It's not the saddest part of today, but it's still absolutely heartbreaking that Chester Bennington didn't live to see rock's history writers come around on Linkin Park.

It would have happened -- absolutely would've, eventually. The band was too big, too influential, too talented, too smart, too innovative. Sure, they had the misfortune of their commercial and artistic apex coming at a peak for mainstream rock music at its most blunt and least imaginative, and the double misfortune of being directly influential on a lot of the bands responsible for making it so.

But that was never Linkin Park themselves. Their best music was electric, boundary-pushing and undeniably vital. Dismissing them along with the thudding misogyny that marked nu-metal deep into the '00s is no fairer than writing off Nirvana with the middling bands of '90s post-grunge. As I wrote when discussing Hybrid Theory in a ranked list of Diamond-selling albums -- and yeah, don't forget just how huge that album was, arguably bigger than any other rock album this century -- 'For all the skeptics who view Linkin Park as a bunch of whiny, repetitive, dull, uncreative mooks: No, you’re thinking of every other popular band from that time.'

Chester Bennignton, who was found dead Thursday (July 20) at age 41 of an apparent suicide, didn't dominate Linkin Park the way most frontmen of his time did -- at their best, the band's nervous system was directed in equal parts by Bennington's paint-scraping primal scream, Mike Shinoda's keep-calm-and-carry-on rhyming and Joe Hahn's lucid-nightmare samples and soundscapes. But that's not to say that he was inessential, or indeed that he was anything less than epochal: His shredded-throat shrieking was the whiny, guttural, unignorable voice of a musical generation, as inextricable to the sound of '00s rock as, well, Chris Cornell's voice was to the '90s. He was the band's not-so-secret weapon, capable of unleashing holy hell at a measure's notice, making their songs captivating even when they otherwise sounded like they were just spinning their Xbox controllers.

But it wasn't always about brute force with Bennington: His yawp had a piercing clarity to it, too, which helped facilitate Linkin Park's eventual evolution away from the nu-metal moment that birthed them into more straightforward stadium rock, and in recent days, to something more resembling alt-pop. Subtlety would never be his strong suit, but his voice was more malleable than he was often given credit for: Had he come up a decade earlier, he could've growled with James Hetfield and Dave Mustaine; had he come up a half-decade later, he could've out-emoted Chris Carrabba and Patrick Stump standing on his head.

Ultimately, Bennington's legacy will be the songs -- gorgeous, thrashing pop-metal assaults that were as heavy and visceral as Korn but as immaculately produced and structurally unimpeachable as *NSYNC -- and the fact that, while critics of the early '00s were scouring every grungy New York club for the New Rock Revolution, Linkin Park were actually providing it, with music that pushed rock into the 2000s unafraid, rather than trying to chain it to memories of the prior century.

Here are the band's 15 best.

15. 'Leave Out All the Rest' (Minutes to Midnight)

A full decade before they courted sell-out accusations on 2017 No. 1 album One More Light, Linkin Park essentially set the template for their post-metal existence with early Minutes to Midnight climax 'Leave Out All the Rest,' a gently glowing power ballad that sounds particularly self-eulogizing today: 'Help me leave behind some reasons to be missed.. Keep me in your memory/ Leave out all the rest.' If all of One More Light was this strong, LP could've done the album with Max Martin and Shellback and even hard-core LP fans would've had no cause for complaint.

14. Linkin Park & JAY-Z, 'Numb/Encore' (Collison Course)

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The full Collision Course defense will have to wait for another day, but suffice to say, when JAY-Z decides you're enough of an artistic peer to spend a mini-album intertwining your back calatog with his, it's not a memory that you run from.

13. 'In Pieces' (Minutes to Midnight)

Skankin' Park! For all their instrumental and rhythmic strengths, Linkin Park rarely made boogieing a priority -- 'I will not dance, even if the beat is funky,' Shinoda strangely protested on A Thousand Suns' 'When They Come for Me' -- leaving this ska-inflected penultimate M2M cut something of a catalog anomaly. Not that too many fans in Vans were gonna be screaming 'Pick it up, pick it up!' to this one either, with its eerie melody, ripping late-song guitar solo and typically thick production, but it does at least present a fascinating alternate universe where LP were more influenced by Rancid than Reznor.

