Linkin Park
Hybrid Theory
The year 2000 didn't bring the apocalypse, but instead the monumental success of this Linkin Park album and I can see why people liked it. The singles In The End and Crawling are pop-numetal in it's purest form. And it's just the "pure"-part that I've got a problem with (well, okay, the pop-part too).
The production is so smooth that It's almost impossible to even think that it couldn't be played on that the singer, Chester Bennington, sings like he was in the Backstreet Boys. Very smooth and harmless and even when It's a schooled voice that suits the average boy-band-fan perfect, but since there's no grit in his voice and that's a big minus for anyone who's in anything that calls itself anything-metal (there's a tiny exception in the chorus of One Step Closer, where he actually sounds like he's going to get horse afterwords).
Aaaand of course Mike Shinoda's less than flowalicious rapping (he sounds like he learned it from reading about it - "okay, so you got to kind of speak in rhymes over a rhythm? Sounds easy man!").
I can hardly believe that an album as bland as Hybrid Theory sold almost thirty million units, but then again: it's pseudo-threatening enough to do just that. Lyrically it's a whole lot of teenage angst, so there you go.
It's metal for people who are afraid of sharp objects. (but I got to admit that it's got a couple of catchy tunes)
