10 Perfect Hard Rock Albums Of The 2000s

You couldn't imagine a bigger setup for failure than where Linkin Park were in the mid '00s. Since they had already hit the ceiling by having their debut album Hybrid Theory be certified Diamond, there's no way that you can think of them going anywhere else but down. As they took to the road though, the band hunkered down and gave us something that may have even topped it with Meteora.

Though the sales figures might say otherwise, Linkin Park's second outing tends to do everything that their debut did, but only better the second time around. Having seen the world and gotten tighter as a unit, a lot of songs on here feel like the band are firing on all cylinders, with tracks that are meant to feed off the crowd like Faint and From the Inside.

The lyrics also managed to jump up a notch as well, with Chester Bennington and Mike Shinoda trading verses that have a lot more open wounds than before. Whereas something like Crawling may have soothed your inner angst back in the day, Breaking the Habit is something a lot more raw, looking to move past the darkness in your soul and pave the way for something better. Because anyone can wallow in the loneliness, but it takes the strong to find their way to the other side. You can try to turn your back on them, but they won't be ignored.