12. 'Heavy' feat. Kiiara (One More Light)

If fans did have a reasonable complaint about One More Light, it was that the single was obviously the best thing on it: Consider the title ironic if its top 40-geared production and Tranter/Michaels co-write is your insisted focus, but know that what always really made LP weightier than your average nu-metalers was the self-lacerating emotional brutality, not the superfiltered guitars. 'And I drive myself crazy, thinking everything's about me,' Chester and guest vocalist Kiiara insist apart and in unison, a lyric of shocking self-awareness for a nu-metal vet, but one that showed that fame, fatherhood and a couple of decades' distance from his teenage self hadn't cured his self-destructive solipsism.

11. 'Waiting for the End' (A Thousand Suns)

A seeming anomaly in the LP catalog, but really just an unusual consolidation of their undersold strengths: the band's burgeoning Coldplay aspirations mixing with their old-school hip-hop fascination and latent reggae toasting instincts passed down from '90s forefathers 311. (Not to mention a swipe of the 'Runaway' piano plinks that must've left Kanye livid if they ever passed through his radar.) It was a little too confusing to be massive, but so were most of the best Linkin Park songs of this period.

10. 'The Little Things Give You Away' (Minutes to Midnight)

Traditionally, it was the very big things that gave Linkin Park away, as they seemed to lack the patience for the interludes and ballads of creeping quietude that made the more riotous songs on Nine Inch Nails albums land with such viciousness. M2M closer 'The Little Things Give You Away' doesn't get there either, but there is a sense of restraint to its sinister grandeur that at least puts it in league with the best Brand New deep cuts, unfolding slowly enough that the title phrase doesn't even really make its presence felt until it builds as a chant nearly five minutes in. If there's such a thing as Linkin Park for non-Linkin Park fans, it'd probably be this.

9. 'Bleed It Out' (Minutes to Midnight)

Despite beginning with Mike Shinoda counting off 'Here we go for the hundredth time..,' 'Bleed It Out' sounded like no LP single before it: Built off handclaps, tambourine, an imagined live energy and guitar that slices through the song like a hot knife, 'Bleed' imagined Linkin Park as some strange musical hybrid of Pearl Jam and Sly and the Family Stone, with only the vocalists' seething negative energy giving it an obvious connection to LP past. The song was enough of a reflexive fist-pumper to cut through some of its musical contradictions -- becoming their second of three platinum-certified singles off the underrated Minutes to Midnight -- but a decade later, it still feels like the band at their most unsafe, and uniquely thrilling for it.

8. 'Blackout' (A Thousand Suns)

It sounds like Linkin Park as produced by Porter Robinson, except that Robinson wouldn't even release his debut single for another year. 'Blackout' is one of Linkin Park's most fascinating compositions: a big-tent synth hook with a shockingly discofied strut -- kept only from potential dance-floor deployment by one of Chester's all-time most unhinged vocals, shouting and vamping as if he wants to ensure the thing never gets played on Z100. It's still pretty irresistible, though, even when it gets swallowed by static at the midway point and resumes with another ahead-of-its-time dubstep breakdown. Linkin Park's subsequent club excursions have never totally convinced, but 'Blackout' shows how they could've been far more effective leading the EDM pack than following it.

7. 'Points of Authority' (Hybrid Theory)

LP at their most weaponized: 'Points of Authority' wasn't even a proper single until its inferior Reanimation remix (by the dude from Orgy, go figure) was released in '02, but it stands as one of their early signature songs because it scorches at every turn: Shinoda's carnival-barking intro, Brad Delson's rumbling-belly fretwork, even Hahn's blisters-on-mah-fingers scratching. But it's a Bennington showcase first and foremost: 'You like to think you're never wrong/ You have to act like you're someone' is about as boilerplate second-person excoriation as you'll find in nu-metal, but delivered through Bennington's piercing wail it feels like a near-generational rallying cry.

