HOB's "Hybrid Theory" CD Review |
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A quick scan of the major label ranks shows, at last count, in the neighborhood of 450 rap-rock bands with big-time contracts. Well, maybe not quite that many, but the genre is saturated far beyond the breaking point. So always, as the time seems ripe to draw a line in the sand, along comes yet another rap-rock band - and inevitably they put just enough of a new twist on things that it would seem merely vindictive to make them the sacrificial lamb of the genre. Linkin Park is not strictly atonal metal bounce and rookie level rhymes, but they have sufficient traces of that double-'r' attack that as late entries they will no doubt be hit with their share of the backlash. Four years ago, their genre soup would have made them an underground sensation with, at the very least, the grudging respect of the critics. In 2000, though, it's easy to ignore the melodic songs that have nothing to do with rap at all. It's easy to look past songs like "In The End" that are more trip-hop meets meaty metallic hooks than hip-hop meets jumping and screaming. It's easy to neglect the electronic elements of their instrumentation and only point to the distorted guitars. It's easy to miss all this and simply throw your hands up in the air with a defeated "another rap-rock band?" sigh. But this band might actually be on to something. If instead of just an annoying fad, rap-rock hopes to be a genre with longevity and the ability to survive the music industry's inevitable cycles, it's bands like Linkin Park that will make it possible. There is certainly nothing enduring in the sound of bands who make their living watering down metal and dumbing down hip-hop. But despite the artistic laziness of a popular few, the limits of what can be done fusing rock with rap, electronica, and other sounds have barely even been tested. Linkin Park can evoke Tool and the Deftones or the Beastie Boys and Ice T with equal aplomb, and in their best moments carve themselves a more forward looking niche. Even as Hybrid Theory falls short of a masterpiece of collage, it leaves the door open to bolder steps in the future. Back To Review Main |
