Fan poll: Top 5 LINKIN PARK songs | Revolver

Fan poll: Top 5 LINKIN PARK songs

"Numb" didn't even make the cut!
linkin park GETTY 2014, Chiaki Nozu/WireImage
Linkin Park, 2014
photograph by Chiaki Nozu/WireImage

Linkin Park fans mean business.

The people who love the second-wave nu-metal leaders wield an immense appreciation for their wide-ranging discography and feel a deep, spiritual connection with late frontman Chester Bennington, who put his heart into every line he ever wrote and treated each vocal take like he was drawing from his last breath. Linkin Park songs are intense — musically and emotionally — so we knew asking fans to pick their single favorite track by the band would yield some tough calls.

Fortunately, our readers delivered, and the results were fascinating. See the top five vote-getters ranked accordingly below.

5. "Papercut" 

"Papercut" is the opening track of Linkin Park's smash debut, Hybrid Theory, and it basically establishes everything great about the band's sound right from the jump. The menacing but not too heavy guitar chugs, the stray DJ scritches, the deep groove, the wounded chorus and the rap-sing interplay between Bennington and co-vocalist Mike Shinoda.

This is Linkin Park in a nutshell.

4. "In the End" 

Alongside "One Step Closer," "In the End" is one of Hybrid Theory's runaway singles, and arguably the band's most popular song overall. It's easy to hear why.

Bennington's chorus on this track just explodes with raw emotion, as he yells the defeatist lyrics — "I tried so hard and got so far/but in the end, it doesn't even matter" —  at the top of his lungs without losing control of the melody's inherent catchiness.

No matter how many times you hear it, "In the End" never loses its gut-punching impact. 

3. "One Step Closer"

It's interesting to see our readers pick "One Step Closer" as their favorite Hybrid Theory track.

Compared to the anthemic power of "In the End," "One Step Closer" has a much more traditional nu-metal vibe, with its tense, muttery verses building to an apoplectic torrent of, "SHUT UP!"'s, during the final breakdown. The two singers play good-cop/bad-cop on the hook, with Bennington wailing the beginning of a line that Shinoda then finishes with a metallic snarl. Click, click boom. 

2. "Breaking the Habit"

For a lot of listeners, "Numb" is the obvious Meteora standout, but we salute our peeps for going with "Breaking the Habit."

It's the more forward-thinking of Meteora's biggest singles, with a relatively guitar-less verse that's built on skittering drum 'n' bass breaks and a more ballad-like vocal deliver from Bennington that flexes his dynamic range. It never fully detonates in the way "Numb" or "In the End Do," and that built-up tension with no predictable release makes it that much more addicting to return to. 

1. "Given Up"

We've gotta say, we did not see this one coming.

"Given Up" is a track from Linkin Park's third album, Minutes to Midnight, the one where they dropped a lot of the nu-metal flavor for a more ragged, hard-rock type of sound. The record still sold incredibly well and remains beloved by hardcore fans, especially its song "Given Up," which appears to be so well-liked that it beat out every other Linkin Park track — including "Numb" — to take No. 1 slot in this poll.

With its minimalist, bass-driven verses and crunchy, gutsy bursts of guitar during the chorus (which Bennington fucking belts), "Given Up" has a serious grunge vibes, channeling the toothy charisma of Nevermind-era Nirvana — but in a way that feels quintessentially Linkin Park.