Linkin Park without Chester Bennington could have been an epic fail but the band build their own brand with Emily Armstrong.
To put it lightly, Linkin Park’s comeback has been a bit of a shitshow. What was originally meant to be an exciting announcement that the group would be returning from a seven-year hiatus after the death of long-time vocalist Chester Bennington–this time with Dead Sara’s Emily Armstrong fronting vocal duties–didn’t quite get the response the band had been hoped for, instead sending fans into a frenzy for all the wrong reasons.
Linkin Park – From Zero
- Label: Warner Records
- Release: Out Now
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As to be expected, some long-time fans were annoyed, thinking that LP continuing to tour and make music was an insult to Bennington’s legacy. Others got caught up in Armstrong’s problematic past which involves links to both scientology and the now infamous actor/sex-offender Danny Masterson, while others simply didn’t vibe with the new formula the band were going for.
But to put it bluntly, who cares? If Linkin Park is back making music, is that really a bad thing?
That being said, it’s easy to see where some of the backlash came from. ‘The Emptiness Machine’, From Zero’s lead single, did admittedly fall a bit flat, feeling a little bit dated and rudimentary compared to the group’s earlier work. ‘Heavy Is The Crown’, on the other hand, undoubtedly channelled vintage Linkin Park, feeling eerily similar in its rhythms, grooves, and cadence to Faint and in turn, momentarily silencing the naysayers who claimed the band had redirected their tried-and-tested formula.
Well, to those people, it’s time to start getting vocal online again, because they have changed their sound–but in a lot of ways, it’s where From Zero’s biggest strengths lie. It’s not in the songs like ‘Cut The Bridge’ or ‘Good Things Go’, which feel more like a high-school band inspired by Linkin Park than the actual real thing. It’s in the lesser radio-friendly tracks which aren’t going for the tried and tested formula the group have always relied on.
From the punk-rock riffs and thrash metal elements of ‘Casualty’, to the DJ-shadow inspired dub-heavy beats of ‘Overflow’, to the bouncing rhythms of ‘Two Faced’, which channels a similar energy to the groups earlier single ‘By Myself’, there’s a lot of promising moments that see Linkin Park redefining what their formula is. It’s heavier and grittier, offering the evolution that so many were wanting when the group first announced their return.
Without a doubt, From Zero is definitely not a standout release in the group’s catalogue. Although, it is a necessary step forward, offering 11 songs that can fill a setlist and save Armstrong from having each and every performance immediately compared to Bennington. Sure, it may not capture the magic, originality or holistic vision of Hybrid Theory or Meteora, but it’s a pretty solid blueprint for the next era of the group sound.
Listen to the new era of Linkin Park here.
