Geki

Crazy... I got into the band in 2003, Meteora was the first thing I heard from the band.

I see no reason to not bring it up, it's all public information. And the community has been deader than a door nail since Chester has passed. Yeah, probably the fact that Chester got back into drinking and shit again in 2016. It was revealed in Rolling Stone Magazine like a week or two ago, it's all public information. No reason to not talk about it... but if you don't want it to be discussed, you can edit my post, or I can edit it, etc. Chester blacked out from alcohol last August and has been drinking as recently as October 2016, according to the interview. It could be why the album was delayed, I guess. But I don't see how Chester drinking would be a reason to not put out the album or tour. He was drunk 24/7 for most of 2000-2005 and the band toured the most out of anytime in their career during those years. Unless Chester wasn't interested in Linkin Park or making music during that time, which could be possible, I don't see the band putting everything on hold just because Chester was drinking again. The band knew Chester struggled with addiction, and a lot of addicts are bound to relapse at some point. It's a constant battle. I like what you pointed out, spraypaintninkpens. I didn't love any of the music released before the actual album came out, either. I still don't love the album, even now. I find about half of the album tolerable whenever I get an urge to listen to it. I like Nobody Can Save Me a lot, that's really the only song on the album that I genuinely like. But some others songs are tolerable as well, such as Talking To Myself, Sorry For Now and Sharp Edges. The only thing I hate about Sharp Edges is that ''what doesn't kill us makes us stronger'' line. But the rest of the album, I don't really like at all. Halfway Right is ok, but I don't enjoy the whole song, I really only like the verses. I do feel bad about being such a dick when Heavy came out, but I really hated it. I tried so hard to get on board. I also didn't like Battle Symphony or Good Goodbye, and I thought Invisible was meh.

What I mean is that Chester didn't need to be as present as the other members in the studio. You're right that Chester wrote on HT, Meteora and MTM (as shown in the MTM DVD). But during the recording process for A Thousand Suns, Chester was recording Out Of Ashes and touring Out Of Ashes until about March 2010. He was also writing and recording with Stone Temple Pilots during the process for The Hunting Party throughout 2013 and some of 2014. Living Things was basically just a bunch of songs from the ATS Sessions that were re-worked, with a few new ones, that Mike and Brad came up with, mostly the folky stuff. Just to me, it seems like he wasn't as involved with Linkin Park as the rest of the band in the later albums. And as for the live show, Joze is actually right. Many people DO want to hear the singles for the most part, especially the early ones, that are hard to sing. Will Mike feel comfortable singing every single one live every night? Does he even want to be a lead singer? I guess time will tell. But I do think finding a new vocalist would probably be their best option if they plan on still being a band after something like this.

As much as I hate to say it, they're going to have to get a new singer if they want to continue being a touring band that routinely puts out studio recorded music as well. The more I think about it each day, Mike can't possibly be the solo vocalist of the band. Live is a whole different ballgame. Mike cannot sing many of the older songs. Even the slower ones, they need a very powerful voice, like Chester's. You also have to factor in performing them each night on tour, in succession. A lot of songs also go from Mike's rapping or singing, straight into a big chorus from Chester. Japan hasn't been cancelled yet, so it's very likely they are debating on whether or not to play the shows. They could have easily found a frontman by now, or by November. Many fans will probably not accept it, but I don't understand why. Chester was never the original singer for Linkin Park in the first place. He didn't even really contribute all that much to the actual song writing of Linkin Park, right? Mike and Brad were always the primary song writers, and Chester would basically just come in when needed and record his parts. I support them if they continue on with a new vocalist. I likely will no longer go to the shows or buy anything, but I won't be one of those people who are pissed off that they replaced Chester. It's inevitable. To me, it's either break up the band, or find a new vocalist.

