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The Hunting Party - One Year Later


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What are your thoughts on the album now that one year has passed since its release? This was definitely a different album in many ways - hard rock, the promotion and distribution of it, the collaborations, and the touring cycle.

 

Use this thread to reflect on everything about this album!

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I skip right to Rebellion 95% of the time. Rebellion, Mark The Graves, Drawbar, Final Masquerade, and A Line In The Sand is the second best run of songs on an LP album in my opinion. The first half just feels really lackluster now, though. I might listen to KTTK, GATS or UIG every now and then, but just about every other song has lost its appeal. It's not like they're bad songs, but they're just not ones I'm likely to go back to.

 

I'll probably go back and review it tomorrow if I get the chance. I've been meaning to.

Edited by TheSasstielExperience
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I never listen to:

-All For Nothing (YOU SAY!) FUCK THAT.

-War

-Summoning

-Until it's Gone

-Wastelands

-Drawbar

Because I consider them the worst songs in LP's catalog.

 

Once in a while I listen to

-Keys

-Rebellion

-Mark The Graves

 

My favorite songs still are:

-Guilty All The Same

-Final Masquerade

- A Line In The Sand

 

Wish THP had more of the half that I love.

Edited by LPJZ
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Like Nick, I'll probably do a review of it sometime tomorrow or this weekend. Maybe not tomorrow, since I have finals, but we'll see. It's definitely left a huge impact on me as a person. KTTK, AFN, GATS, War, Rebellion, MTG, and ALITS have that really visceral, heavy in-your-face punch. UIG and FM are beautifully emotional, still heavy but properly so. Summoning and Drawbar provide that little ambience that helps establish a sort of flow amongst the disjointed powerchords of the songs.

 

THP's my second favorite LP album (behind ATS). I think my opinions about it have stayed the same since its realease, if not grown more in favor of it since.

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DAMMIT ALL my song-by-song review was just deleted by accident. Oh well, maybe I'll retype that tomorrow, but it's been a year so is it really all that necessary?

 

The majority of that is just me gushing about ALITS. I swear that is probably the greatest song LP has ever written.

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I still believe that GATS, Rebellion, and Final Masquerade are some of the best tracks LP has released. The album is great structurally and musically, and I still find myself finding a new thing I like about each song after every listen. It would honestly be a contender against ATS in my book if UIG had stronger lyrics. I think that chorus kind of brings the whole album down a bit.

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THP is definitely one of my favourite albums. I like every song on it, though I do like some more than others.

 

Keys to the Kingdom: I'm not a huge fan of the chorus, but I really like both Mike's parts and the instrumental, especially the guitar solo. The first time I heard this song, I listened to the first 5 seconds and couldn't stand it, so I skipped right over it. However, much later, I realized only the first chorus had a strange, robotic effect on it, so I ended up cutting out the first chorus, but left the full instrumental intact. So now it has a nice intro, that leads into Mike's singing verse, which I really like.

 

All For Nothing: This song seems to get a lot of hate, but I really like it. I first started listening to this song because I really liked Mike's rap, and overtime the rest of the song grew on me. I think Page Hamilton is a welcome addition to this song, as the vocals do feel like they have 3 different parts, so it seems appropriate having a distinct voice for each one.

 

Guilty All The Same: Definitely one of the best songs on the album, I rank it as my third favourite. Chester's vocals and the instrumental are really great. I really like the sound of the electric guitar in this song. The one thing I hated about this song was the addition of Rakim. There was just no good reason for it, I mean Mike is their rapper, why would they need to bring one in? For this reason, I usually listen to the radio edit, however if a studio version was ever released with Mike doing the rapping, it could be one of my favourite songs of their whole career.

 

The Summoning: An interesting track, it has a lot of weird sounds, but I like the heavy guitar sound, and overall this track is a decent intro to War, and does serve it's purpose of being the 'calm before the storm'.

 

War: A fast, high energy track that I quite enjoy listening to. Chester's vocals aren't really anything special on this song, but the instrumental is amazing, and has a really good guitar solo.

 

Wastelands: This song is okay, it's one of my least favourites of the record, mainly because it feels so... uninspired? I mean the rap is nothing special, it probably has the worst instrumental of the album (imo), and it just feels like a poor man's version of a Meteora song (rap / chorus / rap / chorus / bridge / chorus).

