Chester Bennington, in the end you did matter: A playlist of Linkin Park's most memorable tracks

There’s a reason why so many Linkin Park fans remember each of the songs, word to word, beat to beat. Linkin Park rose to fame at a time when most of its listeners were using cassettes and CDs to play their favourite music; you had no choice but to listen to full albums, and one couldn’t skip to favourites easily (at least in the time of cassettes).  The Mike Shinoda-Chester Bennington combination had risen to popularity in the early 2000s, and ‘In The End’ and ‘Numb’ were on every school kid’s Walkman. Linkin Park gave teenagers a way to channel their adolescent frustration with the heavy choruses, and Chester’s powerful voice. He was the light of the band — the voice, the soul, the link. The band’s dark subject matter, and often debilitating lyrics can be attributed to Bennington’s person journey with depression, poor health and drug abuse. But this is not the side of him that fans are used to. His commanding vocals always brought Linkin Park’s high-strung songs together. RIP Chester Bennington. As fans come to grips with his death, here’s a playlist of some of the most memorable Linkin Park songs (for the sake of novelty, ‘In The End’ and ‘Numb’ have not been added to this list): Faint

From Meteora, which is Linkin Park’s second album, ‘Faint’ is one of the more recognisable songs. The biggest wins of this track is the hardcore drumming that complements the guitar riffs well. Also, if the claim that Linkin Park’s lyrics are mostly autobiographical are true, ‘Faint’ makes the most sense if we keep Bennington’s personal life in mind. “I can’t faint, the way I did before, don’t turn your back on me, I won’t be ignored” One Step Closer

One of their more direct songs, ‘One Step Closer’ has more vocals and melodies than rap verses. This is the perfect song to work out to or blow off some steam. The highlight of this song has to be Bennington yelling, “Shut up when I’m talking to you!” Breaking The Habit

Linkin Park is known as much for their powerfully vocal songs, as they are for their instrumental numbers. Not many people know ‘Breaking The Habit’ was initally conceptualised by Mike Shinoda as an instrumental track. Also, the lyrics Breaking The Habit are so congruous with Bennington’s struggle with drugs and alcohol. ““I don’t know how I got this way / I know it’s not alright / So I’m breaking the habit” Rolling In The Deep — Linkin Park cover

What happens when you put Adele and Linkin Park together? Magic. In this cover of Adele’s flagship song, Chester can be seen engrossed in the melodies, and does a stellar job of it himself. The cover has Bennington’s vocals and Shinoda on the piano. Adele would have been proud. Bleed It Out

One of this writer’s favourite songs that starts with a Mike Shinoda rap verse. The mystery stays alive because you keep waiting for Chester to belt out his parts. However, this is one those rare songs where Shinoda takes centre-stage, and it’s even more special because this album, Minutes To Midnight, is more about Chester than Mike.