This is possible, it's just weird to me. The album was originally supposed to come out in June 2016. It didn't end up coming out until May 2017. Many tour dates for South America and Europe were already booked in 2016. So they must have had at least some of the framework of the touring cycle planned out in 2016. I can't imagine that they didn't plan the U.S. tour until last minute, but you never know. I firmly believe that they asked twenty one pilots to tour the U.S. with them and twenty one pilots declined, but that's just my own speculation and opinion. Maybe they asked Blink-182 to do a full co-headlining tour with them but they didn't want to do a whole tour? It was strange that Blink-182 was headlining the NYC show and Linkin Park was headlining the Hershey show. Or maybe they just genuinely wanted Machine Gun Kelly as the support act. He is also regarded as a joke by many people I know in real life who are into hip-hop, etc. One Ok Rock was also playing at a lot of the east coast shows, too. Snoop Dogg would have been good support but who knows. The tour was all around a very strange tour for the band. As far as the sales of OML go, I thought it did worse than THP in it's first week of being out. But I could be wrong. It doesn't really matter to me anyways. But I think it did much better overseas than it did in the U.S. Linkin Park haven't been ''huge'' in the U.S. for a long time. People I know in real life always say stuff like ''I think they did that song for Transformers years ago and haven't made music since'' or ''I think they broke up and did solo projects'', etc. They were big in America from 2000-2009, that whole decade of the 2000's, but they weren't very big here in America in the 2010's at all, IMO.

Yeah, but did OML did better than THP before Chester died? Because ever since Chester died, people have been buying/streaming/downloading LP's music again in big numbers. Also, the reason that the tour probably didn't sell as well in the U.S. is because we already have a shit ton of pop all over our radios here, so if people are going to listen to that kind of music, they aren't going to think ''Hey, I know, I'll put on the rock/metal band Linkin Park''. That's the mentality. The tour also had the strangest and worst picks for touring bands, it wasn't like Carnivores that had MASSIVE support acts with a big following. They had like 5 different support acts for this tour and they were all strange choices. If they had came out and said they were doing a full 30 date U.S. tour with Blink-182 and another rock band, they would have sold a shit ton. It's all about marketing in the U.S. I'm not trying to just defend THP because I fucking love THP, but marketing is very important here in the states. It's not even about the quality of music anymore, it's sad, but it's the truth. OML does have some good music on it, I'm not trying to bash it completely (although I do hate Heavy). You are right, though, it is all speculation. We can't possibly know/have known what was going on in Mike's or Chester's heads at any given time.

The backlash definitely bothered Mike and Chester, despite what they may say, you can tell. I don't think they expected THAT BAD of a backlash for Heavy. I personally believe it was because it was the very first thing people heard from the record and it was by far the poppiest song on the album, even featured a pop female artist, etc. If they came out with something like Talking To Myself first, it would have been a much different story. And then they put out Battle Symphony and Good Goodbye which are two of the worst songs on the album, IMO. The actual album had some decent songs on it, but people had to wait until late May to hear them and many lost interest by that time, who weren't hardcore fans, not everyone checks out albums nowadays and digs for the deeper cuts on albums, a lot of people only listen to singles or promo shit, actually. I also think the band had a different idea for this album and cycle. It was very personal to them, and I think Warner jumped all over it because it was a pop album, they wanted to market it as such in a big way. If you watch an interview with Mike just after Heavy came out, he said he wouldn't even call it pop, but eventually, he did, as well as the band, because the label really pushed that. Heavy is 100% a pop song, but the band didn't see it that way, is what I'm saying. It was largely dismissed as ''Linkin Park goes pop'' and many people shit all over it because of it and didn't give the album a chance. Now, many people DID like Heavy, it did well in the charts, but it doesn't change the fact that it's still the band's lowest selling album of their career, right around the sales for The Hunting Party, which wasn't marketable at all, while this album was in a big way. Any of the songs could have been on pop radio, Disney channel, etc. Didn't Heavy get nominated for a Kid's Choice Award? Lol. But I think the hardcore fans did have a backlash, so didn't the rock fans, and it bothered Mike and Chester.

