Staff Members Review ‘From Zero’

[B3NTR1LL]

We have waited this day for seven years! The band that gives us life has returned with Emily Armstrong and Colin Britain in the lineup! This album is incredible and a few staff members wrote track-by-track reviews of the new album and a few also sat down to go track by track through the album in our podcast!
 

Here is what Nic, Dylan, Ben, and Anthony had to say about ‘From Zero’!  
 

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Nico, aka Glass Castles:

 

I don't envy the position these guys were in at all. Having to establish a new identity while also trying to keep the heart of what you started with is surely a daunting task. Luckily, Linkin Park has some practice in that area, and it shows on From Zero. "The Emptiness Machine" sets the tone immediately and perfectly, both for the album and for the new era of the band as a whole. Between Mike easing the listener in before new singer Emily Armstrong takes over and the fusion of the hard hitting electronics from Mike's solo material with the roaring power chords and octave leads found in just about every classic Linkin Park song, it's clear the band is both looking to the future while not forgetting the path that got them there. This inspiration certainly shines through on the next two tracks, "Cut The Bridge" and "Heavy Is The Crown", with Mike dropping some classic Shinoda verses before Emily's gritty vocals in the chorus. Mike has a very fun swagger on "Cut The Bridge" that's reminiscent of "All For Nothing" that helps the track stand out from some of the band’s other throwbacks to their early days (even if there's some questionable lyrics about tentacles).

 

Putting "Over Each Other" and "Casualty" back to back has the same energy as putting "Given Up" and "Leave Out All The Rest" back to back on Minutes To Midnight. The atmospheric soundscape of the former really highlights how visceral the latter is. Almost certainly the heaviest song the band has ever released, "Casualty" is sure to satisfy the people who think Linkin Park has gone too pop or soft. Mike breaks out his “Cigarettes” 2015 outro voice in a way I wasn't sure he'd ever feel confident enough to do in an official capacity, and Joe's scratching in this one is subtle, but adds a lot of depth to what could very easily feel like a more generic song. 

 

"Overflow", on the other hand…I don’t see how anyone could accuse that one of feeling generic. The ending sequence on this track is a highlight of the whole album, which is certainly helped by how unique it is, both for this album and within the context of the band’s discography as a whole. Between the massive bass hits and the fuzzy guitar solo, you’d be forgiven for not immediately clocking it as a Linkin Park song. Beyond that, it's one of those songs you really gotta sit with for a while before you can really tell how you feel about it, so I'll get back to you on this one. I'm leaning towards liking it, though. "Two Faced", on the other hand, is much easier to pin down: if you're a Meteora fan, this one's for you. It feels like a proper sequel to “Figure.09” (Figure.10?) from the bouncing riff/drum beat combo to Mike's cocky delivery in the verses and Emily’s spite-filled screams in the chorus. Plus the bridge has a fun little breakdown that’s sure to light a fire under everyone in the pit.

 

The final stretch is where the album truly starts to shine in my opinion. The descriptions comparing "Stained" to a PVRIS song were spot on. Mike’s spitting disdain for people taking advantage of second chances over a beat that wouldn't sound out of place on Use Me or Evergreen creates a strong contrast with Emily’s absolutely soaring chorus that's quite possibly the catchiest moment on the album. If it's not a single, it'll feel like a HUGE missed opportunity. 

 

The last two songs make up my favorite dynamic for ending a record: an in-your-face heavy song and an absolutely huge closer. “IGYEIH” opens with probably my favorite riff on the album before giving way to a scratch-led verse with Emily and Mike trading vocals back-and-forth. Of the heavier songs on the album, this one feels like it stands out from the pack. On the other end of the spectrum “Good Things Go” is first among equals of the more atmospheric songs. Melodically the strongest song on the album, Emily and Mike sing about self-destructing and hurting those around them in the process. The song ends with the most emotionally effective and intense moment on the album. Mike raps one of the most vulnerable verses in his career over a steadily building bed of music before handing the reins back over to Emily for an appropriately amped up version of the chorus to close the album out. I’ve long said one of Linkin Park’s most admirable traits is that each album has a song you could reasonably argue is their best song. This is From Zero’s contender.

 

I’ll be very upfront and say this isn’t my favorite Linkin Park album. Far from it, if I’m being honest. For what it is, though, I think it’s a very strong comeback album. It’s certainly sure to appease those who thought the band couldn’t do the heavy stuff anymore or questioned Emily and Colin’s membership. They paid their dues, and it shows on every song on the album. More than anything, though, I’m excited to see where they go next. They feel rejuvenated and creatively inspired in a way that I haven’t felt since A Thousand Suns, and only good things can come from that.

