B.Y.O.B (Bring Your Own Ballot) | The Nu Metal Rate | Winner Revealed

Let me get these in before the forum crumbles...




#18 and #17

I think we did end up with the correct final two for System of a Down in the end (Aerials and Chop Suey!)



System of a Down | Hypnotize | 7.909 (+0.012 average / 0.2 points)

Highest: 10x4 (@iheartpoptarts, @If You Go, @unnameable, @DominoDancing) 9.5x1 (@DJHazey)

Lowest: 5x2 (@berserkboi, @soratami) 6x1 (@livefrommelbs)

Album: Hypnotize - 2005

Charting: 48 57

According to their liner notes, this song is about how governments manipulate people, essentially hypnotizing them into believing what they say with the help of television, which placates the masses and keeps them in line. Government oppression and a complicit media are common themes in System Of A Down's oeuvre.
​

The repeated passage in the song means exactly what it says: System guitarist Daron Malakian was sitting in his car, waiting for his girlfriend when he wrote it.​

System Of A Down bass player Shavo Odijien directed the video for this song, which shows the band performing live, bookended with shots of a helicopter dropping some kind of substance, which we can assume is a mind-control agent to suppress the crowd.

The lyrics, "Why don't you ask the kids in Tiennamen Square? Was fashion the reason why they were there?" comment on the 1989 massacre in Tiennamen Square, where the Chinese government sent in the army to kill protesting university students.

Along with "Areials", this is one of two SOAD songs to hit #1 on the Alternative chart, claiming the top spot on January 21, 2006.

Commentary

@berserkboi - 5 - Forgot it as soon as it finished!

How sad for you!

@Ana Raquel - 7 - I like some of the vocals here, but overall not something I return to.

Choices.

@unnameable – 10 – you see, metal can have vocal harmony too!

That's exactly what makes this one so strong and how it stays with you.

@DominoDancing - 10 - Melodically, one of their finest moments. The circular clean guitar riff is super catchy as well.

One of the better softer moments, Aerials being their best. Glad to see one of their aggressive hits and softer hits take the top two spots.

Song

Never thought in a million years when I decided to throw this into the rate, near the final moments of the songlist creation, that it would at one point be in the Top 10 and would've stayed in that position had the final score not been a 2.5. Hopefully you all show up with pitchforks! (I did give a 7 myself, so I'll be the innocent bystander)


























































Rob Zombie | Dragula | 7.972 (+0.063 average / 1 point)

Highest: 10.5x1 (@CorgiCorgiCorgi) 10x4 (@Ana Raquel, @Ironheade, @Sprockrooster, @soratami)

Lowest: 2.5x1 (@DominoDancing) 6x1 (@If You Go)

Album: Hellbilly Deluxe - 1998

Charting: 44 116

The title comes from the name of Grandpa Munster's car, DRAG-U-LA, on the classic TV show The Munsters, which ran from 1964-1966. The car was built around a coffin and made for speed. Rob Zombie used the macabre Munsters approach to create a car song with a horror aesthetic. Dragula destroys all in its path.

"Dragula" was the first song Rob Zombie released as a solo artist after closing the book on his band White Zombie. He went on to become a horror movie director as well, with a resumé that includes House of 1000 Corpses and The Devil's Rejects.

Zombie directed the video himself, incorporating footage from old horror movies. It got a lot of attention on MTV, especially on the show Headbangers Ball. Riki Rachtman, who hosted Headbangers from 1990-1995, said in an interview "He's always been a great artist - not only musically, but painting, and capturing that whole feel of that '70s monsters/exploitation. And I think he really did that well in that video for 'Dragula.'"

The words spoken in the beginning ("superstition, fear and jealousy") are from the 1960 horror movie The City of the Dead, where they are said by Christopher Lee.

