Minutes to Midnight (Deluxe Version)

With this 2007 album, Linkin Park started to move beyond the rap-metal template that made the band icons in the first half of the 2000s. Lead single “Shadow of the Day” features strings and an unusually tender vocal from Chester Bennington. Of course, one can’t discount the bleak refrain lying just under the song’s sweet surface: “The shadow of the day / Will embrace the world in grey.” “Valentine’s Day” and “Leave Out All the Rest” follow the blueprint of “Shadow of the Day,” and at first it seems that Linkin Park might now have more in common with Coldplay than Korn. But “Given Up,” “Bleed It Out,” and “No More Sorrow” are furious performances that match, and perhaps even outdo, classic Linkin Park songs like “Numb” and “Crawling.” Producer Rick Rubin has brought out the best in the band, and with Minutes to Midnight they manage to incorporate new sounds and attitudes without abandoning the aggressive rock that made them a household name.