 

7/10

Highlights: Good Things Go, Stained, The Emptiness Machine, IGYEIH

Low Points: Cut The Bridge, Over Each Other, Heavy Is The Crown

 

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Dylan, aka Rogue Soul:

 

If one thing is true about the last seven years, it’s that things have changed quite a bit. About everything. The last time I was covering a Linkin Park live show, I was 17, heading into my senior year of high school, getting ready to start looking at colleges. Seven years later, here I am with a bachelor’s in Psychology and going for a promotion at work, with a car and a place of my own to live. Not to mention the relationships, experiences, and world-breaking chaos that came in between. The one thing that never changed through this time, though, was how I truly missed Linkin Park. Chester’s passing and the band’s subsequent hiatus left a gap in the world of music – one of the only worlds that brings me peace and clarity in my life – and something always felt missing, no matter how many great musicians and artists I discovered during this time. There was a hole in the earth that could only be filled by this one band, and try as many might, no one could really come close to filling it.

 

But now, even as the world spirals into further chaos, a light has returned. Linkin Park has taken the world over by storm once again, reaching meteoric peaks once again with their long awaited return, From Zero. The questions we had all been asking have finally found answers: will the band return? If they do, what will it sound like? Will the music hit the same as before? How can they proceed without Chester, a once-in-a-lifetime voice? The band faced insurmountable pressures, surely asking themselves the same questions and wondering themselves not only if the fans are still there, but if they would be able to live up to the expectations that they so often rose to before. From Zero is a band finding themselves again after being thrust into tragedy and left to rebuild the pieces from scratch. And they did so in only a way Linkin Park can.

 

Linkin Park is a band who will never make the same album again twice. Since 2007’s Minutes To Midnight, musical exploration and evolution have been just as much a core part of the band’s sound as their therapeutically emotional choruses and vocal tradeoffs. From Zero is no exception to this, but perhaps plays the strongest to the Living Things playbook, wherein the band progressed their sound in new directions while still reaching back into their previous records to create some new type of sonic hybrid. There are moments where this is clear-as-day, such as with the thrilling ‘Two Faced,’ which sees Mike Shinoda and co. dive straight back into their nu-metal stylings they spent years avoiding as if it were the early-2000s again. Mike delivers raps with the same vigor he did on Meteora, while Brad Delson’s riffs sound like the lovechild of ‘Figure.09’ and ‘One Step Closer.’ New co-vocalist Emily Armstrong takes no liberties in showing Linkin Park fans what she’s got, screaming “Stop yelling at me! I can’t hear myself think!” with a familiar yet new rawness that fans of the band will take straight to the heart. A Thousand Suns and Fort Minor are channeled in ‘Overflow,’ one of the most unique songs in their discography. Built upon waves of synths, soaring vocals from Armstrong, and an almost apocalyptic urgency from Shinoda (who even pushes himself to rap and sing in styles he’s never really tackled before throughout the record), ‘Overflow’ creates the same dark, oppressive atmosphere from the band’s fourth album while still being entirely unique on its own. Like a sister song to Shinoda’s ‘fine’ or the band’s ‘It Goes Through’ for Joe Hahn’s “Mall” movie, ‘Overflow’ is a fiery symbol of Shinoda’s production talents and his ability to sew together unforgettable atmospheres like this.

 

From Zero sees bands at both extremes of their discography, and neither end relents. Shinoda described the album as a “compact little fireball,” and its heavier half truly exemplifies this. ‘Heavy Is The Crown’ joins ‘Two Faced’ in being a more traditional heavy Linkin Park song, with a catchy synth intro and huge powerchords building up to a scream in the bridge that rivals Chester’s in ‘Given Up’ in length. Shinoda used a take just shorter than Chester’s scream as a way to honor the original “long scream,” but also used the moment to show fans that both Bennington and Armstrong are the real deal. The band explores new territory with their heaviness elsewhere on the record; one sect of music I’ve discovered in recent years is the hardcore scene, and it seems like both Shinoda and the rest of the band has caught wind. The influence of newcomers like GEL and Strife are apparent especially in ‘IGYEIH,’ a blistering track seeing Armstrong take command while Shinoda interjects in between with a classic Linkin Park tradeoff. The song comes to an explosive, raw end as Armstrong’s grunge nature is really let loose, her voice almost breaking by the time she lets out a final “From now on, got amnesia!” ‘Casualty’ is another track drawing from the punk side of rock, seeing Armstrong’s heavy screams take another step in the limelight and also sees Shinoda deliver aggressive vocals on a studio recording for the first time. This track is like if Tool and Rage Against The Machine were responsible for Slipknot’s ‘Spit It Out,’ and will surely cement itself with the likes of ‘A Place For My Head’ and ‘No More Sorrow’ in the band’s live repertoire as a must-see.