6. 'Breaking the Habit' (Meteora)

The song whose half-time drum-n-bass beat made a lot of ears not previously attuned to Linkin Park perk up for at least three minutes. The song's skittering beat and wire-taut guitar picking made something inscrutable out of one of the band's most Incubus-like melodies, while the lack of any Mike Shinoda rapping was an early sign that the band would not allow themselves to be consumed by established formula. Bennington's repeated insistence of 'I'm breaking the habit tonight' seems to show newfound fight for the often fatalistic frontman, until you listen closer and realize his solution for doing so is a permanent one -- his doom spelled out by his final 'tonight' dissolving into the ether, a final futile shout.

5. 'The Catalyst' (A Thousand Suns)

Linkin Park never took more chances than they did on 2009's A Thousand Suns, an album that sounds like a band self-consciously trying to make their masterpiece and very nearly getting there. 'The Catalyst' was something like Linkin Park's 'Paranoid Android,' a shape-shifting, grand statement lead single deployed on radio like a smart bomb; unlike Radiohead, LP actually had the commercial clout for it to detonate, with the song becoming a No. 1 rock and alternative hit. With its proggy structuring and remorseless forward drive, It won't be the first Chester song anyone thinks of today, but it might be the one that keeps him on their mind until tomorrow.

4. 'One Step Closer' (Hybrid Theory)

If you could reduce the nu-metal era to one sound bite, it'd either be Jonathan Davis scatting in tongues, Fred Durst telling you precisely where to stick that cookie, or Chester Bennington insisting with zero room for negotiation: 'SHUT UP WHEN I'M TALKING TO YOU!' The full scope of what Linkin Park were capable of was hardly projectable from the contents of 'One Step Closer,' but it proved that they were the very best of their moment at at least one thing: Empowering suburban youths across the globe to tell their parents exactly what they really think. No band ever need accomplish more than that on their debut single.

3. 'Shadow of the Day' (Minutes to Midnight)

The first true about-face of Linkin Park's career came with this lighter-waver, whose coruscating guitars, soft bass rumble and fading-firework synths served as the zephyr lifting the most straightforwardly soaring vocal of Chester Bennington's career. It was a pretty big risk at a time when metal was still a mainstream enough proposition for a band to have something to lose by abandoning it, but Linkin Park had the melodic instincts to make it sing and the instrumental support to make it massive, the song letting in more light with each verse and chorus until the guitars push the blinds all the way open, bathing the chorus in glorious, undeniable sunlight. Forget Coldplay -- 'Shadow of the Day' credibly posits that Linkin Park could've been an American U2 if they'd really wanted.

2. 'Faint' (Meteora)

Before abandoning their shiny reupholstered version of grunge's loud-quiet formula, Linkin Park perfected it on 'Faint,' 2:43 of the most pulse-raising rock music of the '00s. It's Shinoda and Bennington's most efficient relay race, the former captivating with each perfectly paced syllable on the verses before passing the baton to the latter for his spine-chilling, throat-shredding caterwaul: 'Don't turn your back on me/ I WON'T BE IGNORED!!' It's a defining moment for both vocalists, but it's still that sweeping, tantalizing string riff that steals the show, hooking you before your preconceived notions about Linkin Park even have a chance to prejudice you against it. At the time, it was frequently mashed up with the similarly narcotic violins of Britney's 'Toxic' -- just further proof that Linkin Park had the ammo to hold their own on pop's battlefield.

1. 'In the End' (Hybrid Theory)

You know that Limp Bizkit never even had a Hot 100 top 40 hit? That Korn only had one, and if you can name it in fewer than eight guesses you probably work for Billboard? Well, Linkin Park took 'In the End' all the way to No. 2 on the Hot 100 in 2002 -- as the fourth single off Hybrid Theory, incredibly.