This is was featured in the first Matrix movie, appearing at the beginning of the 1999 film when Neo is at a dance club. Other films to use the song include:​

​

Paranormal Activity 4 (2012)
Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 (2000)
Idle Hands (1999)​

82-year-old John Hetlinger performed this song in a 2016 episode of America's Got Talent. A previous rendition by Heflinger on the show had been of "Bodies" which went viral.

Commentary

@DominoDancing - 2.5 - All style over substance. Musically this is even below the weakest Manson (shudder) song of the time. You'd think it would be possible to get something just a bit more fun out of all the classic horror movie imagery.

Manson over this? Not sure I'd go that far.

@berserkboi - 7 - Like something that would play ironically in Buffy ddd

We would have loved to see it.

@livefrommelbs - 7 - This was one that I didn't realize I knew, but I definitely know and enjoy well enough.

Maybe you're into horror movies. I can't remember what you had in your Ultimate Moviejustice.

@Maki - 8.25 - This is as if nu metal went through an 80s filter and it's surprisingly good.

More old school than that, but you're on the right track.

@unnameable – 9 – I like his music, just spare me from his movies.

Not here for horror or just his horror?

@Sprockrooster - 10 - One of my Halloweenplaylist fave every year.

This and then Atomic Kitten's "Something Spooky" back-to-back. The whiplash.

@Ana Raquel - 10 - I've never seen his movies but I know some of his songs thanks to a friend who played them on plug sessions and this become an insta fave plus a 10,5 contender. Never Gonna Stop is another hit. And I have to listen to his new album. Hope I do that before this song gets eliminated!

Did you get the chance to?

@CorgiCorgiCorgi - 10.5




Songs

A favorite from the same album.

The song @Ana Raquel mentions, which is also a bop.

Next: Linkin Park


​

 

I am indeed - Screams 1, 2, 4, I Know What You Did Last Summer and The Strangers all made my top 20, but I think it was The Matrix I heard it in!

 

Rob Zombie not top 10??????????????

Sadly, not yet. Soon though!

 

The last song without a single 10.



#16



















































Linkin Park | Papercut | 7.978 (+0.006 average / 0.10 points)

Highest: 9x2 (@livefrommelbs, @If You Go) 8.75x1 (@Maki)

Lowest: 6.9x1 (@Untouchable Ace) 7x3 (@Ana Raquel, @CorgiCorgiCorgi, @Sprockrooster)

(Literally everyone between 7-ish and 9)

Album: Hybrid Theory - 2000

Charting: 14

Looking back on the song in a 2020 Vulture interview, Mike said the tune is a perfect representation of Linkin Park's early style. "I always felt like 'Papercut' was so much of the band in one song," he explained. "It starts off with this really bouncy hip-hop beat. I was influenced by everyone from Jay-Z to Timbaland - Timbo a lot. That bounce, that beat in the beginning, it was probably part him and part the rock bands that were imitating that bounce, like ourselves. But the thing is, it starts out with this hip-hop bounce, then it immediately kicks in with a very at the time cutting-edge [version of] what you would now call a nu-metal riff. Over the top of that, if you listen, there's a jungle beat, which is a subgenre of electronic music that never hit the mainstream. And then there's the rap chorus, plus all the glitching effects on the vocal, and then you hit the end and it's a huge melodic release. I think between the sounds, emotions, and lyrics, it's very much [in the style of] first couple Linkin Park albums."

In the video, the band performs in the swank lounge of a house, unaware of the sinister events unfolding in the surrounding rooms. Drummer Rob Bourdon is bored with just sitting on the couch, and starts noticing something isn't quite right with the room, which starts to shape-shift. A baby picture on the wall (painted by Mike the day before the shoot) starts to bulge as dragonflies from the nightmarish rooms try to break through. Twenty years later, Shinoda still didn't know what the video is about. "The only thing about that song that didn't age well, in retrospect, is the video," he told Kerrang. "If you watch the video, I'm sorry, I don't know what we we're doing."

A version of this also appears on their 2002 album, Reanimation. It was remixed by Cheapshot from the group Styles of Beyond, as well as MC Planet Asia and Rasco.