 

When the band isn’t attempting to crush your skull on this record, they’re going for your heart. Ballads like closing track ‘Good Things Go’ build an atmosphere as crystalline and fragile as One More Light, though perhaps with the instrumentation of Minutes To Midnight with its glittering guitars and Armstrong’s pained vocal delivery. Shinoda looks within his own insecurities to deliver one of his most conscious raps he ever has, harkening back to his Post Traumatic record. The track ends where the album begins, creating an infinite loop of starting from scratch and putting the pieces back together. The intro track, though short, offers old fans a brief moment of clarity and familiarity before launching into their first new music in seven years, tying the connection between the album title and the band’s original name (Xero) together right off the bat. Shinoda threw in some other easter eggs for fans in the album’s between-song interludes, such as a quick sample of the Xero demo ‘Fuse’ and a clip of ‘Step Up’ elsewhere. Moments like these on the album show that while the band has been looking forward, their past will always be intrinsically linked to their music, and old fans will always have a place to find new solace. ‘Cut The Bridge’ is another song that cements this, with Colin Brittain’s drumming (which lights up the record with a new energy and flair the band hadn’t known before) galloping ahead like a modernized version of ‘Bleed It Out,’ Mike taking on a more modern cadence and flow before Armstrong blows the chorus out of the water with her voice’s unwavering intensity. ‘Over Each Other’ shows the softer side of Armstrong’s range, an intensely personal song about a relationship that shows the band’s songwriting has also evolved, taking from both their One More Light writing style and their familiar balladry, with punchy choruses and layers of synths that all serve to make the emotions they wrote in come out with every note.

 

There are two songs on this record that earned this album its place in my heart. The first is, of course, ‘The Emptiness Machine.’ I’ll step away from my otherwise analytical look at this record to say that as long as I’ve consciously been a fan of music, a new song has never come out that has meant this much to me. Over the last few months we’ve had this song, ‘The Emptiness Machine’ has become more to me than just a piece of music. It’s the proof that my favorite band has returned, and furthermore that return is being celebrated the world over. I have never felt more proud about something I had absolutely no role in creating or working on. And none of that even mentions how good of a track it is. The perfect introduction to Armstrong and Brittain, the song opens with the conviction of ‘Guilty All The Same’ and ‘What I’ve Done’ together, Shinoda entering with a mission statement as the drama of the track increases. Armstrong makes her entrance in the second verse with stunning vocals, delivering her words with the experience of a battle-scarred soldier and the conviction of a hawk. It’s hard to hear this song without imagining her entrance on the September 5 reveal - just another part of the band’s brilliant scheme to bring this album to life. ‘The Emptiness Machine’ is a perfect Linkin Park epic, in every way, shape, and form. 

 

The other track I feel intrinsically tied to is ‘Stained.’ One More Light is my second favorite record by the band (behind A Thousand Suns) for the way the band wrote about their struggles and built them into pretty little pop rock songs. What can I say - I’m a sucker for a sweet lil’ song! And ‘Stained’ fits the bill perfectly. With its thoughtfully written words and unshakable melodies, ‘Stained’ is the natural continuation of the One More Light sound properly mixed in with the context of the rest of the band’s discography. I can’t quantify how much I love this song. Perhaps its the songwriter in me that finds the melody and lyrical combo so perfect, or the hopeless romantic in me that has properly gone through relationships and heartbreaks since the band’s last record – or maybe it’s my soul, all-too-knowing of my own mistakes being told I’m not the only one walking around with these reminders all around me. If ‘The Emptiness Machine’ is the perfect Linkin Park rock single, ‘Stained’ is the perfect Linkin Park pop song.

