10 Massive Albums That Never Lived Up To The Hype

One of the biggest obstacles that any band has to overcome in their early years is success. When you have something blow up right out of the gate, there are always going to be fans that want the same thing over and over again, despite your desire to stretch into different sonic territories. And when Linkin Park doubled down and made their definitive statement on Meteora, how were they supposed to follow it up?

By the time that they started working on Minutes to Midnight, the brand of nu metal that had become their bread and butter didn’t really exist anymore. While the band did their best to change with the times, there were more than a few fans that were not as big on the transition into alternative rock on this album, having much less crunch on the guitars and catering to songs that might actually get on pop radio like What I’ve Done and Shadow of the Day.

This does make for some of the band’s more interesting pivots though, like their turn into political commentary on the closer The Little Things Give You Away and even letting Brad Delson break out his soloing chops during the final few minutes of the song In Pieces. The fans might already have an idea of what they want, but the best way to move forward is to just follow your own muse.