10 Amazing Hard Rock Concept Albums

After Linkin Park finished their third record Minutes to Midnight, they had a few options of where they could go afterward. The nu metal sounds that they had stormed in on were starting to reach their last legs, and the last album had set them up for something that was a lot closer to alternative rock than the angry white boy stripe of rock music. No one wanted to repeat their old sounds though. It was time to step up to the big leagues.

Working with Rick Rubin again, A Thousand Suns turned into a lofty concept album for Linkin Park, examining what might happen if the Earth has to deal with nuclear warfare. While it's easy for some of the more hardened rock fans to be won over on tracks like Robot Boy or Burning in the Skies, most of the record you really have to sit with as a whole to really understand it. Pulling pages out of the Radiohead playbook, a lot of these songs tend to deal more with glitchy electronics, making for something a lot more visceral on tracks like Wretches and Kings and When They Come For Me.

Although not as many Linkin Park fans may have seen what they were going for at the time, this record has held up surprisingly well, having the perfect blend atmosphere and terrific songs to keep you coming back again and again. Most concept albums really create a world in your headphones, and you can practically feel the fallout of a decaying society whenever these tracks come on.