Damn, I'd love to go. Unfortunately, I don't have the money to travel anytime soon. But Chester's side projects and other bands have always been a passion of mine. It's cool they're doing this. Just saw and met Julien-K in Boston last week.

No Roads Left is hard to sing, that's why Mike had problems with it. Invisible and In Between for example, seem to suit his vocal style much better. There are also many demos and other tracks in which Mike sings, and it sounds fine to me. Look at something like Devil's Drop for example. That's a beautiful song, all sang by Mike. Obviously the band would write new songs with Mike's singing in mind, which could add 12 or more songs to a set, even. Plus he also has a TON of songs he could rap, from the LP world, as well as the FM world. A 25 song set is possible, maybe even more. People underestimate Mike severely. I'm not even a huge Shinoda fan like a lot of others, but even I know that he is capable of much more than people give him credit for. Obviously he won't be able to sing shit like Chester did. Nobody is expecting him to. Nobody in the world can sing like Chester. But they could SURELY improvise a lot of older songs, especially the rap heavy ones of the old days, as well as newer slower songs, plus new songs, etc. Hell, throw in a cover if you want, he covered Just Like Heaven and Umbrella in 2008 and they sounded good.

Yeah, possibly. Didn't think of that. I thought it was possibly Church since I haven't seen him around in a while, but then I realized that he spoke at Chester's funeral and also was shown by TMZ flipping off the camera on the day that Chester died. I guess it probably was Scott. I didn't know that he was friends with Scott. I knew Scott practically hated Chester (even having a fuck you Chester) chant at one of his shows in 2013) but Chester did look up to him, I think.

He sounds fine singing Invisible live. He sounded fine singing In Between live in 2008. Haven't kept up much with what the band does live since 2008 but he probably sounds just as good live on the other stuff. Mike has always been pretty solid live from what I remember. People are also forgetting, they don't need to do this huge set if they did play live. Like there's nothing wrong with a short set at all. I prefer short sets to live sets anyways, but that's just my personal opinion. Get a ten song set and play intimate venues across the world. Pick ten songs that mean something and that Mike can do.80% of the music on ATS, LT, and OML would be easy for Mike as nothing on those albums were very challenging to sing. Even the screaming on those albums were pretty easy. We're not talking Given Up here.

Huh? I don't think I insulted anyone. I was saying that there was actually a performance, Chester's friends in his bands Stone Temple Pilots and Kings Of Chaos performed a song for him, and there possibly could have been another performance on that stage that we don't know about. But I also was just saying that I don't think it's offensive, it's just what I thought. If anyone felt insulted, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to insult anybody.

No band member for Linkin Park, yeah. For Chester's real actual bands, there was a performance. Not a bad touch at all, IMO. I'm shocked someone would even complain about it. Hahninator is one of the biggest fans of the band, if not the biggest fan of the band, and has been since like the beginning. Not offensive at all.

Exactly. I knew what you meant in your original post on it. The band have so much music on MTM, ATS, LT and OML that Mike could handle. He could even probably do All For Nothing, Until It's Gone and Final Masquerade off of THP. They have a lot of songs that weren't on main albums that he could do. They could make a set out of that all, for sure. Now, yes, it will be MUCH different, obviously. But c'mon. I know Mike won't scream shit like Faint or Given Up, but they have so much to their catalog that doesn't require that. The only songs they played on their current tour that had screaming were literally only OSC, Faint and BIO. And the crowd could honestly sing those parts. It's all about improv, and Mike is the master of it.

Edited the main post with the link, my bad.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVSydwDS62c Scuzz TV has finally uploaded the full special with Linkin Park for One More Light. A lot of interesting things are said in the interview. I was wondering, does anyone know who Chester lost that was a dear friend to him during the process? It wasn't the girl that they wrote One More Light for, because he also mentions losing her.

