Published on Sep 23, 2004
In the late eighties / early nineties, Faith No More had come up
with this fresh new sound: blending the heaviest form of rock ever
with funk / rap. As far as I know, Faith No More was one of the
first ‘heavy metal’ bands to have a full-time keyboardist! This
unique keyboard-laden, rap-filled high-energy hard-rock sound was
new, seminal and spawned a new generation of funk-rock acts using
keyboards. However, most of these acts could not match the energy
of Faith No More, and with the splitting up of Faith No More, it
seemed as if there was no one else to carry on this unique blend of
music, once made so popular by this great band.
Just when everything seemed lost, or “everything’s (seemed)
ruined” as the boys of Faith No More would put it, Linkin Park came
along and saved the day! Amongst the myriad of funk-rock acts
today, Linkin Park is the one act which stands out, clearly and
handsomely, as probably the only act to come close to the energy of
Faith No More.
Hybrid Theory is power-packed dynamite which, in its mere
37:53 minutes of playing time, blasts itself off with full fervor,
releasing its complete potential with great style and panache. One
track after another, each of the twelve songs is as fraught with
the same amount of energy and punch as the previous one. Before you
know it, the album ends abruptly, not without leaving an obsessive
effect of especially the hard-hitting rapping of Mike Shinoda, and
leaving the listener wanting more than just a thirty-odd minutes of
this addictive rock album.
The lyrics are not so great, and like every other rock outfit
these days, they are about despair, and nothing else but despair –
no one in rock can write despair (and be reassuring at the same
time) better than the spite-ridden, wrath-filled king of
hopelessness Mr. Trent Reznor. However, there are a couple of
things about the lyrics on this album which really surprise me.
First of all, there are absolutely no swear-words, especially no
four-lettered ‘F’ words, which generally litter modern rock albums;
not that it makes a rock album any less worth listening to.
Moreover, Linkin Park shares this quality with Faith No More, whom
they so strongly resemble. Secondly, though the lyrics are nothing
special, the timing and delivery of the words by both the vocalists
is simply awesome and really commendable.
Linkin Park has a unique combination of having two vocalists and
a full time DJ — a combination never tried before in rock. It also
makes a very good use of this unique combination.
Hybrid Theory has everything that one could want in a rock
album, and is just about perfect in every way.