]

Especially in metal, holy fuck are they bad most of the time! That's why they're usually grunted in a less intelligible way.

I would rather listen to Chester's lyrics as spoken word poetry for a year than 15 minutes of pseudointellectual pass-my-Rick-and-Morty-bong antireligious/"philosophical"/space-themed death metal

 

[CTID]

I would rather listen to Chester's lyrics as spoken word poetry for a year than 15 minutes of pseudointellectual pass-my-Rick-and-Morty-bong antireligious/"philosophical"/space-themed death metal

Yeah, I got over the whole sci-fi and "I took DMT and here's my enlightened view on the world" lyrics a long time ago at this point. Though I guess I never really got over what's considered "whiney" because Counterparts still has some of my favorite lyrics, for as horribly depressing as they are. At least it comes off as personal and like you're getting a glimpse into who the person writing them is. Garrett from Silent Planet is another rare great metal lyricist, but I can't really think of too many others. I usually am just thankful that the lyrics aren't immediately understandable for most bands, so I can tune it out.

I'll never forget how many lyric videos for Rise Records bands like Issues and Woe, Is Me came out, and you'd just sit there and go "this shit doesn't even make sense" it's all so poorly constructed and so many of them were just petty feud songs. I'm glad that's (mostly) over.

 

[wheresthefbomb]

I don't listen to them on purpose and haven't for years but Linkin Park got me into heavy music. They'll always have a place in my heart for that alone. Also I cried when Chester killed himself. He was singing for years about how he was sad, I guess he meant it. RIP.

 

[philkilla]

It was heavy in comparison to other music that was mainstream at the time, which is what a few people in this thread have pointed out. The gateway to heavier music for sure.

More or less I suppose. Way back then I was balls deep in spawn of possession and defeated sanity...very wild times for metal

 

[works0fheart]

More or less I suppose. Way back then I was balls deep in spawn of possession and defeated sanity...very wild times for metal

In 2000? That's nuts. Those bands had to have maybe 1 album or demo out each, no?

 

[wheresthefbomb]

This thread is reminding me of when I had a bunch of folks over for thanksgiving and my roommate started arguing with one of my house guests about whether MJK from tool actually does drugs. It made me want to do a fibonacci spiral roundhouse to both of their faces.

 

[Kosthrash]

*offtopic* And in this video LP's guitarist tries a cardboard fender custom shop strat:

 

[Hoss632]

Chester's vocal sound so much like Jonathan Davis, same barky scream going on.

I liked heaps of the nu metal stuff, I can understand why a Slipknot or SOAD got a career out of taking the playback of the time and adding their thing to it. But LP was so milquetoast.

Dude Chester and Jonathan don't even belong in the same sentence when talking vocalists. Chester was so much better vocally. They sound nothing alike. If you want to hear someone who sounds like Jonathan Davis listen to Adema since the singer is his half brother. They sound almost identical in aspects. Hybrid theory frankly is one of the best albums of all time for me. Really LP for me was Hybrid Theory Meteora and then a radio hit here and there after. Still a solid band.

 

[bostjan]

IDK, maybe taste in music is subjective.

 

[STRHelvete]

Soooo..personal opinion. Their first album was alright but it wasn't that amazing nor were they. Much like Nirvana the only reason they got blown up to some "legendary" status is because the singer offed himself. Had he still been alive they, like Nirvana, would be doing the "Hey remember when you listened to us as a kid?" circuit and cashing in their nostalgia checks. Only difference is Cobain blew his brains out at the height of Nirvana's career and Chester did it after the band was already forgotten about which helped the rest of them get new checks.

All in all they weren't that special