Linkin Park
From a legacy standpoint, none have influenced my life more than Linkin Park. It was my gateway into rock, with nu-metal elements appealing to hip-hop fans and rockers alike. The group was the one band that any clique in high school had in common, bridging otherwise insurmountable differences. I reckon this was mostly thanks to their commercial sound, which was more chart-friendly than the likes of Korn, Limp Bizkit, or even early Papa Roach.
https://youtu.be/racmy7Y9P4M
Bring Me The Horizon
Starting off as a deathcore band, I really couldn't stand the early stuff. In fact, I celebrated when they had to pull out of my local show during Kerrang! Tour 2009, I disliked them that much. As time went on, their style evolved into metalcore (There Is a Hell...), post-hardcore and alternative metal (Sempiternal), alt and pop rock (That's the Spirit), Electronic rock (Amo), and Nu Metal (Post-Human: Survival Horror). There's absolutely something for everyone in their portfolio, and they've already earned themselves the title of a modern classic with such a monumental impact on the rock scene.
Featured is the lead song from Survival Horror, kicking off with a Bulgarian choir and containing lyrics about the pandemic. What's more impressive is that this song landed in June 2020, just a few months after everything kicked off. It encapsulates my feelings about the whole thing perfectly and is a great showcase of the band's experimental style.
My favourites, but not necessarily culturally impactful:
https://youtu.be/XlqkG4XD2ok
Breaking Benjamin
Not quite as impactful as Foo Fighters, but these lads pushed post-grunge into a more melodic era. Benjamin Burnley's voice flits between angelic and harsh much in a similar way to Maynard James Keenan (specifically in A Perfect Circle). It's a band I can't help but sing along to, preferably completely alone because I do NOT have the pipes to pull it off.
https://youtu.be/6Vcpf1geVfg
Starset
Born from the same post-grunge foundations as Breaking Benjamin, Starset threads its style with electronics and sci-fi influence. As they've progressed, they evolved a cleaner synth-based sound with a higher production value. Regardless of the album, though, they're my favourite band of all time. They show that there are still plenty of signature sounds left to discover, which is shocking after 70+ years. I can't rank them as highly as others on my list because they haven't had the same global impact, but there's quite simply no one out there like them.
Dubbing themselves Science Rock, they're somewhat the antithesis to Christian Rock. They've nothing against faith-based counterparts, but enjoy preaching about the advancement and potential detriment of technology to civilisation. Beyond the music, they pioneered the Starset Society, which is a fictional organisation that talks about real-world issues like the rise of AI and how it can impact us. It also serves as the fictional backstory to each album.
This bleeds into a lot of Dustin Bates' (the lead singer's) work. When MNQN (pronounced mannequin) debuted in 2019, he claimed it was not his voice behind the work but that an AI had taken recordings and replicated his likeness. The entire project was glitchy, somewhat inhuman, and fascinated me to no end. At the very least, it was years ahead of its time now all of this is kicking off properly.
It's not rock, but I'll leave it here for anyone as hooked as I was:
https://youtu.be/nWV7pyUqfeg
