After a first album that broke all the records, selling over 24 million copies, "Meteora" appeared three years later, the second opus from a young band that was certainly not prepared for such dazzling success. So it was with a certain amount of pressure that Linkin Park worked on a large number of compositions during the promotional tour for "Hybrid Theory" to release 13 tracks in line with their previous offerings.
There's no revolution on this album, whose title evokes the famous Greek monasteries built on rocky peaks often accessible via a single wooden bridge. The surprise of the debut is replaced by a certain routine, with compositions that are now classic, navigating between nu metal and alternative rock. The choruses, sung over big riffs by Chester Bennington, whose overpowering, rocky voice always works wonders, alternate with more streamlined verses featuring samples, synths and guitar arpeggios, over which Mike Shinoda's rapped lyrics are laid. 'Somewhere I Belong', 'Hit The Floor', 'Figure.09', 'From The Inside' all follow this structure, as does 'Nobody's Listening', which stands out thanks to its original Japanese flute melody.
Apart from these pleasant tracks, which don't quite catch on enough to make them hits, stand out the amusing 'Faint', which may well have inspired Britney Spears' 'Toxic', and 'Breaking The Habit', free of riffs and rapped vocals, which was originally a ten-minute instrumental composition, the little-known yet poignant 'Easier To Run', which, with the exception of the rhythm, is the counterpart to the hit 'Numb', and this famous 'Numb', a catchy and immediate final track that closes the album on an excellent note.
A logical follow-up to "Hybrid Theory", "Meteora" is an album that seems above all designed to please fans, and has certainly reassured the band of its creative potential. Suffering from a certain lack of renewal, it was nonetheless fairly well received by critics and finished in the top 10 best-selling albums in the world. A pivotal work in Linkin Park's career, it was followed a few years later by "Minutes To Midnight", a singularly different album that had the misfortune of splitting the band's fan base into two irreconcilable camps.