Chester had stated that "Papercut" was one of his favorite Linkin Park songs

In 2007, when performing this song live at a concert in Melbourne, part of the performance was for Chester to jump on to the stage, but he got his foot caught in a step, fell backwards and he broke his wrist. He and the band decided that "his wrist will be just as broken now as it will be in an hour" so Chester sang through the rest of the concert with a broken wrist.

Commentary

@unnameable – 8 – luckily, I’ve rarely been as paranoid as LP felt in these lyrics

I've always felt this song in particular was the perfect example of how much pain inspired some of the lyricism.

@DominoDancing - 8 - Great chorus, and musically this actually feels heavy. With few exceptions, Shinoda's raps were never what I liked about the band, but he's not too bad here.

In contrast, I always felt like the chorus was the catchiest and best part of this one.

@berserkboi - 8.5 - This came into my life later on (after Crawling most importantly) so it’s not as essential!

Yeah, it's kind of edgier version of Crawling in some ways.

@Maki - 8.75 - A great way to start this playlist. The middle-8 onwards totally makes the song for me greatly increases my score. Feels like a triumph in a way.

Songs

Next: Back-to-back Linkin Park songs and the first song >8.00.​

 

Yeah this outlasted but I'm also afraid of what comes next

 

We so didn't!

Poor team go-big-or-go-home with this page honestly.

 

Not a 10 or higher for you, so no worries.

Probably my favorite LP song in the rate though.





#16



















































Linkin Park | From the Inside | 8.119 (+0.041 average / +2.25 points)

Highest: 10x1 (@DJHazey) 9.5x3 (@livefrommelbs, @Ana Raquel, @Maki)

Lowest: 6x3 (@iheartpoptarts, @Sprockrooster, @soratami) 7x1 (@Ironheade)

Album: Meteora - 2003

Charting: / none 15 (best other, charted in ten countries)

Bass player Phoenix came up with the original guitar idea for this song while recording with Mike Shinoda in the back of the tour bus during summer 2002. The song's 6/8 time signature created an opportunity to juxtapose seemingly disparate rhythms, which is most apparent in the verses. When it came time to complete the song, the band ran into a challenge: Chester Bennington got sick, unable to sing during his last week of scheduled recording. Chester was forced to finish his parts in New York, during the start of the mixing process. Down to the wire, the band was left with little margin for error. Fortunately, this song and "Somewhere I Belong" (my two favorites on the album) were written and recorded successfully on the third floor of Soundtrack Studious, NYC.

This is the fourth single from Linkin Park's second studio album, Meteora. It's the only single from the album that failed to chart on the Hot 100 or the Modern Rock chart. It found its greatest chart success in Greece at #15. In the UK, where it also landed at #15 on the Rock and Metal chart.

Joe Hahn, the band's turntablist, shot the music video in Prague and Czech Republic while Linkin Park was on their tour of Europe in 2003. The clip features the band performing in the midst of a riot as a lost child wanders through the chaos. Hahn said of the concept: "We basically took over a historic square in Prague and let 400 people loose and we performed in the middle of the riot. It's basically a display of someone's power."​

The best Linkin Park songs to me were the ones with the catchiest power-pop choruses from Chester and sharp verses from Mike and having those two entities flow together in the best way. "From the Inside" does this better than anything, or at least it always did for me since day one. This was always my go-to sing along session pick, along with "Somewhere I Belong". Mike's pre-chorus is the biggest highlight as well as the beginning of the second verse when I'll still catch myself thinking it's "tension is building inside, instead I'll leave" because I didn't hear "steadily" when I first listened to the song. I don't know, in some ways I'd liked my version better. ​

Commentary

@DominoDancing - 7.5 - This is super catchy. I guess I generally have a trouble connecting with a lot of their lyrics, especially on the early album, and it kinda stops me from giving something boppy like this a higher score.

Hey my name is DJHazey, I like catchy music and give it the highest scores possible.

