OPINION: Chester Bennington's loss will be felt around the world, with Linkin Park holding a special place in the hearts of those growing up around the turn of the millennium.
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Due to problems the band had trying to transition from one sound to another, most of the band's best music came in their early years.
Here are five of their best.
'One Step Closer'
One of the headlining songs off their breakthrough album Hybrid Theory, 'One Step Closer' introduced the world to a new genre, fusing melodies and sounds explored by older bands like Nirvana and Soundgarden with a similar but somehow different angst of teenagers growing up in the late '90s/early 2000s.
With such a catchy melody, the lyric "shut up when I'm talking to you" will forever resound with foundation Linkin Park fans.
'What I've Done'
One of Bennington's finest solo performances for the band, it came off Linkin Park's third studio album Minutes to Midnight.
The song signalled the band's sign of transition to a more traditional rock sound, and they weren't shy to let their listeners know.
"Put to rest / what you thought of me / while I clean this slate / with the hands of uncertainty."
'Papercut'
'Papercut' was overtaken by 'One Step Closer' as the most popular song on Hybrid Theory, but it was a tune more reflective of the band's post-grunge origins.
Helping to define the band's "sound", 'Papercut' was one of the rare 'new-age' songs that communicated a raw energy of rage that most youth struggle with internalising.
"It's like I'm paranoid, looking over my back, it's like a whirlwind inside of my head, it's like I can't stop what I'm hearing within," sets the tone of the song, with Bennington cutting through at the end of the chorus.
'Numb'
Who can forget this song and the keys at the beginning?
With a melody so thick you can bite it, it's so catchy and iconic of the time that one of the kings of hip hop Jay Z wanted to re-produce it a year after its initial release.
"I'm tired of being what you want me to be," is a lyric that will go down as one of the band's best.
In a time when N'Sync, Jennifer Lopez, Vanessa Carlton and Craig David ruled the airways, the song's sentiment showed the youth it was okay to be different from the crowd and it communicated the difficulties of embracing that difference.
'In The End'
Undoubtedly the band's best song, you'll have to go far and wide to find someone who hasn't heard it and even further to find someone who won't recognise the intro.
Bennington's sharp vocals with Mike Shinoda's edgy rapping set the band apart from other rock groups of the time, such as Sum 41.
"What it meant to be will eventually be a memory of a time I tried so hard," Shinoda raps with nonchalance, but it's one of the most underrated lines the band wrote.
Matt Tewhatu is a Newshub digital producer.
