10 Hard Rock Albums Everyone Forgets About
6. The Hunting Party - Linkin Park
As the 2010's were dawning, most of the metalheads in Linkin Park's fanbase were starting to fall off the wagon a little bit. After records like A Thousand Suns saw them dipping their toes into more electronic leanings, the one off singles like New Divide and the following record Living Things pretty much confirmed that they were going for something more accessible with just a few chunky guitars here and there. Just a few years later though, The Hunting Party seemed to be the answer to all of the metalheads' prayers.
Feeling that rock had started to lose steam in the past few years, Mike Shinoda said that he had the mentality of making a record that the younger version of himself would have loved to hear. Though The Hunting Party might not be the most celebrated album among hard rock fans, there are spots on this record that manage to give Hybrid Theory a run for its money, like the band screaming their way back to life on Keys to the Kingdom before getting more grandiose in the back half on Mark the Graves and Final Masquerade.
A classic album can't be made alone though, and the guests on here are absolutely stunning, with Page Hamilton filling Chester's role perfectly on All For Nothing and using Daron Malakian to crate their own System of a Down track on Rebellion. Then again, this new sound of the band turned out to be a bit of a kiss goodbye to their heavy side, going from this aggro cruncher to full on pop just a few years later with One More Light. At the moment though, this was the sign that the Linkin Park that we knew from 2000 had grown up into a much heavier beast.