10 Metal Bands That Went Acoustic

A lot of nu metal devotees are generally split on how they feel about Linkin Park's 2010 album A Thousand Suns. While these titans from California had already switched up their sound drastically on Minutes to Midnight, the idea of making a pseudo concept album draped in electronic musings was probably the last thing that people expecting the riffs wanted. As much blowback as they may have got from this move, The Messenger actually closes things off a lot neater than you'd expect.

Coming directly after the pure bombast of the song the Catalyst, this feels like the final soothing balm at the end of the record, with Brad Delson only having an acoustic to keep things grounded underneath Chester Bennington's vocal. Though the vocal performance itself is a bit too over the top than it really deserves at times, it still feels necessary in order to drive the point of peace home for the audience.

Especially considering the tragic death of Bennington just 7 years down the road, the final lines of "Remember you're loved and you always will be" also hit fairly close to home for any metalhead who's dealt with that kind of inner pain. Despite having a lukewarm reception, the Messenger is the shining light that even the wildest experimentation can't kill the band we fell in love with on Hybrid Theory.