 

Until It's Gone: I quite like this song, Chester's vocals sound great, and the instrumental is just as good. This song seems to be the only one with any trace of a resemblance to Living Things, in the sense that there seem to be more instruments than just guitar / bass / drums, I think there are some computer added sounds, but I don't really know a lot about that kind of stuff. Also, I believe some of Chester's vocals in the background have a vocoder on them. I really like these things, and I always loved the way their songs seemed to use elements from previous albums. I remember Mike saying he didn't think he could have made Living Things without making all the albums that came before it, and I'd say in that regard, The Hunting Party is a step backward.

 

Rebellion: Definitely my favourite song of this album, the instrumental is good, but the vocals are just amazing. I fell in love with Linkin Park because of all the cool things they can do with two vocalists, and this feels like the only song on The Hunting Party that truly takes advantage of it. Although Rob does an amazing job on drums throughout the entire album, the sound of the drums always stood out to me as particularly good on this song. My favourite part of this song is when the bridge is coming to an end, with Chester screaming and the instrumental speeding up, and then Mike starts singing 'We are the fortunate ones..."

 

Marks the Graves: A really solid song, the instrumental is really good and the vocals are as well. I liked the harmony between Chester and Mike's vocals, though I think Mike's parts may be a little too loud at points, but that could be just me. I would say Brad, Rob, and Phoenix really stand out here, as the vocals don't really feel that special. I also like that there are some longer songs on this album, with three songs longer than 5 minutes, which is quite a change from their previous albums, although Minutes to Midnight and A Thousand Suns did have some long songs as well.

 

Drawbar: I don't really listen to this song much at all, mainly because I don't like the way the guitar sounds. However, the piano and drums sound good. I just listened to it while writing this, and I do like it better than I remember, perhaps the sound of the guitar will just take a little getting used to. I've never been a big fan of instrumentals, so perhaps I never really gave this song a chance.

 

Final Masquerade: I like this song, but I don't think it is one of the best of the album. The instrumental is pretty simple and the vocals are nothing special either. It has some cool harmony parts with multiple layers of vocals, and I'm pretty sure Mike sings in the seconds chorus, so those things I like, adding more depth to the vocals is always a huge plus for me. However, overall this song just doesn't feel particularly special to me.

 

A Line in the Sand: This song is a very close second for my favourite song of the album, and I really like everything about it. I love the sound of piano in their songs, and this one is no exception. The intro with Mike singing feels almost like Iridescent, and then the drums come in and the song really picks up, and shows why it fits in so well on The Hunting Party. This song really does feel like not just a summary of the whole album, but perhaps even their whole career, or at least as well as any song has so far. The intro and outro are one of the few examples on this album of them using elements from their past few albums, which are always a welcome addition.

Edited by iPodwithnomusic
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It's my second favorite album by Linkin Park (the first one is ATS of course). I love the second half of THP (from Rebellion to ALITS), but the first half is also very good, especially KTTK.

 

Keys To The Kingdom - I had a lot of fun while I was listening it for the first time. Very good song. So much fun. Mike in second verse is just incredible.

All For Nothing is a solid song. I remember when it leaked (9th June 2014), it was like "holy shit, Mike!". Amazing verses and instrumental.

Guilty All The Same - very good instrumental, I like that long intro. Vocals by Chester could be better... But it's not very bad.

The Summoning - interesting, climatic, unquiet, a bit frightening. A buildup before "War".

War - I like punk rock, so I was waiting for this song. I like the main riff and vocals. But this is very good song for a band with 15 years old guys, not for a band with guys almost 40 :D

Wastelands - I don't like this song. Rap by Mike is good, but I don't like instrumental in verses and Chester's performance - choruses are the same like GATS + I prefer Chester singing or screaming than yelling.

Until It's Gone - solid song, after first listening I loved it. Simple, but not bad lyrics. Very important meaning - people are forgetting about these words - "you don't know what you've got / until it's gone". I like the vibe of this song. Very good live - seen it live in Wroclaw last year in full. Glad I was at this show, they performed this song in full less than 20 times?