 

There is not a song on this album I don’t thoroughly enjoy, but that’s not to say the album doesn’t have its faults. The most glaring issue with the record to me, as someone who sonically agrees with the entire album, is its lyrical content. There are times where the lyrics feel a bit lazy or uninspired – the first time I heard ‘Cut The Bridge,’ the “Hidden, you're wrapped around my neck just like a tentacle / Acting like the truth and your opinion are identical” rhyme Shinoda delivers did take me out of it for a second. Shinoda’s verses at times feel a bit forced, not in the sense that they don’t fit within the musical context but rather that is feels like he could’ve searched for something a bit more profound to say. Linkin Park have never been the deepest band, but you’d think after seven years they could write something with a bit more oomph to it than “Stop yelling at me!” That being said, looking at the lyrics is one thing, but hearing how they are delivered makes all the difference, and while some places on the record seem like they could have had more carefully written lyrics, the emotion behind the words never falters for a second.

 

I don’t think an album’s release has ever meant more to me. Hell, I don’t think an album itself has ever been more important to me. From Zero is more than a record. It’s the picking up of a journey that ended too soon, and one perhaps I wasn’t ready to let go of yet. Linkin Park has inspired me to create, to be a musician and to explore all types of sounds and all the turmoil within myself. With them gone, it felt like whatever came next for me would happen feeling so much more alone. But now that they’re back… I’ve seen people I haven’t seen in seven or eight years who I’ve talked to almost every day. I’ve seen names and faces in the community who I thought I may never hear from again. I’ve had people from all the times of my life hit me up and ask how excited I am. People who have never heard a Linkin Park song or friends who I know don’t listen to the type of music they make have been telling me how great the songs are. The sun is starting to shine a little more. I feel proud to be a Linkin Park fan. Linkin Park have always been more than a band, or a voice, or a sound. It is a community of people who have found a place to feel and to heal. For a moment there it felt like we may lose that – but we’ve made it to the other side.

 

The world at large may still be heading toward disaster, but perhaps our confusion, sadness, and anger have finally found a place to be released. The world is a better place with Linkin Park in it, and everyone who loves the band, whether they realized that fact or not, is starting to notice. And for giving that back to us, I will forever be in debted to the music of From Zero and the band that made it happen.

 

Rating: 95 / 100

Favorite Tracks: The Emptiness Machine, Stained, IGYEIH, Overflow

Least Favorite Track: Cut The Bridge

 

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Ben, aka B3NTR1LL: 

 

Wow after seven years this band did what some thought would be impossible. They were able to come back and write album and go on a huge tour after icon, legend, god-tier vocalist Chester tragically passed away. This album is more than an album it’s about bringing the community back together after so long. It’s about seeing old friends at shows, it’s about continuing a legacy. This comeback is nothing short of legendary. ‘From Zero” is here and wow did it deliver!

 

The album starts with the From Zero Intro which is a good kind of funny way to introduce it. Mikes presumed teenage kid in the back ground realizing that From Zero stemmed from nothing and “oh like your first-“ we can assume she was going to say band.

 

The Emptiness Machine: TEM is a great lead off single for a comeback. I love Mike doing verse 1 and chorus 1 then Emily coming in. I thought it was a brilliant way to introduce Emily and also a perfect representation of what the band could do moving forward.

 

Cut The Bridge: CTB is probably personally the weak point of the record for me. It’s not bad just not my favorite. Cut the Bridge reminds me of Bleed it Out of it was on the Hunting Party. However the drum full Colin does at the end is one of my favorite things on the record

 

Heavy is The Crown: Once again HITC is a great second single and the League of Legends collab was really cool. This single showed the bands roots even more and showed the power in Emily to do a 15/16 second scream. The rap verses Mike delivers have the vocal affect of a HT verse which I thought was really cool

 

Over Each Other: OEO is a great choice for a 3rd single as it show the more emotional, melodic side of her. At first I thought it was just meh “it’s a  song” is how I described it but it grew on me and I really enjoyed it. It definitely pulls from OML. The live videos and mjsic video boosted it for me for sure. The music video is incredible 

 

Causality: Going from OEO to Causality is wild. Causality is one of the most unique tracks I’ve heard them do. It’s very punk and hardcore focused. Kinda knocked loose esq. I really like it. Mike's raspy yelling vocals caught me off guard and I did not know what to think but I like it. This one will go crazy live. Definitely a certified pit banger 

 

Overflow: Overflow is probably in my opinion the most unique song on the track. It’s different. I love Colin’s punchy beat on this track. In Mikes verses he has like the Travis Scott effect on his vocals which was cool. Overflow is a good track.

