Linkin Park, O2 Arena - music review

Nu metal is old news. Papa Roach have run out of puff, Limp Bizkit have crumbled – yet Linkin Park are still popular enough to play two nights at the O2.

Why? Quite simply, they’re a brilliant live band.

Fronted by Chester Bennington – a man with a voice somewhere between an air raid siren and radio static – the Californians delivered a masterclass in arena-sized rock.

Recent album The Hunting Party sees them return to the rap-rock template of their 2000 debut, Hybrid Theory, and they began things with its lead single, Guilty All the Same. An angst-ridden rocker, it proved that, at 38, Bennington remains firmly in touch with his inner teenager.

Next to him, bandmate Mike Shinoda operated variously as a guitarist, rapper and keyboardist (sometimes within the same song), while Rob Bourdon didn’t so much play his drum kit as bludgeon it to death.

If it wasn’t a sound naturally suited to Sunday night, you wouldn’t have guessed it to look at the crowd: fists were thrown skywards and seats were used only for standing on.

The melodic electro of The Radiance provided a little light relief, although piano ballad Shadow of the Day was so close to U2’s With or Without You, Bono should get a writing credit.

In the End, still the band’s best song, prompted a 20,000-strong sing-along. It was the highpoint of a gig that proved these nu metal survivors are still a long way from the scrapheap.