What the fuck happened to Linkin Park?

In late October of the year 2000, Linkin Park debuted with their first full-length CD.  Needless to say, it was a success.  Selling over 4.8 million copies in the first year Linkin Park skyrocketed to success.  They had an edgy brand of ALT-rock.  Among the crunchy guitars, dual vocals, and electronics Linkin Park was a band on a war path.  My question is what happened?  I'm not going to break down each CD track by track only because re-listening to most of it has the potential to make my ears bleed and make me seriously contemplate cutting my wrists.  Instead ill go over highlights of all cds as well as go over how shitty the band has become.

The beginning- Hybrid Theory as a whole is a ferocious yet soft album.  Chester Bennington had the energy as well as the soul to sing the softer parts.  (Also, he sounded like he ate a jar of razors a day)  There really isn't a bad thing I want to say about Hybrid Theory, I loved that album.  Tracks like the first single one step closer to  lesser played songs like forgotten were beautifully crafted.  Mike Shinoda is a great lyricist and added a great deal of depth with his rapping as well as his singing.  Each track has enough emotion to choke a teenage girl at a Justin Bieber concert, yet it worked.  It didn't come off as whiny it came off as genuine, and that's what I liked about it.  It wasn't fake it was then.  Hell, I even enjoy In The End which, to be honest is a little soft for my tastes.  Every time I hear it, I just want to curl into a ball shoot up and pass out... err, I mean look back at my life and think of my loved ones.  Overall Hybrid Theory was and is the greatest Linkin Park album to date.  Very few bands come out of the gate swinging Linkin Park not only came out strong they are still very popular.

Sophomore- Linkin Parks second album Meteora released in 2003.  Now to be truthfully honest I enjoy a few songs off this album.  It was a much more electronic as well as softer album, but much like the first album, the emotion worked.  Songs like nobody's listening connected a nation of young teenagers who had something to scream at, Meteora was their voice.  Mike Shinoda started to shine more so on this album. More vocal time as well as more electronics, his talents were given a stage and he delivered.  Now, as I said this album was a lot softer, but that didn't stop a few higher energy tracks from making their way on it.  Don't Stay, Lying From You,  and Hit The Floor are my favorite tracks.  Once again, not as hard as the first CD yet very enjoyable.  Meteora turned Linkin park from an ALT-rock mainstream band to an arena band with a huge following.

Junior- Minutes To Midnight  Linkin park s third album minutes to midnight released in 2007.  Now, as you've you read this article you probably have been thinking, "man the title of this article is misleading this guy seems to like them".  Well, this album is the kick start of what I call the "WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED!!!???"  Now I'm sure people loved this album even people who don't like Linkin park, but for me personally I'd rather listen to two cats having sex than most tracks off this album.  The one track I do like Given Up is even pretty shitty.  On top of the general crappiness of the album, it was the first to have a parental advisory.  Which to me only says that rather than creating an album that's harder and edgier than before they would rather rely on F-bombs.  (Hey, we are back! Now with more swearing)  The album was soft and angry yet the emotion wasn't genuine, it just seemed very pushed on the listener.  With that said this is not the worst album of theirs please continue reading.

A Thousand Suns- This album was absolute shit.  It was essentially Mike Shinoda's fantasy featuring (All though you couldn't tell by the sound) Linkin Park.  Shinoda tried to sling the album as more than what it was.  "On this record, the concepts blend human ideas with technology [...] Human fears, your fear of what's going to happen in the world, the music kind of references that", said Mike Shinoda.  Last time I checked, I didn't put nuclear war and techno pop only people at raves on ecstasy could enjoy in the same bracket but ok.  It was a departure from not only the style but the band itself.  They tried to explain that even though there are virtually no guitars on the album everyone had creative impute.  Creative impute=playing a tambourine or a cowbell because that's all I heard.  The album was inconsistent in itself.  One song was a piano ballad with Bennington running the show, while other songs seem more like a very short and very bad acid trip.  Rule number one in music Doesn't alienate your fans.  Which is exactly what they did.  Even people who hated Linkin park before enjoyed one or two tracks of theirs, not after this album.  To answer any questions fully this album was a What The Fuck Happened?!?!? album.  For many fans it was a disgrace and a huge let down.  Think if Tupac started doing country, it just isn't right.

The Future-  With their fifth studio album to release on June 26 of 2012 the band says that they plan on going back to the more familiar territory.  The first single burn it down isn't horrible but it feels very flat and basic.  Recently another track leaked titled Lies Greed Misery.  Its more of a Nobody's listening than a One step closer.  Will this album be good, mostly likely no?  The real question is can fans still enjoy this band after their last awful outing?