Rebellion - woah, this is awesome. I love instrumental (Rob's drumming! <3) and Mike's performance. One of his best. I want to hear it live in Rybnik. One of my favorite songs by LP.

Mark The Graves - another song with awesome instrumental. I love vocals on these, very calm, quiet, wonderful. And then screaming and guitar solos!

Drawbar is incredible. Very atmospheric. I love it. One of the best on THP.

Final Masquerade - beat on the beginning is destroying a bit an atmosphere of the beautiful end of Drawbar. But it's still a good song. Pretty solid lyrics.

A Line In The Sand: one word - epic. Strong vocal performances, instrumental and lyrics. I love that song. The best of THP and all LP songs.

Edited by xTirea
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I still jam to Keys, AFN, GATS, Wastelands, Rebellion, ALITS.

 

UIG shouldn't have been on the album IMO - doesn't fit at all. I like Keys/AFN/GATS to open the album and it's a good run of songs. War is a little too raw/not good enough for an album.

 

My favorite stuff on the CD is probably Rob's drumming on Rebellion, the Keys bridge to ending, and Mike's second verse of AFN.

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Track-by-Track Review Part 1:

 

Keys To The Kingdom: Damn, the chorus on this one sounds so bad. I know, they were trying to REALLY push the "raw, one-take" thing with it, but it just sounds bad to me. The disjointed nature of the song is also kind of off-putting, with hard cuts between sections. It's really jarring, but not in a good way. Even UNTIL IT BREAKS had better flow between the four different parts! Everything else is pretty solid, though. Mike's sung verse threw me off in a good way. He sounds great there, and it's a nice change of pace from the in-your-face wall of guitars that had been playing literally 2 seconds prior. His rap verse isn't too bad, but not great. The "Yes I'm half anglo, half fried panko" line is so weird and out of place, but fucking hell it's funny. Where the song goes after the third chorus is great. The build into the solo, and the solo itself, is a highlight of the album for sure, and it kind of saves the track for me. Pretty solid opener, but it's not one I listen to on its own very frequently. 8/10

 

All For Nothing: Mike delivers his best verses on the album on this track. Unfortunately, that's not saying a lot. Even these verses pale in comparison to some of the verses he's delivered in years past. They're good, though. The second verse in particular where he changes the flow a bit is kind of interesting and definitely noteworthy. Like Keys, though, the chorus is where the song suffers. Not so much in the first half of the chorus, where Page Hamilton sings, but in the second half, where it's Chester yelling. Page sounds pretty solid here, though it definitely could have been Mike singing it and there wouldn't have been a huge difference. Regardless, I kind of like the layers of vocals there. Chester's part, though, is pretty bad. He sounds better than on Keys, but still kind of off, but just what he's singing lacks substance. And before anyone says anything, I know it's supposed to be influenced by 90's songwriting, which did have poor lyricism for the most part, and this style of song wouldn't have really worked with poetic lyrics. However, as see a little later on, you can still sing something with meaning while staying true to the tropes of 90's hard rock. The solo is fantastic, though. It's nice to see Brad is capable of doing a solo that isn't just tremolo picking notes as fast as he can. It really fits with the song, and is one of my favorite guitar parts Brad has ever done. The song as a whole just doesn't live up to that part, though. 7/10

 

Guilty All The Same: Easily the best song on the first half of the album, Guilty has a minute and a half intro that really builds into the song. While I could do without the first part of the intro, the piano part sounds incredible and the melodic, A7X-esque guitar riff just brings a smile to my face. Chester's vocals are still iffy, but it's a lot better compared to the first two tracks. After the intro, though, the song just maintains a tried and true song formula of verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus. There's nothing wrong with that formula, but after the dynamic intro, I just expected a little more experimentation within the track itself. Just a small thing that doesn't necessarily take away from the track, though. Rakim's verse is miles away the best rap on any Linkin Park song. I'm really glad they brought him in to do the verse, as I doubt Mike would have been able to do half as well. Hell, he doesn't sound that great doing it live, and his raps usually sound way better live to me. Brad's solo isn't all that interesting to me, it's just pretty much just the Faint outro solo, but more refined for a studio setting. It's also a prime example of that whole "tremolo picking notes as fast as he can" thing I mentioned before. Despite that, the song is fantastic. 9/10

