10 Most Ambitious Rock Albums Ever Made

Linkin Park were one of the few bands from the nu metal genre who ended up reaching beyond the genre label. Instead of being pigeonholed as the tattoo'd rockstars in baggy pants, the band ended up successfully transitioning into alternative rock territory after the cliched attempts at rap rock went out of style. They had already proven their staying power, but they wanted to double down on the experimental material.

Shortly after releasing Minutes to Midnight, the band began working on a concept album centered around the devastation that comes from nuclear war. Named A Thousand Suns after the afterglow of an explosion, the entire album is coated with electronic backing tracks and some of the most sterile sounding music the band had ever created. While most of the fanbase was pissed beyond belief at the new direction, it ended up being exactly what the band needed.

Instead of falling into cheap alt-rock tropes, this album feels like the band reinventing themselves with songs that don't sacrifice aggression even with the change in sound. Songs like "Waiting for the End" and "Robot Boy" may be a bit too synthetic for some, but the heartache present in every Linkin Park track is still here in spades. A Thousand Suns may have been laughed at in its day, but the sound of this one record infleunced an entire genre of rock going forward.