And they were able to take a fundamentally top 40-unfriendly genre one spot from Hot 100 immortality for a simple reason: 'In the End' was one of the best pop songs of the 21st century. So many parts of 'In the End' have become iconic that it's easy to take one or more for granted. The opening piano riff is iconic, of course. The opening line is iconic ('I tried so hard..'). The chorus ('But in the end.. it doesn't even matter') is iconic. The bridge ('I PUT MY TRUST..IN..YOU') is at least iconic-adjacent. And the last piano echo, a final sob over the tear-stained track, is iconic.

But what makes 'In the End' so special is how even the connecting tissue of all these unforgettable moments is immaculately crafted -- the conscious/subconscious interplay between Shinoda's main vocal and Bennington's distant-memory backing, the subtle production glitches that delicately suggest a fractured psyche, the bleary-eyed guitars that at least try to lend a sympathetic shoulder to Bennington's chorus wailing. Few songs in any genre have this much care put into their composition; for early '00s rock, it towered over the pack like Chester himself, perched on the gargoyle in the song's video.

Of course, it'd be myopic to not mention at this point how 'In the End,' like so many of Bennington's songs, seems to hint very clearly at suicide. There's no triumph over adversity to be found in the song, no strength in self, nothing but trying so hard and it all falling apart anyway -- even sonically, the slow bleed of the song's outro leaves little to the imagination. As with Chris Cornell, depression and fatalism was such an inextricable part of Bennington's lyrics and persona that we eventually became desensitized to them -- to the point where, despite our familiarity with songs like 'In the End' and 'Breaking the Habit' and 'Heavy,' his suicide still comes as a total shock.

Still, despite the relative explicitness of its subject matter, 'In the End' has an inherent solidarity and beauty to it that stands apart from Bennington's real-life story. The song's sentiment may sound like quitting, but no Linkin Park fan would ever say it felt that way when singing along to it. LP songs like these served to validate the feelings of total hopelessness its young fans may have been going through at the same time, to find some kind of fortitude in admitting and sharing them, and watching them prove relatable enough on a mass scale that the song comes one Jennifer Lopez and Ja Rule duet away from being the biggest hit in the country. No one could ever say, not even after today's events, that it didn't even matter.

He shared so much raw beauty with those of us who needed it most.

The loss of Linkin Park lead singer Chester Bennington to suicide is being felt strongly by so many of us this week, not simply because he is 'yet another' famous rock star in the long list of famous rock stars who died young, but because his music spoke to us in such uniquely direct terms about the pain he struggled with throughout his far too brief life.

Bennington, like his music, was real and raw — about life, about addiction, about his craft, and yes, about the crippling hold of depression.

I don't know if it's a Gen X thing, a Xennial thing, or just an adult human trying to make it through this life thing, but as magnificent as Bennington was as an artist, the lyrics he composed have a magical quality to them by virtue of just how brutally real they are.

In a 2009 interview with Spin, he said:

'This is just who I am, this is what I write about, what I do, and most of my work has been a reflection of what I’ve been going through in one way or another.”

I'd be willing to bet that at times more numerous than we can imagine over the past several decades, far more than one person found themselves saved in a moment of soul-crushing desperation when they played their favorite Linkin Park songs and took in the strength and security of Bennington's literal and lyrical voice. Free overwatch activation key.

RELATED: The Sad Truth About The Suicides Of Chester Bennington & Chris Cornell

The depth of meaning in his words is all the more obvious now, of course.

Take a moment to look for yourself and find the messages within these excerpts from 11 of the best Linkin Park songs about depression, suicidal thoughts, addiction and even sexual abuse.

1. 'Heavy' from One More Light (2017)

According to the lyrics page on Genius, this song 'centers around the emotional weight of fixating on oneself.. Chester Bennington said in an interview with 102.7 KIIS FM that 'Heavy' is a song of enlightenment, where a person takes a step back and realizes that a great deal of emotional strain is self-inflicted.'

The band shared that the lyrics were written based on their discussions amongst themselves about the troubles they each faced in their lives, and in one interview, Bennington 'stated that personally, he has a hard time with life, even on a good day.'

