MTM is better on my opinion.MTM sounds like a proper alternative rock album and as for THP it sounds like LP trying too hard.
Personally I prefer THP over MtM. MtM is one of my less favorite albums of LP. I don't know exactly why, but MtM just contains tracks which I don't like that much. I could even listen to Meteora in full, but MtM becomes a bit boring as a whole for me. (I especially look at In Between. I like it as a song, but in the album is just becomes boring very quickly imo.) THP just has more energy and more interesting songs, more enjoyable songs. But I have to agree that the comparison between THP and MtM is a good one, as they take up kind of similar positions in LP's discography. They both wanted to have a more "natural" sound compared to their heavily polished predecessors.
Difficult to chose between the 2, it's like choosing between chocolate and beer. Chocolate is nice and all that, but getting wasted is more fun. I really like both but for different reasons. The production on MTM is definitely my favourite of any LP album, but I also like the much rawer feel that THP has which is pretty much unique for LP. When it comes down to chosing songs out of my LP collection in a playlist, I would usually pick out a couple of THP songs before picking any off MTM, but at the same time there are a couple which I would pick behind everything on MTM. I like the fact that MTM varies greatly from track to track, for me I'm happy with an album that jumps all over the place genre wise rather then being consistent, but what I really like about THP is the fact it features other artists input, I mean Rakim and Daron Malakian on an LP album, how amazing is that? If you held a gun to my head I'd probably chose MTM, but that has more to do with when it was released and the memories it brings back of that time In my life, plus the huge progression from Meteora, rather then anything else.
I'd say THP is better overall, but MTM has TLTGYA, which is better than anything from THP. I don't get people saying they aren't comparable, though. They both go for a more stripped back rock sound, one just leans more towards softer, ballady rock, the other leans toward heavy rock. They sound like companion pieces to me.
This. I love an album with really distinct-sounding songs. It makes listening to it exciting, because you never know what's coming next. One minute a melancholy rap, the next a Metallica-sounding heavy song with an EBow. Then a gloomy rock ballad, then a cello-driven ballad, then a ska-influenced rock song, then the long album closer. It's all so different.
I think MTM is LP's best work right after THP. This has a simple reason: after HT and Meteora, they really wanted to do something different, something they can really connect with. And you totally hear this dedication and soul in their drastically different Tracks (back then). The balls to do that is something i really respect! THP is their rawest, most "honest" album (imho of course) to date, which also makes it really special. Where THP also makes a significantly better job than Living Things was continuity, every song feels right in it's place! Let's be honest, No Roads Left imho is the main reason MTM is so awesome.
I like No Roads Left, but I still like Given Up way more. It's one of my favorite LP songs and definitely has a greater impact on the overall quality rating of MtM for me. NRL is still quite nice and really unique. I always wished the part where the drums kick in in the last seconds of the song would actually lead to another section of the song instead of ending it... They are intense!
Minutes to Midnight to me is the far better album. Though The Hunting Party has what I believe some of the best songs of their career (War, Marks the Graves, Drawbar), when the album is bad, it's BAD (All for Nothing, A Line in the Sand), which really brings it down for me. I apperciate Minutes to Midnight so much because it was a point in the band's career where they were at a creative high, trying to prove that they were more than a Nu-Metal one-trick pony. Which they succeded at I think. Songs like The Little Things Give You Away, Shadow of the Day, Hands Held High, and In Between are great examples of this. Even cut material like Blackbirds, QWERTY, and Across the Line are pretty darn great. I guess what I'm trying to say is that the versatility shown in the Minutes to Midnight era is what does it for me, which was a great stepping stone for their creative peak on A Thousand Suns.
I like both records but I feel like overall MTM wasn't that cohesive + the instrumentation was a bit too bland and empty of atmosphere/layers for me. The last half of MTM was great and I really enjoyed that part - but the first half is so... Random - most of the time, it sounds like some kind of soulless arena rock IMO. Take a pretty generic song like FM from THP. It would fit perfectly into the first half of MTM(right next to WID) but it would be MILES better than anything else on there. You could even put the acoustic version of it next to In Between - and guess what, it would fit perfectly(and make the second half of the record even better). THP isn't perfect but I would put it over MTM. MTM was of cause a bigger "step" in the bands career but it's not the better album. I think Minus once said that THP would be an amazing EP, and I agree with that(if they cut off songs like All For Nothing, Wastelands and UIG)
If you also added in What We Don't Know and a completed Debris and stuck them all on the album MTM would have probably been their best work imho. The variety amongst those 18 tracks is amazing.
Ya'll forgetting about No Roads Left (since that technically wasn't on the album until a couple years ago).
Urgh. People rate MTM too highly because it was the first album to break way from the Nu-Metal sound. Disregarding how much of a risk either album was, in terms of pure song quality, and how the album flows, I feel like THP wins easily.
As far as i can judge with my english-knowledge, which isn't perfect, i probably would say that "Minutes To Midnight" has the best lyrics of all records. The lyrics reflect what they was feeling and what was in their mind at that time - No More Sorrow & Hands Held High (Bush), Valentines Day, In Pieces, The Little Things Give You Away. The album is full of personal feelings. Unfortunately this changed. In "A Thousand Suns" they tried to go more deep but with lean success imo. The lyrics sound pretty - how can i say - "pseudo-deep" to me (but not all the time of course), besides of "The Messenger". It has the best lyrics of all LP songs imo - simple but effective. Especially since "Living Things" i have the feeling that the lyrics are more like filler, words with several meaning something for everyone and generic. But i can't see many similarities between these 2 albums. Like it was said before, with M2M they wanted to break the boundaries to make something new, but THP has a different background. They are too different from each other to make a fair decision what record is better. But maybe this way: Lyrically: M2M | Instrumentally: THP