Battle Symphony Has Leaked Online

[castro78]

These songs are embarrassingly bad. Just pure shit.

[Justin]

 

Instead, these are arguably quite weak.

"Arguably" being the operative word. I don't think they're that bad. Nowhere near as bad as UIG or STB for instance.

[mt2oo8]

Wow this is atrociously bad. Not sure what to even say about it.

 

What happened to the instruments? Sounds like a ProTools demo made in 10 minutes. Even Lockjaw (LPU Demo) sounds like it had more time spent on it.

I thought the same thing. Lockjaw, a song which was made in one day sounds 100x better than this basic pop song. I'm dreading this sooo much. I've never been so bored listening to a song in my life.

Edited March 13, 2017 by mt2oo8

[danielpsoad-09]

I've been revisiting some of LP's "poppy" catalog, and for me, "Primo" is the prime example of a "pop sounding" song that sounds fresh, experimental, and more importantly, sounds like Linkin Park, No need for loud guitars or acoustic drums to make a sound great when the songwriting is good.

[Mesck547]

Nowhere near as bad as UIG or STB for instance.

Definitely. It's like Mark said, they hyped up the lyrics so much and it's not quite the level I expected. I think a lot of it has to do with the songwriters they brought in, it feels to me like this is the type of work they're used to do. I assume the album will have a theme of "being deep yet simple at the same time" for the most part (which there's nothing wrong with IMO).

[Justin]

Definitely. It's like Mark said, they hyped up the lyrics so much and it's not quite the level I expected. I think a lot of it has to do with the songwriters they brought in, it feels to me like this is the type of work they're used to do. I assume the album will have a theme of "being deep yet simple at the same time" for the most part (which there's nothing wrong with IMO).

I definitely would agree that if the band (Mike especially) hadn't done so much press saying that they had conversations for hours about things deep within themselves that they hadn't talked about, and how the lyrics came from that...I don't think people would be as disappointed in the lyrical content. LP made it seem like the lyrics on this album would be the deepest lyrics they've ever written and they aren't.

 

Yet despite that, the lyrics aren't "bad".

[Andros]

So, don't know I think is a bit better than Heavy but I don't like it. Sounds like a LPU Demo or something like that, I believe that if this had been released in part from the ATS era could probably fit, it was easy to fit in at that time, as the world was not as saturated with this style of music as it's today. Today on every corner you hear something similar, everyone makes this kind of music.

[SFNL14]

To me this is making Heavy sound better. Heavy grew on me after a while, but this won't because I will most likely not listen to it again. What's worse is that there would be only 10 songs, 2 of which we now know suck!

[Justin]

I think they should go back to making the music first and letting the music dictate the vocal.

[Hybrid1988]

What a completely unremarkable song. Better than heavy but that's not a huge accomplishment. I felt absolutely nothing listening to this song. It was just there. That might be worse than a bad song because at least a bad song would elicit some emotional response.

[vinifeijo]

Something i said once and will repeat now:

I think it's time for them to stop trying to "experiment". They should stick with a sound for 2 or 3 albums. When you're always experiment, nothing seems definitive/official. You're just trying things, you ain't even sure what you want.

So they should stick with a style for a while (and i hope it isn't OML's style), because after that when they release a new experimental sound it will feel much more fresh and new, unexpected, a real surprise.

We know we can expect anything from them and this kills the surprise of the unexpected.

 

 

 

 

I don't want to believe they made 100 demos and this song was chosen to be on the final list. What are the ones left behind?

Edited March 13, 2017 by vinifeijo

[DylHDZ]

Either you like it, or you don't. And I like it!

[GeekShadow]

LP is like Star Wars you have several trilogy and different feelings about it... the new one is the Disney one

 

- HT/Meteora/THP

- MTM/ATS/LT

- OML

[rd1994]

Okay so for me its this: On one hand I love Battle Symphony and I think its MILES BETTER than Heavy (even after my 15th listen) but at the same time LP doing pop still doesn't sit well with me.

 

EDIT:

 

Can we say that working demo title was Out Of Reach? Just depending on lyrics

I would say that, goign from the lyrics the title was "Battle Symphony". What I am say is that, I doubt they worked with demo titles this time, as in the past they used demo titles since they didn't have anything to go by (maybe explains why we have demo names like "Chair" etc) but I think that since they had the lyrics done before they wrote any music they could've easily said "This song is called 'Battle Symphony'" right then and there.

