I love 'em!! They rock, also i think that they add that special 'something' to a song, also, if you have a 'hard' song playing full on and then a guitar solo comes in, you get a rest for a while.
"just like metallica"? man...I thought the reason Linkin Park was good was because they did things kinda differently. And the guitar solo will never be a lost art as long as Carlos Santana is still around. The solo on "America" with P.O.D. is awesome.