Dooyoo
Nu Metal is dead!
Or so they said, but of course someone had to come along and shut them up… didn't they. After Kerrang announced the death of Nu Metal last year die-hard fans were up in arms "How can they say such a thing? The biggest Nu-metal stars didn't even release an album last year". Perfectly true unless you count the awful hip-hop remix album Linkin Park shoved out in the summer (or the disappointing Papa Roach album). Enter 2003 and Staind, Limp Bizkit and Linkin Park all plan their own Nu-metal revival. Come March and Linkin Park release their long awaited Meteora Album… do you hear that? Looks like we have that revival already.
Meteora is a piece of Linkin Park magic, it features a similar sound, no doubt there but it is far more accomplished than before… and yep it is as good as its predecessor. From the instant you plant the disc into your CD player you know this was well worth your £10 (or £14 if you bought the special edition version)… well almost give it 10 seconds. 13 tracks does indeed sound good enough but the starts with 'foreword', similar to the Reanimation rubbish there was a brief opening "sound" to begin the album. Why they decided to waste an entire track on this is beyond me and at least Reanimation's was slightly good. 'Foreword' is an ever increasing drum beat and something breaking… it sounds more like the opener to the following track 'Don’t Stay'… so really its 12 tracks. Don't stay is nothing out of the ordinary for the Linkin Park boys, not saying that it's a bad song, but it is the tradition smile enduing music combined with a depressing lyrical content that we are becoming accustomed to.
The third song is the album's first single release 'Somewhere I belong'. For those that have heard the song I can safely tell you this is one of the worse songs on the album and that says a lot… because it's excellent.
For those that haven't this is the 'In the End' of Meteora, rapping verses with a soft Chester sung chorus finished with an emotional outburst by Chester himself. It sums up one of Meteora's differences to the multi-million selling Hybrid Theory perfectly, Chester has come on leaps and bounds with his confidence in his singing voice, it is just a shame that Mike (the rapper) doesn’t fill this song with as much emotion as the legendary "In the end" track from Hybrid Theory. Lying from you is the fourth track on the album and a fine addition it is too. The lyric "The very worse part of me… is you" is part of a song that is a self-critical analysis, something that should hopefully pay of in society. Its an aggressive track combined with some emotional and depressing self discovery and is up there with the best tracks on the album.
But the major problem in many of what the Album houses is that it is frighteningly similar to Hybrid Theory. There are many songs on this album that features segments that are different to traditional Linkin Park songs, 'Easier to run' features Mike softly rapping "If I could change I would, take back the pain I would, retrace every wrong move that I made I would, If I could, stand up and take the blame I would, If I could take all the shame to the grave I would." This is a very different sounding Linkin park, despite the surrounding music being reminiscent of what we know and love. The strange aggressive sound of Chester when he screams, "I won’t be ignored" is strangely robotic but equally aggressive in 'faint'. 'Breaking the habit' on the other hand is nearly an entirely soft song, not in terms of 'in the end' or 'somewhere I belong' but strangely soft… trying to convey a message effectively and this is totally different to anything Linkin Park have done… including 'My December'. 'Session'
is also something different for Linkin Park, an instrumental. Although nice it isn't as accomplished as the other songs and much like 'foreword' it appears more of an after thought.
Now I've left the best till last. 'Numb' is purely outstanding and defiantly the best song on the album! In fact probably the best song they have ever done! I'm forever a fan of in depth lyrics, piled together, each one as effective as the last. And this is exactly what this song is. The only criticism is the 'caught in the undertow' section as done by Mike, it seems like they are trying to force more hip-hop edition to the mainly metal song. Excellent pure excellence.
In conclusion I must say it hasn't come on leaps since 2000's Hybrid Theory. But it is far better than Reanimation and a damn good way of reviving Nu-metal. Highly recommend… although 'The making of Meteora' bonus disc is just an additional Linkin Park self indulgence... so it isn't really worth it unless you’re a die hard fan… and even then you could always catch it on MTV 2 during their "Linkin Park Days".