Edited March 13, 2017 by rd1994

[Nesta]

I love Battle symphony's lyrics, it so anti-hater, just them saying that they will always do this even after all this hate. I love this song, way better than Heavy (Heavy is also awesome)

[RogueSoul]

First impressions of this song: I like it a lot. There's a very genuine message to the song that's present in both the delivery and the lyrics. It's a song about never giving up in the face of something huge, because you'll always have a symphony of people important to you backing you up. I love in the first chorus where its quiet with just Chester and the light marching drum in the background, giving it a hero's vibe as it builds up back to a classic electro-LP beat.

 

There's just a lot of sweetness and pleading in this song that makes it, for me, a real winner. The entire chorus is just beautiful - and it's all Chester. The final chorus kills me with that final delivery of "This is my battle symphony / Please just don't give up on me." Really sweet and powerful song. Very empowering and relatable.

 

In comparison, I do like 'Heavy' more than this song, but I do think both are very great songs and are intrinsically Linkin Park. The same thing happened with 'Heavy' that I expect to see here with 'Battle Symphony': the first few days are all about the negativity but then people will slowly start growing on it. The beat is pure poppy-Linkin Park (very reminiscent of Living Things, in fact I'd call this song a poppier 'In My Remains'); it has a modern, summery vibe to it with a slight hip-hop touch to it. This song to me is a Minutes To Midnight reincarnation of 'In My Remains' with electronic elements. There's lots of electronics going on in the background, and the swelling synths that occur in the verses are the pure LP formula, and the powerchords in the choruses are definitely gonna sound great live when they're brought up.

 

I'll probably write more about it on my site or in some form of editorial here, but these are my first impressions.

[Astat]

LOL, you guys...this is so much better than Heavy, it's laughable that any of you would put it in the same league.

"Could've made this in ten minutes?" SERIOUSLY? There's so much stuff going on in this song I don't even know where to begin. The vocal production on this may not be as dense as Heavy, but there's a ton more going on instrumentally. Lots of layered keyboard and guitar sounds, that main stuttering loop thing sounds like a vocal idea that had a ton of work done to it, I'm pretty sure those are live strings in the buildup to the last chorus...not to mention how many variations on percussion sounds there are in different spots. Just because it's pop doesn't mean it's easy...production-wise, this is seriously one of the most ambitious things Linkin Park has ever released.

Chester sounds way better on this than he does on Heavy. The melody is better than Heavy. The chord progression actually changes at some points, unlike Heavy. This song actually has a proper intro and ending, unlike Heavy. If One More Light has a song like this on it, Heavy should've been a throwaway co-write for Kiiara's next album where she could just sing the whole song, because a song like that has no business sharing space on an album with something as vastly superior as this. This should've been the first single, but yay for popstar guest spots taking priority over songwriting...

My biggest criticism of this song is that the lyrical idea seems really disjointed, like it's a bunch of sort-of-related ideas stitched together to form a song, but it doesn't sound like a consistent narrative the whole way through. Seems like something that would normally go through some lyrical re-writes. In that regard, I can agree with some of the "sounding like a demo" comments, although I doubt that's the context most of those comments were made in to begin with.

Heavy is one of the worst tracks in the Linkin Park catalog. If Heavy's like a 2 out of 10, this song's easily a 7.

 

What the hell happened to this band? Seriously, what happened to making original songs that made you want to listen to them over and over again? This sounds like pure garbage. I've lost any hope for this album at this point. Mike saying that everything he was hearing on the radio sounded the same, and then releasing this crap a few years later is the definition of hypocrisy.

 

Still hung up on the idea that a singular quote made in reference to the thought process behind the creation of a single album should somehow be considered a binding contract not to make a particular kind of music ever at any point in the future, huh? I don't see you bitching about Wastelands existing despite the "throw out everything that sounds like Hybrid Theory/Meteora" comments made in reference to the writing process for A Thousand Suns...oh wait, Wastelands has big heavy guitarzzzzz, so it should be put on a pedestal and be immune to criticism. I see.

Edited March 13, 2017 by Astat

[JZLP-Benningstrong]

Being a fan of Grimes, Chvrches and Purity Ring they would laugh at the instrumental production of this song, Astat I get what you mean but in the end the feeling of the song is so plastic, fake, uninspired.