@berserkboi - 9 - Another great track that never made the ethos of my LP classics!

@livefrommelbs - 9.5 - I have such distinct memories of the music video with the lil boy and the tank. Great tune, too.

@Maki - 9.5 - Such a shame this wasn't a bigger hit. It's so good, very melancholic and the melodies throughout the song deliver. And I love how it goes all manic during the middle-8.

We always have a knack for loving an artist's underrated songs, don't we?

Songs

Let me sprinkle in some other nu metal favorites instead of doing long drawn out posts about them. The early part of Three Days Grace's career was fringe nu metal at its finest. Very emo-ish lyrics and a sound that sits somewhere between Breaking Benjamin and Taproot. I almost included them, but decided to stick with bands that peaked earlier than Three Days Grace did (they released their first album in 2003 and everybody in this rate was active long before). Their first two albums (Self-Titled -2003 and OneX - 2006) are bulletproof with catchy hook after catchy hook. They were basically writing pop songs with crashing guitars in the background. Former vocalist Adam Gontier is incredible and on this song, one of my all-time favorite songs, likely to make my Ultimate list in fact, is "Never Too Late". It's all about how melodic the chorus is and how the lyrics make everything seem like it's all on the line, hanging on a cliff. Very powerful, ready to make the listener produce emotional responses.

Next: One of the last four Sampler Songs (Drive, Du Hast, Last Resort, or Movies)
​

 

System of a Down // Hypnotize 2
Rob Zombie // Dragula 6
Linkin Park // Papercut 7.6
Linkin Park // From the Inside 8.1
So close to the average, scary!

I recently learned that Soleil Moon Frye (remember Punky Brewster?) was dating a member of Crazytown.

 

I feel like 15th is a decent finish for From The Inside! Great song.

I predict Last Resort is up next.

 

​

If memory serves me, this isn't the fist time I've seen someone call for Last Resort, but that ones goes one step further towards securing a Top 10 placement.

One of the 'poppiest' songs falls.



#14​

Alien Ant Farm | Movies | 8.122 (+0.003 average / +0.05 points)

Highest: 10x2 (@If You Go, @WowWowWowWow) 9.5x1 (@unnameable)

Lowest: 6.2x1 (@Untouchable Ace) 7x4 (@Ana Raquel, @berserkboi, @Ironheade, @Maki)

Album: Anthology - 2001

Charting: 5

"Movies" was the debut single for the band, but after the success of the cover-song "Smooth Criminal", they re-released this as a single. Though it never did officially chart on the Hot 100, it saw similar commercial success in the UK.

There were three music videos made for this single. One, which was shot before the success of "Smooth Criminal" features a "behind the scenes" style shooting of the video, with grips and lighting crew interrupting shots to fix equipment, while the band performs before a tacky Hollywood Hill backdrop.

The second video revolves around their playing at a house party, and the imagined events after they each pick up a different girl at the party.

There is a bigger budget re-shoot music video, released after the success of "Smooth Criminal", which shows the band jumping through the screen at a movie theatre, and interacting with the audience in homages to Karate Kid, Ghostbusters, Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, and Edward Scissorhands. At the end of the video, the entire audience jumps through the screen and joins the band. This version was directed by Marc Klasfeld.

Fun, energetic and all that, yes. Certainly it's all those things, being one of the closest examples of nu metal bleeding into the pop-punk rage building at the time (think of Blink 182, Good Charlotte, and Sum 41 breaking into the scene...wouldn't that be a fun focus for a rate?) I just never particularly paid much attention to this band even though I owned the CD. Classic case of yeah I'll bop in a nostalgic way like "I was ALIVE back then dd, this was my era!" but beyond that to me at least, there isn't a whole lot going for it as far as being a timeless masterpiece. Thus my 7.5, which feels a bit generous now.

Commentary

@berserkboi - 7 - This is “cute” Nu Metal if such a thing exists with their dorky looks!

Reminds me of the style Blink 182 went with for their "All the Small Things" video. This was the peak era for music videos.

