

Nu-metal would seem the obvious category, but even though Linkin Park were saddled with the tag at the time, it was an awkward fit. Yet on lists of the best metal, hard rock, emo or straight-up rock, Hybrid Theory is often conspicuously absent, as if no axe-worshipping subtribe is willing to adopt it as their own. You’d assume being the only diamond-tinted rock album this side of the millennium might afford a smidgen of clout. With global sales of 32 million-including 12 million in the U.S., a million of which has come in the past three years- Hybrid Theory is the highest-selling debut in any genre since 1988’s Appetite for Destruction. All of this weighs heavily on 2000’s Hybrid Theory, already the most popular heavy music of the 21st century.