 

Two-Faced: Two-Faced is about as Meteora as you can get. This song could have easily been on Lost Demos. This track is one of my favorites because it’s just so good. Joe's scratching in the bridge just made me smile and the whole vibe of the song was great. And just the music video was my favorite. It’s so simple just them performing and having fun. Two-Faced is an amazing track and it’s literally a Meteora track. 

 

Stained: Stained is a very bouncy song. It gives me huge EDM vibes. The chorus melody sounds like it would be in a Illenium track. I fully expect an EDM producer to remix it eventually. With that said it is also one of my favorites. I loved the emotion, the feeling I had when I listened to it and it’s just bouncy.

 

IGYEIH: IGYEIH is another heavy banger. I absolutely love the riff and once again Joes scratching. I love Joe scratching in the verse in between Emily’s parts. This song is really good and I enjoy it more than Casualty actually.

 

Good Things Go: This song captured the most emotion of any. I absolutely love Mike's vocals on this song and lyrically it is my favorite. This song captures what the past 7 years have been like. It’s an almost Post-Traumatic style track. For the first time ever they made a looping album at the end you can tell it loops straight into the intro so that was cool. I love Good Things Go. 

 

Final thoughts: This album probably showcased all styles and eras Linkin Park can do. I am so happy to hear Joe everywhere on this record and the mixing is absolutely incredible. The drums and bass really pop. Brad Deleon is an amazing producer so thank you Brad for coming back! Frome Zero was an incredible album name because it represents so much and the songs convey that message very well. Like One Step Closer was to In The End we have a pop banger (stained or good things go or over eachother) and a heavy banger (IGYEIH, Casuality, HITC and Two-Faced) on the same album! It was a great comeback album as from here they could go anywhere. This album is what Living Things tried to do but way better. I love the Xero Easter eggs like Mike's daughter mentioning it, the snippets of Fuse and Step Up. Those Easter eggs are really cool that seem like they did that for hardcore fans. Overall I am so happy to be back and able to see the community again and see the live shows. This band is more than music, this albums represents more than music, it’s about community and family and we are so back! 

 

8.5/10

Highlight: The Emptiness Machine, Stained, Two-Faced and Good Things Go, IGYEIH

Low points: Cut The Bridge and Over Each Other

 

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Anthony, aka Astat:

 

How do you even begin rebuilding something like this?

 

Can lightning strike twice?

 

Will it still FEEL like the same band, even if it SOUNDS different?

 

These are just a few of the many questions that I think we've all thought about when confronted with the idea of Linkin Park regrouping after the 2017 death of lead vocalist Chester Bennington. Questions that may not have definitive answers, but questions you can't help but ask nonetheless. I had personally made peace with the idea that after 7 years of inactivity, the band was probably done. Maybe they'd get back together for one more tour or something since things ended so abruptly. Maybe we'd see them on stage together if they were to get inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame one of these days. But a full relaunch with an album, world tour, and more plans for years to come? Nah, it'd been too long. These guys are all around a decade older than me, and I've been feeling the effects of time pretty hard the last couple years, even while being an active recording and performing musician myself. They can't just jump back on that horse at this point, can they?

 

Well...they did. And here we are. A new album, a world tour, a new vocalist, and a new drummer. I could spend days sharing my thoughts on this entire relaunch, but for now, let's jump into the album.

 

01. FROM ZERO (INTRO) - 8/10
Not much happening here, we hear a short bit of layered choir-style vocals (they follow the chord progression of the following track, The Emptiness Machine), and a quick soundbite of an unknown teenager (assumed to be Mike's son) asking about the album's title, before realizing the double entendre of "Xero" being the band's original name. We hear "OHHH wait, your first-" before the voice is interrupted by the beginning of the following track.

 

If this was a standalone intro that didn't serve a bigger purpose conceptually, I'd rank this about as poorly as Foreword off of Meteora. That should've just been the beginning of Don't Stay, and I will go to my grave believing that the only reason it's a different track is so Warner could market Meteora as having one more track than Hybrid Theory did. But this...serves a bigger purpose that will be revealed much later. For now, just take my rating of 8/10 and trust that we'll come back to this.