 

The Summoning: Definitely an interesting track. The Summoning appears to act as a "calm before the storm", but it doesn't serve any other purpose, and it's kind of unnecessary. Had this been left out of the album, I don't think the album would have been any worse. While it's not bad, it's not really good either. There isn't even much I can say about it. It's painfully average. 5/10

 

War: Linkin Park going full punk rock! While I can appreciate the uniqueness of the track and how unusual and unexpected it was to see Linkin Park, an alternative pop-rock band, delve into punk of all things, it doesn't do much for me. Chester's raw, unfiltered vocal delivery is flawless and fits right in with this track, and Rob's drumming is ferocious as he drives the track. The lyrics lack any substance, again, but I expected it with this one. The guitar work on this song is pretty standard punk stuff until we get to the solo, and let me say, if anyone thought the solo on Guilty was weird, the solo on War is 10x weirder. Utilizing a very similar sound, the solo on War is way more of Brad just throwing notes out as fast as he can without any real rhyme or reason behind it. It's not all that interesting, nor is it something that adds to the song. It's just kind of there. Not bad, but not great. It's slightly above average. 6/10

 

Wastelands: For a band that wants to move past their nu-metal days, they sure are good at making sure there are tracks that throwback to that. Wastelands sounds like a song right off of Meteora, and that's a very bad thing for me. While it definitely is better than 90% of that album, it's still pretty poor when compared to most of this album. Mike's verses are about what you'd expect, but the lyrics are actually really solid, especially when compared to his other verses earlier in the album. Chester's chorus is about on par with his chorus on Guilty, if not slightly worse. The quiet vocoder in the back is pretty cool, though. The chord progression change during the last chorus is also kind of a subtle, but cool thing. Hell, the last chorus is actually the best part of the song. This is also one of the few songs no to have any kind of solo, and I'm glad it didn't. At no point in the current version of this song do I think a solo would have fit. With all that in mind, this song really is just a decent, nu-metal throwback track. 6/10

 

I'll try to have part two up tomorrow.

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Wastelands: For a band that wants to move past their nu-metal days, they sure are good at making sure there are tracks that throwback to that. Wastelands sounds like a song right off of Meteora, and that's a very bad thing for me. While it definitely is better than 90% of that album, it's

 

 

 

 

WTF, TROLOLOLOLOL

Wastelands is one of their worst songs ever, extremely generic.

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WTF, TROLOLOLOLOL

Wastelands is one of their worst songs ever, extremely generic.

It's extremely generic, just like Meteora, hence why I said it sounds like a song from the album. Despite that, it's better, to me at least, than most of that album.

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It's extremely generic, just like Meteora, hence why I said it sounds like a song from the album. Despite that, it's better, to me at least, than most of that album.

 

Agreed. It may have a similar structure, but it doesn't ooze that 2003 cheese. I'd maybe give Faint, Lying From You, and From The Inside the upper hand, simply because they're just such fucking good songs at what they do.

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Track-by-Track Review Part 2:


Until It's Gone: Easily the most LIVING THINGS-esque song on the album. The mix of electronic elements and hard rock instrumentation was brilliantly executed here. The layers of vocoder that resemble a choir was a really nice touch, too. Chester's delivery is really solid, and demonstrates that "building to a drop" mentality Mike mentioned while he was making this song. In terms of the lyrics, I actually kind of like them. Not the chorus or bridge, those are garbage, but the verse lyrics are really good. Everything about this track is kind of laid back and chill, but it's still high energy and rock-oriented enough to fit on the album. While not the best song on here, it's still pretty good, and it's one I go back and listen to every now and then. 8/10


Rebellion: With this one, we enter the final stretch, and man is that stretch fantastic. Rebellion has Daron Malakian's guitar playing all over it, and it works very well. Mike taking the lead on the verses was a brilliant choice, and I wish we heard more of his singing rather than his rapping. Chester during the bridge is a monster, giving his best screams on the album. Despite all that, the true hero of this song is Rob. His drumming is incredible on this one, and it's no wonder he struggles with it a bit live. His drumming on Rebellion is easily my favorite drumming from him. The lyrics are also stellar on this one. They carry weight and have substance, something pretty much every other song before this lacked. The harmonies between Mike and Chester on the chorus are quite impactful, and make the song that much better. 10/10