@Maki - 7 - This is quite pop-rocky. It's good and slightly catchy but not something I would seek on my own.

Pretty much my mind verbatim.

@DominoDancing - 8 - Not amazing, but a fun bop. Closer in spirit to the pop-punk bands of this era than the nu-metal crowd they were lumped in with I'd say.

Exactly, but it's fun to include all aspects of nu metal.

@Twitch Mo - 8.5 - I love their MJ cover of Smooth Criminal
For obvious reasons, no rate host wants to deal with that headache. Thus, choices were made.

@livefrommelbs - 8.75 - I'm not super familiar with much of AAF's output, but I really like this.

Anthology seems like a good album for you to play sometime, this is their style. Nothing too 'hardcore'.

@CorgiCorgiCorgi - 9 - Far better than the Smooth Criminal cover.

They both sound pretty much the same to me, but I can see this case being made in 2021 especially.

@If You Go - 10 - New discovery! Very good, was a contender for my 10.5 for this section. I only knew Alien Ant Farm from their cover of Smooth Criminal.

The kind of thing any rate host doing a niche rate love reading...new discoveries!

Songs

Random nu metal song to check out. This was a band that @Twitch Mo actually brought to my attention back then, who've apparently been making albums since 2001 until today. The only song they've ever done anything with commercially is their lead single "Breakdown", which I'd describe as being is in the Saliva/Seether 'family of bands' but this is a bop! So if you don't like those type of bands don't run! Nice chilled instrumentals and moody little number.

Next: Chop Suey! or Aerials. It's getting real!​

 

Which System of a Down song reigns supreme?

Spoiler

and makes the Top 10

#13





































































System of a Down | Aerials | 8.247 (+0.125 average / +2 points)

Highest: 10.5x1 (@CorgiCorgiCorgi) 10x2 (@unnameable, @DJHazey)

Lowest: 5.7x1 (@Untouchable Ace) 6x3 (@iheartpoptarts, @Sprockrooster, @soratami)

Album: Toxicity - 2001

Charting: 34 55

SOAD drummer John Dolmayan told MTV: "It's a gentle song, but at the same time, it has a lot of angst coming out. It was one of those things where it was just instant. We all felt it. It came together real fast, like it was meant to be put together that day."

The music video was a joint effort between the group's bass player, Shavo Odadjian, and British director David Slade. It follows a young boy who appears to be disfigured. We see him in a photo shoot and a presser, but he seems to be a bona fide celebrity rather than a curiosity. The band is from the Hollywood area and often looks at that culture as if peering into a fun house mirror. The video got a lot of spins on MTV and Fuse. The song was the band's second Grammy nomination.

"Aerials" is the last track on the Toxicity album. On the CD, right after the song ends, another song called "Arto" comes on as a hidden track. "Arto" is based on a traditional Armenian song with a chant that is played at funerals in the Armenian community. It is named "Arto" because their friend Arto Tuncboyaciyan played a duduk (a reed instrument similar to an oboe) on the track. Daron and Serj's grandparents both wept when they heard it.

Commentary

@livefrommelbs - 7 - One of the best example's of Serg's voice, for sure. But I still don't love it.​

He is an acquired taste. Everybody has a different perspective about a vocal and whether they like it or not. So while many would argue that Serj's vocals are amazing, God knows there's many examples of vocalists that everybody on the forum seems to love and then I'm just like "huh?, I don't hear it." Your points stands though, this song is all about Serj's coo's and the crashing guitars between each stanza.​

@berserkboi - 8 - Wait @ this being better than I recall!

So not 'pas pour moi' then?

@DominoDancing - 9 - Also good, although I am missing the quirkiness of their best work.

Every quirky pop girl has their traditional moment of beautiful balladry.

@unnameable – 10 – SOAD at their most melodic.

There is no disputing that. This and "Lonely Day", which is why both were included. Just trying to feed the melodic highlights to the pop music forum.