I don’t like my mind right now
Stacking up problems that are so unnecessary
Wish that I could slow things down
I wanna let go but there’s comfort in the panic
And I drive myself crazy
Thinking everything's about me
Yeah, I drive myself crazy
'Cause I can’t escape the gravity

I'm holding on
Why is everything so heavy?
Holding on
So much more than I can carry
I keep dragging around what's bringing me down
If I just let go, I'd be set free
Holding on
Why is everything so heavy?

2. 'Somewhere I Belong' from Meteora (2003)

(When this began)
I had nothing to say
And I get lost in the nothingness inside of me
(I was confused)
And I let it all out to find
That I’m not the only person with these things in mind

(Inside of me)
But all the vacancy the words revealed
Is the only real thing that I’ve got left to feel
(Nothing to lose)
Just stuck, hollow and alone
And the fault is my own, and the fault is my own

I wanna heal, I wanna feel what I thought was never real
I wanna let go of the pain I’ve felt so long
(Erase all the pain till it’s gone)
I wanna heal, I wanna feel like I’m close to something real
I wanna find something I’ve wanted all along
Somewhere I belong

3. 'Breaking The Habit' from Meteora (2003)

According to Wikipedia, 'A common misconception about the song is that it was written by lead singer Chester Bennington due to his struggles with substance abuse. In fact, band member Mike Shinoda began writing the song before he met Bennington based on another close friend's drug addiction.'

Clutching my cure
I tightly lock the door
I try to catch my breath again
I hurt much more than any time before
I have no options left again
I don't want to be the one the battles always choose
'cause inside I realize that I'm the one confused

RELATED: My Never Before Released Audio Interview With Chester Bennington From Linkin Park

4. 'Numb' from Meteora (2003)

I'm tired of being what you want me to be
Feeling so faithless, lost under the surface
Don't know what you're expecting of me
Put under the pressure of walking in your shoes

(Caught in the undertow
Just caught in the undertow)
Every step that I take is another mistake to you
(Caught in the undertow
Just caught in the undertow)

I've become so numb, I can't feel you there
Become so tired, so much more aware
I'm becoming this, all I want to do
Is be more like me and be less like you

5. 'Leave Out All The Rest' from Minutes To Midnight (2008)

In a now archived interview about the song, Bennington said, 'We knew this was going to be a single from the very beginning, so we worked really hard on making sure it had great lyrics. I'm singing 'Pretending someone else can save me from myself' during it because it's supposed to feel like an apology letter, as though i'm moving on but i want people to remember the good things and not the bad things. A lot of the song is about humility.'

I dreamed I was missing, you were so scared
But no-one would listen, 'cause no-one else cared
After my dreaming, I woke with this fear
What am I leaving, when I'm done here?

So, if you're asking me, I want you to know

When my time comes, forget the wrong that I've done
Help me leave behind some reasons to be missed
Don't resent me and, when you're feeling empty
Keep me in your memory, leave out all the rest
Leave out all the rest

6. 'Easier To Run' from Meteora (2003)

According to Genius, 'The verse lyrics emerged from a free-writing exercise performed by Chester Bennington: he wrote them to no music, no beat. Mike Shinoda and Don Gilmore liked them a lot, and the guys decided this was the song to work them into.'

It's easier to run
Replacing this pain with something numb
It's so much easier to go
Than face all this pain here all alone

Something has been taken from deep inside of me
A secret I've kept locked away
No one can ever see
Wounds so deep they never show
They never go away
Like moving pictures in my head
For years and years, they've played..

Sometimes I remember
The darkness of my past
Bringing back these memories
I wish I didn't have
Sometimes I think of letting go
And never looking back
And never moving forward so
There'd never be a past

7. 'In The End' from Meteora (2003)

In an interview with Unco[v]ered, Chester said, 'I don’t really participate in picking singles. I learnt that after making Hybrid Theory. I was never a fan of 'In the End' and I didn’t even want it to be on the record, honestly. How wrong could I have possibly been?'

