Finding Comfort in Linkin Park.

Ever listen to Linkin Park.
Honestly, including me, everybody knows that they aren't the greatest band alive. Really aren't. Chester sounds horrible in concerts, not just one or two I have been to. Sometimes they have the trashiest fans. Yet, most of them are pretty decent people, more than what I can so to most bands' fan base.
Yet, there is an alluring part of them that keeps me coming back to them. It obviously isn't their crappy music. It's the lyrics. I was first introduced to Linkin Park when I was in High School. Like most, I knew them through their "In The End" song that played relentlessly on the radio. Nonstop. Of course, this was my second introduction to rock. I was already leaning towards rock, metal, and I was at the right mind state too. Rebellious and I had a hatred for pretty much anything that surrounded me. I hated most music, I hated the people in my school, I hated the society we resided in, and I hated people's small minds and their inner conflict in their own swarm.
Linkin Park gave me that dose I was looking to escape. I didn't like Linkin Park because of Mike Shinoda, or their music that less than appeals to me. But, their lyrics. Ah, yes. Their lyrics always hit the spot, at the exact right time. Somehow, their crappy music meeting their brilliant lyrics written by Chester Bennington, made perfect sense, and meshed in amazing chemistry and it was in snych. It made magic. When it came together, it was exactly like, what it needed to be for most of those that are delusional, to prepare our perfect escape out of this world cut square and dry.
There is something about the lyrics that appeals to me beyond the surface. Chester usually writes from his own experiences. His own broken family, and violence he has endured. Not that I have endured any kind of abuse from my family, on the contrary. So what is it? I don't know. It's smooth and angry, its appealing and its dangerous. The lyrics always are vague enough to blanket a large audience but provides enough specifics for us to be lost in it. Rhyming scheme is usually done quite tastefully and their choice of words are always intelligent. It doesn't tick you off, however offers you those tricks to make you fall into their trap. Their lyrics are always fantastic. Music alone, is although quite questionable, and rather ... well only listenable. They aren't the greatest musicians in the world, and their lyrics are rather more exceptional than their music to be quite frank. They know that too I think, and that's why they rely heavily on their lyrical arrangements than their music alone. Most Linkin Park fans will admit, they prefer the lyrics, or that is the reason why they Listen to Linkin Park over anything else.
Now, I haven't listened to Linkin Park in a long time. Over a year.
But coming back to it is always sweeter.
Of course I suffered great dissapointment in LP when they produced their underground and rap albums. I wanted to curl up and cry. I felt betrayed.
However, as artists they have the rights to change their style, and evolve as their individual lives and styles change in order to better suit their needs. After all that is what artists and people do. As artists they have the freedom to create whatever pleases them. As fans, we have the right to like it, or disown it. But regardless a fan of course always has to remain respectful to those who create, instead of those who borrown on those that creates.
I am thankful that they always come back to their roots and to their ever forgiving fan base.
A weird relationship we, fans have with Linkin Park. One that continues no matter what it seems.
Finding Comfort in Linkin Park, is probably like sorts of an addiction to me after all these years.
I just can't stop and its my choice of coping mechanism, however silly that sounds.