Songs

Let's take a moment to transition from SOAD at their most 'easy listening' and go back to an album this rate didn't touch upon: Their self-titled debut. This was SOAD at their most raw. It's arguably their most bat-shit crazy as far as aggressiveness to the point where it's almost violent. Yet we love them all the more for it. Check these two out and expand your horizons!

We all love a song that describes God or in this case Jesus as a woman, right? Meet the epic tale known simply as "Suite-Pee".

I guarantee after one play "Kombucha mushroom people" will be stuck in your head. Also, just wait for the most insane middle eight thirty-two/finale you've ever heard in your life (starting "I sit, in my desolate room") -- I mean nobody on Earth ever did anything like this band.

Next: Two Linkin Park songs. That means Chop Suey!, Drive, Du Hast, and Last Resort are in the Top 10.

​

 

Christ. Can we kick it out already.

 

you and another voter that is, who gave an even lower score than you did (by 2 points!)

 

The lack of taste really jumped out. And there goes any hope of it possibly winning :/

 

Love, love, LOVE Sugar!

 

You - of all people not stanning Drive is shocking to me! Next to Hazey’s ambivalence towards Holly Valance!

Wait til @londonrain and @Island hear about these transgressions! Dd

 

Yup, here and Dannii seem to be the two that shock most people!

Remember that this rate is crowning two winners.

 

I was really hoping Aerials would make the top 10 after initially thinking it wouldn't do too well here, but I'm happy it made the top 15 at least!

Early 2000s me had such an unexplainably huge crush on Serj Tankian, so at least he's thankful.

 

So which two Linkin Park songs are missing the Top 10?

The first seemed to be a discovery for any voters who ended up liking it, so that makes me proud of the decision to make it the last LP addition to the rate.




#12 and #11







































































Linkin Park | My<Dsmbr | 8.281 (+0.034 average / +0.55 points)

Highest: 10x2 (@Untouchable Ace, @soratami) 9.5x1 (@DJHazey)

Lowest: 4x1 (@iheartpoptarts) 6x1 (@Sprockrooster)

None of us should be surprised at who didn't like this ballad dd

Album: Reanimation - 2002

Charting: --

The band wrote this in Nashville while they were on the road in 2000. The song is basically about being away from the ones you care for.

In a January 2002 linkinpark.com chat, Mike Shinoda was questioned if there would be a remix of "My December" on Reanimation. He said: "yes. a guy named mickey p and I are working on it this week I want it to sound like bjork good question. I hope it comes out as good as the rest of them have"​

The remix was created by Mickey Petralia and Michael Fitzpatrick. Both also handled the programming. Keyboards were recorded by Mickey Petralia and Greg Kurstin. The track also features additional vocals by Kelli Ali of Sneaker Pimps.

The music video for "My<Dsmbr" was directed by Chip Miller for MTV2's "MTV:Playback".

Commentary

@DominoDancing - 6.5 - A lot of production hoopla that doesn't sound particularly impressive in 2021. Kelli's vocal additions are cute, but not much more.

@If You Go - 8.75 - Nice to see Reanimation represented, I really liked the remix of Crawling on it too.

Honestly, I haven't really listened to much from that album over the years. It would be nice for me to do a re-listen sometime soon. This was always my biggest take away.

@unnameable – 9 such an excellent mix

@berserkboi - 9 - This was either a discovery or a track I had forgotten!

@livefrommelbs - 9 - I hardly remember this, but by god it's pretty. A nice change of pace.

These combined with @soratami being an insta-10 are what I was referring to as this being a discovery for many.

@Maki - 9.25 - Now that was unexpected. I'm really digging the trip hop/electronica feel, it's actually better than the original version. Also, my queen Kelli Ali being the only female vocal in the entire rate. Stan talent.

You'd think on Popjustice that would make it skyrocket into the Top 5 bare minimum. Nice to see the biggest male-only songs in the rate were un-phased.


Songs

Another song I always liked on the album because of how much I love the original. "Cure For the Itch's" remix.