They made music before Chester, and they can make music again without Chester. Yes, obviously it will be MUCH different, and they'll have to completely revamp the live show. I can see Mike still being able to sing quite a few of the big hits on his own, or letting the crowd sing the big choruses with him. It will for sure be different and I may not love it, but I haven't loved Linkin Park shit in a long time anyways.

All of these posts defeat my entire purpose of the thread with what I said.

Yeah, but technically it's not Linkin Park (Hybrid Theory, Xero). The credit for Linkin Park is really only on We Made It and Darker Than Blood. Also, Things In My Jeep. A lot of others feature Mike or Chester or Joe, sometimes multiple of them on a track, but it's still not TECHNICALLY Linkin Park. Your argument is invalid.

Thanks for pointing out that ''Drop'' isn't a Xero track, it's a Mike Shinoda track. As if it wasn't obvious enough from the tracklisting credit, it's not a Xero track like ''Closing'' or ''Fiends'' is. It annoys me when people consider Mike, Chester, Joe, etc. guest spots on albums or whatever as Linkin Park music; it's not.

The show was epic. Great set. They played the same set as listed above except for Systeme De Sexe and Dark Cadence not being played, but that's fine with me. Ryan said he was losing his voice and he was drinking tea and stuff to try and save his voice for the final stretch of the tour, so it's understandable. I also got to meet Ryan and Amir, they were really cool guys. Got my Death To Analog, We're Here With You and California Noir CD's signed by them and got to take several photos. I didn't want to talk about Chester too much because I know they're still obviously upset by his death and what not, and also because it was a Julien-K show, but I did get to tell Amir that I saw them live with DBS a few times, etc. Amir said that it's possible someday in the future that they might try and do a few DBS songs with Julien-K to honor Chester. Amir also said they would like to do an acoustic show in NYC sometime, I'd definitely go to that.

Wow! I can relate. My family asked me literally the day that Chester died if I was getting refunds for the tickets that I had for the tour. Extremely insensitive, IMO. Sorry that happened to you as well. My friends in real life, I thought they would have been supportive or at least ask how I was, etc., but nope. They were just like ''Wow, that sucks. Well he did what he did.'' People are cruel in this world. I don't think anybody in the world understands Linkin Park fans except for Linkin Park fans. Like it's more than just some band to 99.9% of us. We are a very passionate fanbase and a lot of bands don't have it like we do. And it was also very tragic and kind of scary how Chester died, it wasn't like he died of old age, or something like that. I had a family member literally tell me that it's been over two weeks now so it's time to move on and get over it. Luckily, I'm not close with said family member, because it would have hurt even more, but I thought that was a pretty shitty thing to say, honestly. When you lose someone you love, you never just ''get over it''. And two weeks is literally no time at all. I mean really. But I've seen a lot of people online on Twitter, Facebook, etc. who really don't have anyone to talk to, because their family doesn't care, or friends, etc. It's sad to me. And it's cool that Linkin Park fans have each other's back at this time. I've talked to more Linkin Park fans about this than people I know in my day to day life because they truly get it, and actually CARE.

It's amazing how supportive the entire hardcore fanbase has become since Chester's passing. A lot of people feel alone, including myself, and it's great that the community has come together to reach out. My family doesn't understand how badly Chester's passing has affected me, they think I need to get over it, etc. And past friends and past girlfriends, etc., haven't even reached out and don't care. At least I have other fans who feel like I do.

Yeah, obviously DBS won't go on without Chester, it was already a dead project basically as it was, anyways. But there may be people who still want to discuss the band's music, maybe newer fans who haven't heard all the DBS stuff.

Well, I guess I don't mean that Mike thought What I've Done was a garbage song, but a lot of the people who reference that part of the ATS DVD always see to imply it. But yeah, I see what you mean. Basically, the band was frustrated because the label were trying to push them to have a big single for the album, and they didn't think anything that they had yet was such. If I'm not mistaken, that's what the label thought in 2007 also, so Mike made What I've Done which ended up becoming huge.