10 Best Opening Tracks On Debut Rock Albums

10. Papercut - Hybrid Theory (Linkin Park)

In the year 2000, Linkin Park set out their stall with the absolute thumper that was Hybrid Theory.

Inspired by lead singer Chester Bennington's tumultuous youth, the album was a mega-hit and catapulted the band into the public eye. The singles were Crawling, One Step Closer, the phenomenal In The End, and the album's very first track Papercut.

Kicking in with an incredibly catchy riff mixed in with DJ scratching, Papercut explodes into life with heavy rock chords as the guitars and drums bounce off each other effortlessly. Then, in comes rapper Mike Shinoda to leather you with lyrics about feeling stressed and anxious.

Basically the perfect way to start off a nu-metal record.

Papercut remains popular amongst the Linkin Park faithful to this day. Its video has almost a quarter of a million views on YouTube and it's been played live by the band more than any other song bar two according to setlist.fm.

Plenty of bands have tried the rock-rap mixture, but few have ever been as successful as Linkin Park. The combination of Shinoda's flows and Bennington's hoarse vocals make for perfect listening, all of which is plain to see from the very start.