 

02. THE EMPTINESS MACHINE - 9/10
I historically don't go too nuts for lead singles. They tend to serve the purpose of being the most marketable, easy-to-digest thing to start album promotion with a big bang, and then the album will be where the meatier stuff is. This song isn't like that. The moment on September 5th where this song was unveiled to the world, starting with the band performing as a five-piece only for Emily to make a dramatic entrance where her vocal comes in for verse 2, think about the fact that this song was written somewhere between months and years before that. If this song isn't structured the way it is, that moment doesn't happen that way. That moment will always be baked into this song's DNA for me, but even going beyond that, it's just a REALLY good Linkin Park song. It features both vocalists, the synths and piano do a lot of lifting (check out how loud the piano is during the second and third choruses, normally that would get turned way down on a heavy song like this so the guitars can cut through, but they managed to give it enough space to fit in here), it's got a solid groove you can nod your head to, and big heavy guitars are back in a big way. I love the twist to the classic Linkin Park "minor key but play the I chord as major" chord progression, the D major in the chorus going straight to G minor has a really cool, spooky kind of quality to it.

 

My only nitpicky things with this song are that the chorus vocal has a similar cadence to Final Masquerade that I can't unhear (one of my favorite LP songs though, so whatever), and the bridge coming in after only one bar of piano following the second chorus feels unusually abrupt - there are several moments like this on the album where it feels like they tried everything they could think of to make the song arrangements as concise as possible, and sometimes it results in something like this where I find myself going "dude, just add one more measure there." Those aren't enough to take away from what an instant classic this song is, though. Might as well reissue Papercuts at this point and throw this one on there, it belongs right next to stuff like In the End, What I've Done, and New Divide in terms of singles that define the band's career.

 

03. CUT THE BRIDGE - 6.5/10
If I have to pick SOMETHING as a least favorite song on this record, I guess this one is it. The four-on-the-snare Motown groove was cool on Bleed it Out, and it came back in a unique context in the chorus of Talking to Myself, but here it just kind of feels like they were on autopilot when they decided to make it the backbone of the song. The claps and tambourines really don't help deter the "Bleed it Out 2024" accusations, either! Couldn't help but notice Mike's flow on the rap verses is VERY reminiscent of some of the stuff he did on the Fort Minor remix of Already Over. Emily's layered harmonies on the pre-chorus are a highlight on this one, as is the interplay between her and Mike on the "just to watch it burn" build-up to the last chorus. There's also the totally-out-of-left-field drum fill Colin throws in at the end of the last chorus. 32nd note triplets? In THIS economy?! A bold choice that makes the end of the song worth sticking around for. Those are some GREAT moments, but the rest of the song? I kind of just went "well...that's a song" and moved on the first time I listened to this one. Nothing bad about it at all, just very little that stands out to me.

 

04. HEAVY IS THE CROWN - 8/10
This song really avoided the past trend of the band's second song released from an album having a mixed reception (Battle Symphony, Until It's Gone, Lies Greed Misery). The Emptiness Machine was a heavy song, but it was more in the vein of a Minutes to Midnight/Living Things kind of heavy song. This track is a more direct throwback to the Meteora era. Lots of fun little glitchy effects and echoed vocal bits scattered throughout the verses on this one, and that lo-fi string loop that kicks off the song is as quintessential of a "Linkin Park song intro" as you'll ever hear. Mike's rapping on this one reminds me of Reading My Eyes a little bit, and the chorus (as some other people have pointed out) has some similarities to Already Over. The big highlight here, unsurprisingly, is the bridge. Emily's "just-short-of-Given Up" long scream has been discussed at length, of course, but the underlying riff is one of the heaviest things Linkin Park has put out in a LONG time (who thought we'd ever see baritone guitars on an LP record again?), and there's a really cool tremolo picked lead guitar part in the background too, really the only "lead guitar" kind of moment on the record, actually. This one doesn't QUITE match the hype of Emptiness Machine for me, but it's a really cool song.

 

