10 Huge Rock Artists That Went Electronic (And Nailed It)

When sifting through the nu metal bands of old, Linkin Park never felt that far away from the electronica pool. From day one, Joe Hahn was always behind the turntables, and he was more than just set dressing too, even having his own scratch tracks on some of their early albums like Cure for the Itch. While they all still fit under the umbrella of metal in one form or another, A Thousand Suns was where a lot of hardened metalheads started to jump ship.

Looking to expand on the alternative sounds of Minutes to Midnight, this was a full blown concept album about the effects of nuclear warfare, with the band caught right in the middle on songs like Robot Boy and When They Come For Me. Just because the big scary synths have come in doesn't mean that they've lost their edge though, especially when the songs are still able to pack a punch like this.

In fact, the best songs on here are the ones that actually use the glitchy sounds to their advantage, like the slow build that eventually explodes on Waiting for the End or sounding like the club track from Hell on something like Wretches and Kings. This may have been a mixed bag upon release, but this was more than just another Linkin Park album. This was the record that put them in the same league as their rock heroes, no matter how many 808s were on a track.