Now the most 'nu metal' song Linkin Park ever did, if you ask me.




































































Linkin Park | One Step Closer | 8.356 (+0.075 average / +1.2 points)

Highest: 10x4 (@iheartpoptarts, @unnameable, @WowWowWowWow, @DJHazey) 9.5x1 (@livefrommelbs)

Lowest: 4.5x1 (@DominoDancing) 6x1 (@Ironheade)

Album: Hybrid Theory - 2000

Charting: 24 75

Lead singer Chester Bennington wrote this to express the anger he felt growing up. He didn't fit in well and got beat up a lot. This song was also made after the band had frustrations making "Runaway," another song on the album.

This was Linkin Park's debut single, which allowed the band to hear themselves on the radio for the first time. Guitarist Brad Delson told Kerrang he remembered they were driving through Arizona on their first tour bus and the song came on a local station that Bennington, a Phoenix native, used to listen to as a kid.

A version featuring Staind lead singer Aaron Lewis appears on the album Family Values Tour 2001.

On Reanimation, this was remixed by The Humble Brothers with vocals by Korn lead singer Jonathan Davis. The title was changed to "1Stp Klosr."

The vocals to "One Step Closer" were recorded in Mike Shinoda's flat one night while an angry neighbor hammered on the wall. He couldn't hear the actual music, just Chester Bennington screaming into the microphone.

Dd, my neighbors too back in the day.

Chester Bennington recalled to Kerrang! in 2011 how the band were forced to fight for this song during the recording sessions for Hybrid Theory: "When we were recording it, (producer) Don Gilmore was really drilling me and Mike (Shinoda) about lyrics, and it had gotten to the point where we had rewritten some songs 30 times! I remember walking into the control room, handing Don the lyrics and he grabbed them, passed them in front of his face without even looking, handed them back to me, and told me to do it again. I lost my fucking mind, thinking, 'This guy's a fucking maniac!' But that kind of inspired the lyrics - 'I cannot take this anymore/I'm saying everything I've said before/ All these words make no sense,' and the chorus, 'Everything you say to me takes me one step closer to the edge.' - it all came from that frustration. So I guess in the end he inspired me the way he wanted to."

The concept for the music video was thought up by the band's Joe Hahn. Originally it was going to be a live performance of the song with fans getting carried away. Instead, Linkin Park ended up filming the visual 63 feet underground in an abandoned subway tunnel in Los Angeles. The clip costars a locally famous artist, Tony Acosta, who goes by the moniker "TonyMech."

Commentary

@DominoDancing - 4.5 - This was the first Linkin Park video I ever saw, and I was very close to writing them off. The song is among their most tuneless, and the whole video is really pretty trashy. Thankfully, there was better music to come.

This reminds me of the 'Linkin Park Reacts to Teens React' YouTube video and the band being cringe about this video. It's a classic. NO one will ever convince me this isn't still the coolest sounding Linkin Park song to this day. The whole thing is such a rush.

See It Here

@Maki - 7.75 - I feel like the hook could've been better here. A very good song nonetheless.

Well when the song pauses for a second to gather itself and then "SHUT UP over that turn table hits", that's a major hook.

@Sprockrooster - 8 - This got lifted heavily in love from me due to it's mash-up with 99 Problems on Collision Course.

That sounds...well interesting I guess.

@berserkboi - 9 - Quite a classic!

This should be the minimum reaction.

@livefrommelbs - 9.5 - Man, this one just KNOCKS from the jump. I never saw LP live, but you just know this would have gone off.

Mosh pits and crowd surfing for days. I'd just simply be jumping in place the entire time.

@unnameable – 10 – this was a dancefloor filler down the rock club “back in the day”.
​

Everyone loved it, even if they didn't have one metal bone in their body.​

Songs

The mashup @Sprockrooster refers to.

Next: #10 is either Drive, Du Hast, or Last Resort.​

 

If the next cut isn't Drive than this rate is a car crash.