05. OVER EACH OTHER - 7/10
The main things that lowered my rating of this song are mostly on the technical side of things. This song falls victim to the "pack a million sounds into the mix and then turn them all down to the point you can't hear most of them anymore" style of mixing that was very prevalent throughout both One More Light and Living Things. That fingerpicked guitar part Alex plays in the verses, the cool synth stuff Joe does in the choruses, and those harmonized "ohhhh" backing vocals in the last chorus that you hear on the live performances? Yeah, those are all on the album too, but good luck being able to hear them in any meaningful way. I also have a similar gripe with the bridge on this one to the one I had with the transition between the second chorus and bridge of The Emptiness Machine - why is the bridge 5 measures long? It's either one measure longer or shorter than what it feels like it should be to me. Maybe there's some intentional subversion of the listener's expectations happening with stuff like this, but it doesn't really land with me when they're trying to make a record that otherwise sounds like the most Linkin Park-sounding record you could imagine existing in 2024. Anyway, very nice melodic singing from Emily on this one, good choice to follow up The Emptiness Machine and Heavy is the Crown in terms of each song showing a different side of what she, and the band as a whole, are capable of. I really like that they weren't afraid to bring in the heavy guitars on the bridge and last chorus of this one, there have been times they've shied away from doing that on ballads. I'd probably rate this song higher if I had connected with it emotionally the way some other people have, but it just didn't happen for me. I will say that the music video brings a lot more drama to the song though, it's one of Joe Hahn's best pieces of work.

 

06. CASUALTY - 8/10
This song is...something else. The fact that it's the shortest song on the record, extremely heavy, and left me with a "WTF did I just listen to" feeling after my first listen made me think of the way I felt the first time I listened to Victimized, but I think this is a better song. I heard the live version first, so I was a little thrown off by how quiet the intro/pre-chorus guitar part is on the album, and I was kind of disappointed that Emily didn't go into that really high deathcore kind of scream that she did for the last "I know all the secrets you keep" during the outro of the Dallas performance. Still, it's a very effective song when it comes to tapping into a type of "heavy" that Linkin Park doesn't often attempt. We get some Joe Hahn scratches (!!!) during the bridge of this one, and Mike's growl-y vocal performance is a highlight. Great moshpit anthem.

 

07. OVERFLOW - 9/10
Ooh, an ear candy song! This one's all about cool sounds and an overall vibe, and it pulls it off extremely well. The big, When the Levee Breaks-esque drums and dark lyrics coupled with all the echo-y synths on this one create a feeling that's simultaneously dreamy and menacing. I don't know why, but the repeated "we're going down" lines reminded me of the song Scream from the Chris Cornell record of the same name. When that guitar cuts through to start the outro, oh man. Do yourself a favor and listen to this with a good set of headphones if you haven't already, it's quite an experience. Really hope they play this one live on the 2025 tour, I can imagine the visuals going crazy.

 

08. TWO FACED - 9/10
Welp. Pack it up, y'all, they did it. They made the most Linkin Park song that ever Linkin Parked. If you took Emily's vocals off this song and threw it onto the Lost Demos disc from Meteora 20, I don't think anyone would question that it wasn't from that time period. Rapping, singing, screaming, scratching, and a guitar riff that sounds like it was beamed from 2003 straight into Brad's afro. I actually wasn't THAT impressed by this song on my first listen, I thought the chorus was a little too simple for my tastes...and then the bridge happened. We've heard bits of scratching here and there post-Meteora, and Chester still screamed on a decent number of songs from Minutes to Midnight through The Hunting Party...but actual back-and-forth interplay between scratching and screaming in the same song? That's something we haven't heard Linkin Park do in, I kid you not, OVER TWENTY YEARS. It's been an absolute joy watching how excited Joe has been on stage during the first run of shows, he has more energy than I've seen from him in a VERY long time, and it's awesome to hear him pouring some of that into the record as well. The big stupid grin on my face when I heard that bridge was only matched by the one I had watching the music video for the first time. This song is just FUN.

 

09. STAINED - 7.5/10
I don't know if it's just the fact that I feel so strongly about the two songs before and after this one in the album sequencing, but I really haven't developed any strong feelings about this song so far. It has some cool back-and-forth between Mike and Emily, the melody is cool, and the drums sound great just like they do throughout the record, but it's just a neat little pop-tinged song that fits the album pretty nicely to me (I feel like Two Faced/IGYEIH back to back would make those two songs sound a lot more similar to one another, so the album's better with Stained than without it, that's for sure). I wish I had more to say about this one, but it's just one of those "not a skip, but not a must-play either" songs for me.

 

10. IGYEIH - 9/10
This song takes the riff-rock side of Linkin Park that we heard on Two Faced and puts a much darker-sounding twist on it. I really like the rising and falling harmonies on the "I'm not the enemy" section of the chorus on this one. The outro is a real highlight, it reminds me of the end of Smells Like Teen Spirit where Kurt Cobain repeats the last line so many times, and with so much aggression, that his voice starts to give out by the end. Joe Hahn makes his presence known again on this song as well, and Colin plays his ass off. I think I hear more of The Hunting Party in this song than any other on the record, and The Hunting Party is typically neck-and-neck with A Thousand Suns for my favorite LP album, so I guess it's not a big surprise I'm a big fan of this one, huh?

