AMG Review of Minutes to Midnight

Stephen Thomas Erlewine
All Music Guide

Linkin Park's debut sounded tense, nervous, and wiry -- rap-rock without the maliciousness that pulsed through Limp Bizkit. But it had been a full seven years between Hybrid Theory and Minutes to Midnight, and many fans who were getting their driver's licenses in 2000 were now leaving college and, along with it, adolescent angst. So Linkin Park jumped headfirst into maturity on Minutes to Midnight, which doesn't really rock, it broods. Still, the band demonstrates the chops they need to rock, and sound comfortable doing it.