10 Perfect Hard Rock Albums That Are Insanely Dark

Most of the criticism that came Linkin Park's way in the early '00s was just how whiny they seemed to be. And it's not like they're necessarily wrong, with the memeification of a song like Crawling being burnt into our minds for the past decade or so. Once they decided to drop the nu metal tags from their DNA though, going to conceptual route gave them even more dark possibilities to work with.

As far as stories go, A Thousand Suns isn't really that linear, with most of the songs feeling more like reactions to an Earth post nuclear attack. In fact, most metal fans probably would reject this album on principle just for how clean the production is, especially on songs like Burning in the Skies and Waiting for the End. Once you peel back the layers though, a funny thing happens when you sit with the album.

Using different interludes to connect the tracks together, you truly feel like you're making your way through some barren wasteland, with no signs of life anywhere and virtually no hope for survival. The band even internalizes all of those feelings, from blunt anger on Blackout to the indictment of the leaders who brought us to this point on Wretches and Kings. The world isn't in danger of this kind of attack any time soon, but this is a good look of what that scenario could look like later down the road.