I've put my trust in you
Pushed as far as I can go
For all this
There's only one thing you should know
I've put my trust in you
Pushed as far as I can go
For all this
There's only one thing you should know

I tried so hard and got so far
But in the end, it doesn't even matter
I had to fall to lose it all
But in the end, it doesn't even matter

RELATED: Bizarre Rumors & Conspiracy Theories That Claim Linkin Park Lead Singer Chester Bennington Was Murdered

8. 'Waiting For The End' from A Thousand Suns (2010)

Waiting for the end to come
Wishing I had strength to stand
This is not what I had planned
It's out of my control
Flying at the speed of light
Thoughts were spinning in my head
So many things were left unsaid
It's hard to let you go
(Oh) I know what it takes to move on
(Oh) I know how it feels to lie
(Oh) All I want to do
Is trade this life for something new
Holding on to what I haven't got

9. 'By Myself' from Hybrid Theory (2000)

According to Genius, this song 'started out under the demo name Sad in 1999 and was also titled SuperXero in the time leading up to the signing of the band and the release of their debut. This song describes a person with no self-confidence as well as a drug problem. Both of these were issues that Chester Bennington faced throughout his lifetime.'

What do I do to ignore them behind me?
Do I follow my instincts blindly?
Do I hide my pride from these bad dreams
And give in to sad thoughts that are maddening?
Do I sit here and try to stand it?
Or do I try to catch them red-handed?
Do I trust some and get fooled by phoniness
Or do I trust nobody and live in loneliness?
Because I can't hold on when I'm stretched so thin
I make the right moves but I'm lost within
I put on my daily façade but then
I just end up getting hurt again

By myself (myself)
I ask why, but in my mind
I find I can’t rely on myself (myself)
I ask why, but in my mind
I find I can’t rely on myself

I can’t hold on (To what I want when I’m stretched so thin)
It’s all too much to take in
I can’t hold on (To anything watching everything spin)
With thoughts of failure sinking in

10. 'Crawling' from Hybrid Theory (2000)

Bennington was known to say that this was the most difficult song for him perform live. In the above-mentioned interview with Spin, he also shared that, 'My life was falling apart in many ways that I was writing about on this record in terms of getting divorced, in terms of diving very hard into alcohol and drugs throughout this process.'

He continued to say that this song 'is about feeling like I had no control over myself in terms of drugs and alcohol. That feeling, being able to write about it, sing about it, that song, those words sold millions of records, I won a Grammy, I made a lot of money.” But, he added, 'It’s not cool to be an alcoholic — it’s not cool to go drink and be a dumbass.. It’s cool to be a part of recovery.'

There's something inside me that pulls beneath the surface
Consuming, confusing
This lack of self-control I fear is never ending
Controlling, I can't seem

To find myself again
My walls are closing in
Without a sense of confidence
I'm convinced that there's just too much pressure to take
I've felt this way before
So insecure

Crawling in my skin
These wounds they will not heal
Fear is how I fall
Confusing what is real

11. 'Final Masquerade' from The Hunting Party (2014)

And one final song as a bonus..

'Hunger Strike' from Temple of the Dog (1991)

Unlike the songs above, 'Hunger Strike' was written by Bennington's close friend and lead singer of Soundgarden, Chris Cornell, who also tragically died by suicide earlier this year, and who would have turned 53 on July 20, 2017, the day Bennington passed away.

According to an article in Rolling Stone, 'In the summer of 2008, Chris Cornell and Linkin Park toured together as part of the Projekt Revolution tour.'

This video of two of them singing 'Hunger Strike' together at Atlanta's Lakewood Amphitheatre is the very definition of tragic beauty.

Please remember that there are several options if or someone you know needs help to deal with an immediate crisis. Call 911 if you think a family member may harm themselves or others.

The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is also available 24/7 at 1-800-273-TALK (8255)

RELATED: The Beautiful Way Chester Bennington’s Wife Talinda Is Reaching Out To Linkin Park Fans Struggling With Depression And Suicidal Thoughts To #MakeChesterProud​

Senior Editor and former mediator Arianna Jeret, MA/MSW, is a recognized expert on love, relationships and divorce who has been featured in Cosmopolitan, The Huffington Post, Yahoo Style, MSN, Fox News, Bustle, Parents and more. Find her on Twitter and Instagram or more.