The Hunting Party by Linkin Park

The Hunting Party, Linkin Park's sixth studio album, arrived in 2014 on Warner Bros. and Machine Shop, and it's the band slamming the door on the electronic drift of A Thousand Suns and Living Things. Mike Shinoda and Brad Delson produced it themselves, the first Linkin Park record since Meteora made without Rick Rubin, and Shinoda pitched it bluntly as a rock record, a shot at mainstream rock bands playing it safe.

The title says it: a band out hunting for rock's lost energy. Much of it was written by improvising together in under a year, and it hits hard, with Chester Bennington tearing into the vocals over Delson's riffs, Rob Bourdon's drums, Dave Farrell's bass and Joe Hahn's turntables. For the first time on a studio album they brought in guests: Page Hamilton of Helmet, Daron Malakian of System of a Down, Tom Morello and Rakim. "Until It's Gone" was among the singles, and critics welcomed the heavier turn. It debuted at number three on the Billboard 200.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.