Mark The Graves: Jumping between soft, melodic parts to huge walls of sound, Mark The Graves shows the band's talent at crafting longer songs that keep things interesting and keep the listener on their toes. The vocals on this one, during the verses, are beautiful. Mike and Chester singing together sounds incredible every time, and it's a consistent thing on this track. However, during the choruses, the singing is violent and aggressive, and it further drives the whole "two completely different sounds in one track" idea. The lyrics, too, are incredible, barring the chorus. The verse lyrics are some of my favorite lyrics the bad has done period. This is probably the closest to progressive rock Linkin Park has ever come, and I hope they do more songs in this vein in the future. 10/10


Drawbar: I'll be honest and say I expected something much different from a jam collaboration with Tom Morello. What we got though, in my opinion, was much better. The chilling piano and heavily affected guitar tone combination is beautiful, and once Rob enters with some quick, but rather emotional, drumming, the track comes together. What really makes this track so incredible is the ending. On a hard rock album with few points where there wasn't a loud, distorted guitar, powerful drums, or screamed vocals, a solid minute of nothing but beautiful piano is just breathtaking, and I got a little choked up when I first heard it, particularly the point where it borrows the chord progression from Final Masquerade. It serves as an incredible transition, and is one of my favorite moments on the album. Drawbar is definitely my favorite instrumental from the band. 10/10


Final Masquerade: I could go on about this track forever. This is everything I love about Linkin Park ballads put together in one, beautiful song. The drumming is simple, but effective, and the synth is there just enough to serve its purpose, but not overused to the point where it gets tiring or repetitive. Chester is at his peak on this track, too. I hear traces of Dead By Sunrise coming out during this song in terms of vocal delivery, which was really surprising. His delivery is emotional, powerful, and really drives home the lyrics, which are also really solid. The guitar work, like the drumming, is simple, but really effective. The bridge until the ending is beautiful. The quiet, ambient tone giving way to the loud, powerful wall of sound perfectly matches the build throughout the entire song. The small change in delivery is also a really cool, subtle thing that gets me every time. While CASTLE OF GLASS was far and away my favorite song for a long time, Final Masquerade has come really close to that point. 10/10


A Line In The Sand: Even though Final Masquerade is my favorite song on this album, A Line In The Sand is the best in my opinion. It perfectly represents what this album was meant to be, and it acts as the perfect closer to the album. Opening with Mike's haunting vocals over a chilling synth line provides the atmosphere from the some of the grittiest work the band has done to date. Quickly, that synth gives way to Rob's powerful drumming and Brad's incredible guitar work. After a short break, the haunting vocals are back, but with more power and energy, as Rob's drumming carries over and a quiet, very squashed form of Brad's riff plays in the background. Chester joins in for the second half of the verse before he takes over for the chorus, and it's just raw energy when that comes crashing in as he screams "Give me back what's mine!" Mike takes the reigns yet again for a short rap break, and it's definitely my favorite verse from him on the album, even if it's not that technically impressive. It adds to the song and has some throwback moments to previous songs, notably Rebellion. The breakdown is probably the heaviest moment in Linkin Park's catalog to date. The riff sounds like something from Metallica, and the drumming packs that extra punch. The outro is the best moment on the album, though. Chester screaming with everything he has, Brad pulling off a really good solo, and Rob giving it his all on the drums. You can tell every member of the band put everything they had into this moment, and it shows. The track ends the way it starts, with Mike singing the first verse over an ambient synth line, and it's the best possible ending I could have imagined for this album. To this day, every time I hear this track i get chills. It's a song I never would have expected out of a band that had brought us gems like BURN IT DOWN and LIES GREED MISERY just two years prior. I really can't wait to see what they bring next. 10/10


Overall: 9/10

Edited by TheSasstielExperience
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It's a song I never would have expected out of a band that had brought us gems like BURN IT DOWN and LIES GREED MISERY just two years prior.

lol this^

 

 

 

I really can't wait to see what they bring next.

Me too.

Hope they'll give us more songs like MTG or ALITS. Or even songs like intro/outro of ALITS.

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