 

11. GOOD THINGS GO - 9/10
I'm not the type of person that tends to get emotional over the lyrical/vocal parts of music very often. I'm not much of a lyricist, and my brain works in a really analytical way when it comes to music that can take the humanity out of how I absorb it. Cool harmonies and chord changes, stuff like that will give me goosebumps sometimes, but that's usually it. And if I DO get emotional from a vocalist's delivery, 99 times out of 100 I'd expect it to be from a really powerful singing performance. Imagine my confusion when I got choked up hearing Mike's rapping in the bridge on this one! Mike does a lot of emotions well when he raps - angry, cocky, goofy, solemn, etc., but he doesn't tend to let himself sound vulnerable, even if he's rapping about emotionally vulnerable stuff. He lets his guard down here though, the way his flow gets more wordy, more frantic, more broken-sounding as he hurtles towards the end of his verse really captures a kind of "my mind is racing and I can't make it stop" snowball effect that I've definitely been through in some of the more panicked moments of my life. Congrats on cracking me, Mike. The rest of the song is just a beautiful, heartbreaking ballad with some incredible vocals from Emily. Love the clean guitar work too.

 

This one ends so abruptly, it leaves you wanting more...and then just as the album's about to end, the choir vocals from "From Zero (Intro)" begin to fade in. Making your comeback album the shortest album of your career but making it play in a continuous loop is a mindblowingly-brilliant idea. Oh, record's too short and you want more? Guess what, you can just listen to it again, the last song even transitions right back into the first one. It also means that you don't necessarily have to start the record on the first track, either. You can start with whatever song you feel like listening to at the moment, and the whole record will play like a well-tailored playlist that eventually brings you back to where you started. So far, I've rarely found myself listening to the record just once, I'll at least loop back to the start and listen to the first few tracks again. Makes a great album for driving to/from work, sometimes my commute's 30 minutes, sometimes it's 50, traffic around here is wildly unpredictable. The album may be 32 minutes long, but it can also be as long as you want/need it to be.

 

So yeah, there's a new Linkin Park album in 2024. Less than three months ago, nobody had any idea this was happening, and now they've reclaimed their spot as one of the biggest bands in the world after a seven-year absence. I know there are some people who are never going to be able to get past the fact that Chester isn't the singer anymore. I get it, it's fine. I'll never get tired of listening to all the great music Chester gave us, and I hope those people won't, either. But if you're a fan of any particular era of Linkin Park and want to give this album a shot, there's something on it for you. Hybrid Theory/Meteora? Two Faced, Heavy is the Crown. Minutes to Midnight? Cut the Bridge, Good Things Go. A Thousand Suns? Overflow. Living Things? The Emptiness Machine. The Hunting Party? Casualty, IGYEIH. One More Light? Over Each Other, Stained. Every song has some kind of thread you can trace back to the band's past, but none of it sounds exactly like a band that's trying to copy themselves, either. This sounds like a band that, after a long period away from doing this, was ready to embrace every songwriting and production trick they've learned over their long careers, and distill it all into a compact little burst of music that tells the world that they can still do this, they're going to keep doing this, they're going to keep doing things that sound new too, and they're going to stick around.

 

Long live Linkin Park, 1997-. Not having to put a second year after that dash feels so fucking good.

 

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What are your thoughts on the album? 
 

Watch our podcast discussion here with Mark, Dylan, Anthony, and Ben! 
 

 

[Legend]

Astat is a sexy mother fucker.

[DylHDZ]

I knew I couldn't be the only one who got the MALL It Goes Through vibes on Overflow! 

[Soeffingnaive92]

Really great reviews, kinda funny how CTB is among my favorites and Stained is by far my least favorite lol ahaha

Edited November 25 by Soeffingnaive92

[FromTheInside]

Love the new album. I like every song on the record. I can't say same thing about OML. My favourites are Casualty, Cut The Bridge and Good Things Go. For me personally Good Things Go is a pure LP track. I don't see any similarities with Post Traumatic. It's a new type of rock ballad for LP. Mike has been always in the background during this kind of a track but he's very present there. I love his vocals in the song. I think Stained has a very strong Post Traumatic vibes.

[JZLP-Benningstrong]

 

[Astat]

Just edited my review into the first post, sorry mine was a tad late!