Bring Me the Horizon Keyboardist: Linkin Park’s ‘Hybrid Theory’ Is ‘The Bible’ for Heavy, Catchy Music

Linkin Park's Hybrid Theory album is easily one of the most influential albums of the 2000s, with Bring Me the Horizon's Jordan Fish admitting his band has taken great influence from the game-changing record.

With Hybrid Theory quickly approaching its 20th anniversary, the Bring Me the Horizon keyboardist commented to NME, "It’s the Bible for heavy, catchy music that combines electronic and pop music, which is our brief. They just covered so much ground and did it with such class on that album.”

Further reflecting on Linkin Park's impact, Fish added, “Linkin Park weren’t really a macho band, were they? It was rebellious, but they still had universal songs like ‘In the End’ that your mum could enjoy on the radio. A lot of songs from that era were straight-up ‘Fuck everyone!’ bro anger, but Linkin Park were a lot more emo and introspective. They didn’t have that silly aggression that a lot of nu-metal bands had; they were talking about depression.”

As for Linkin Park's impact on Bring Me the Horizon, Fish wears the influence proudly, stating, “Even with the record we’re doing right now, we still reference them. They’re one of those bands that I always have in the back of my mind when we’re thinking about where a song should go next."

Bring Me the Horizon have maintained a friendship with Linkin Park over the years that included frontman Oli Sykes being one of the guests asked to perform at the "Linkin Park and Friends: Celebrate Life in Honor of Chester Bennington" show in 2017 after Bennington's death. Sykes joined Linkin Park's other members on the song "Crawling" during that show. At present, it is the last time Linkin Park performed, with the group going on hiatus after the special show saluting Bennington.

The members of Linkin Park have been chatting with fans and taking part in some promotion for the 20th anniversary edition package for Hybrid Theory. Meanwhile, Bring Me the Horizon have spent much of 2020 focused on new music expected to spill out over several forthcoming releases. So far in 2020, the band has issued a pair of new singles, "Parasite Eve" and "Obey."