10 Legendary Concept Records Of The 2010's

At the turn of the 2010's, Linkin Park were still trying to carve out the path that they wanted to go in as musicians. Since the nu metal wave died a pretty ugly death in the mid '00s, making an answer record to something like Hybrid Theory wasn't really in the cards anymore. It was time to dream even bigger, and A Thousand Suns was the moment where they started to touch on borderline apocalyptic subjects.

Telling the story of what happens during the fallout of nuclear war, this felt like the band's attempt to make their art rock jump forward, just like the bands that they were inspired by like Pink Floyd and Radiohead. While their core fanbase may have hated the fact that they left rock behind on this record, the production behind the songs is incredibly forward thinking for a rock band, embracing the textures of electronic music and hip hop to create this vast sonic landscape.

Though the record gets the common complaint of having way too many interludes for its own good, it's all about setting the mood and creating this dense atmosphere to live in for a few minutes. This is the kind of record where you're supposed to hear the story unfold, and you can feel the desperation in every one of these songs as Chester tries to fight in the face of certain doom. They may have gotten flak for it back in the day, but this might be one of the most influential records in terms of where rock would be heading a few years down the road.