After listening to it for the past couple of weeks I've decided it was Chester at his best. Everyone else not so much, maybe the lyrics could have done without that Gilmore Redo treatment, but God damn was Bennington good in this album. Better than Hybrid Theory. Should have just been called The Chester Album. Cover shoulda just had his bald head and those molester glasses he wore.
I like Meteora over Hybrid Theory, Chester's voice was more mature and stable. ATS > Meteora / MTM > HT
I know Meteora is overproduced but I like it that way. But i love the rough sound of HT too. Layering (a lot) chester's voice was good for the athmosphere of Meteora, but it's good they didn't keep doing that in every album.
ATS>HT>Reanimation>Meteora>M2M and Minutes to Midnight is an amazing album. I don't really think Chester's performance changes in any of the albums. If anything, he shows the most range in A Thousand Suns.
You seem to like to make threads like these http://www.lpassociation.com/forums/showthread.php?t=32243&daysprune=100
its not really his performance but more like his voice changes. You can tell in each album his screams are dramatically different and that his basic singing voice changes. HT is very rough, while Meteora is more accented. Then MTM just became a very mellow sounding voice and ATS is just pushing his voice to the insane
That thread was just "These lyrics are crap, but if they were better Meteora would be a-ok". This thread is "Goddamn he sure is singing these terrible lyrics like a pro holy shit". Which is kind of the same thing. But I am more impressed now than I was then. I thought he sounded kind of bored in most of Minutes to Midnight. Blackbirds didn't help much either.
Chester's voice itself (key word) didn't change. It's the technique that he uses that changed. Up to earlier 2004, he used to layer his vocals while he sang (screaming under the singing) and after, he just sang it. So his voice 'appeared' to smooth out, but it's really just his singing voice. You can tell on LIT and RAR '01 and early shows that he sings smoothly at the soft parts of different songs. *on topic... How much I love the albums... HT>M>ATS>MTM The actual quality of the albums... ATS>HT>MTM>M