 

Sounds decent but the replay value of this song is like 0.5 out of 1000%.

 

Even Bieber has better instrumentals than this one and Heavy.

Edited March 13, 2017 by JZE

[castro78]

LOL, you guys...this is so much better than Heavy, it's laughable that any of you would put it in the same league.

 

"Could've made this in ten minutes?" SERIOUSLY? There's so much stuff going on in this song I don't even know where to begin. The vocal production on this may not be as dense as Heavy, but there's a ton more going on instrumentally. Lots of layered keyboard and guitar sounds, that main stuttering loop thing sounds like a vocal idea that had a ton of work done to it, I'm pretty sure those are live strings in the buildup to the last chorus...not to mention how many variations on percussion sounds there are in different spots. Just because it's pop doesn't mean it's easy...production-wise, this is seriously one of the most ambitious things Linkin Park has ever released.

 

Chester sounds way better on this than he does on Heavy. The melody is better than Heavy. The chord progression actually changes at some points, unlike Heavy. This song actually has a proper intro and ending, unlike Heavy. If One More Light has a song like this on it, Heavy should've been a throwaway co-write for Kiiara's next album where she could just sing the whole song, because a song like that has no business sharing space on an album with something as vastly superior as this. This should've been the first single, but yay for popstar guest spots taking priority over songwriting...

 

My biggest criticism of this song is that the lyrical idea seems really disjointed, like it's a bunch of sort-of-related ideas stitched together to form a song, but it doesn't sound like a consistent narrative the whole way through. Seems like something that would normally go through some lyrical re-writes. In that regard, I can agree with some of the "sounding like a demo" comments, although I doubt that's the context most of those comments were made in to begin with.

 

Heavy is one of the worst tracks in the Linkin Park catalog. If Heavy's like a 2 out of 10, this song's easily a 7.

 

 

Still hung up on the idea that a singular quote made in reference to the thought process behind the creation of a single album should somehow be considered a binding contract not to make a particular kind of music ever at any point in the future, huh? I don't see you bitching about Wastelands existing despite the "throw out everything that sounds like Hybrid Theory/Meteora" comments made in reference to the writing process for A Thousand Suns...oh wait, Wastelands has big heavy guitarzzzzz, so it should be put on a pedestal and be immune to criticism. I see.

Oh weird, you skip over all the other criticisms, and choose to quote only me. Shocking. As usual, I don't mention you, but you just can't help being a douche, and have to mention me. I'm sorry that my opinions bother you so much. Edited March 13, 2017 by castro78

[Soeffingnaive92]

To me Heavy is 74/100, but battle Symphony hoooly shit, i think i d give it 86/100, love it

Edited March 13, 2017 by Comfortinthepanic92

[vyonizr]

Track titles on this album are quite deceiving and sometimes don't resemble them in terms of music. Like when you see Victimized and all you got is LOATR-esque song. On previous albums they somehow made it "balance" between relating titles with lyrics and music.

Edited March 13, 2017 by vyonizr

[Almamu]

Although I do like this song more than heavy (hell that first chorus of chester and the drums on the background is just amazing) I miss more Mike on it, rapping the shit out of the song. I hope "Sorry for Now" or at least, two/three other songs in this album have Mike rapping on them.

[RogueSoul]

Track titles on this album are quite deceiving and sometimes don't resemble them in terms of music. Like when you see Victimized and all you got is LOATR-esque song. On previous albums they somehow made it "balance" between relating titles with lyrics and music.

This would make sense if the song was called something like "Battle Cry" or "Battle Call." The word "symphony" really doesn't scream something aggressive - it moreso represents something beautiful, which the song embodies. Plus, it does actually include a symphony.

[Spooky]

Holy shit, I love Battle Symphony! The lyrics, the meaning, the energy with some huge bass.

Great song!

[vyonizr]

This would make sense if the song was called something like "Battle Cry" or "Battle Call." The word "symphony" really doesn't scream something aggressive - it moreso represents something beautiful, which the song embodies. Plus, it does actually include a symphony.

I expected it to sound something Red's Shadow and Soul or Skillet's Not Gonna Die have when I read the word "symphony". But after knowing that Heavy is not that "heavy", I doubt it would happen.

Edited March 13, 2017 by vyonizr