Geki

I almost walked out during ITE. It was so emotional for me.

I can try... My attempt: Yeah You have gotta be kiddin' It's a hobby we're living We were probably spittin' to some whobbly rhythm Poppin' off in the kitchen at parties, probably hidden I was probably nervous but still I gotta forget 'em Probably referencing some army division in camoflauge like images (Can't make out the first line, idk) All my idols were in it Tryin' to avoid kids my Mom had strongly forbidden So I was probably skippin' out do robbery with 'em Good kid and lived in a bubble and barely knew it Probably couldn't recognize struggle to get into it Tryin' to find like minded rhymers to make 'em through it But nobody liked the same type of music, I'm used to it Leaving some opportunities I didn't know what to do with Sittin' there on a sofa with smokers, gamer's and losers ???? (I can't make out the last line for the life of me)

I was there chillin' in the back near the bar area. I used to love being front row or up front for shows but nowadays I just like to stay in the back. Anyways, it was an epic show. I can't pick a moment that was my favorite, the entire thing was great. I don't really like Welcome, I never really was into that song, but it's still a cool opener. The rest of the set was epic. So many special moments, too. Debut of I.O.U., debut of a demo verse for Sorry For Now, HHH acapella verse, too many amazing moments. The crowd was also super loud and energetic, I'm glad. It's like all the hardcore fans came together in that place.

Since every single member of the band contributed large amounts of songs for MTM, Brad said that he contributed songs A-Z. So there is an A song right there, Song A. But not sure about other A.xx songs. Probably there are some. There are thousands and thousands of demos in the vaults from the band for all the years they have been a band, but we probably won't ever hear any of them.

Idk, I honestly think that Mike could sing WFTE in full. Sure, it wouldn't sound like Chester, but I can see him doing it. Everybody always underestimates Mike. Listen to him sing COG recently. Listen to him sing RU or SFN (the one performance we got needed some work but he is likely better now). Listen to Promises I Can't Keep off of Post Traumatic. He can do it!!!!! But if not, idk. I just hate that WFTE/Where'd You Go mash up. I agree about wanting as much Post Traumatic as he will play but I also want FM stuff, too. FM is also Mike. Some of that 2015 was sick as hell. I know it's too hard to fit it all in a set. Sucks. I hope someday he can have long sets with all this shit. I'd pay money to see it!

Am I the only one pissed that hardly any TRT is being played? 2015 had sick versions of Petrified, Cigarettes and Believe Me. Keep Kenji album version and 2017 version of Remember The Name. Ditch Where’d You Go completely and just sing WFTE in full, Mike can do it.

Wow, that's really awesome man. Reminds me of the time that I met Chester at that Porsche Design Meet & Greet in NYC back in February 2014. Was intimate and got to tell him about all the shows I'd seen him at and stuff. And I asked him if he would also sign my DBS booklet and he said ''I'll sign anything but your penis'' and he broke out laughing. Typical Chester for ya. He then remembered me at Carnivores that Summer, and STP and KOC in later years. But that's epic that Mike knew you from online and he loved you and shit. Not many people can have that experience!

Because it's 2018. We have a president in the U.S. who talks about grabbing women by the p**sy. I think my favorite songs on the album are by far Hold It Together and Can't Hear You Now. I loved both of those upon very first listen and Hold It Together is going to be a song that I will probably play for years to come. Love the melodies and lyrics and the chorus kicks ass. Can't Hear You Now, once again, love the melody and lyrics, but I think it has possibly the strongest lyrics on the album, especially the pre-chorus and chorus, wow. I love the effect used on Mike's voice during the chorus, too. Solid A+ songs to me. I've also become very fond of Brooding again, I love it. Very moody.

God damn I miss those days. That quote took me back.

Right Now is actually my second favorite track off of TRT but yeah, you’re right. We know they won’t play it, that’s why I said there’s a 99% chance he won’t play it.

LOL I'm not gonna lie, I thought about Right Now when I first heard that Mike was gonna play The Tonight Show, but c'mon, he's not gonna play that. It would be cool but there's like a 99% chance he won't. He's obviously going to play a song off of Post Traumatic since that's the entire reason he is going on the show, to promote it.

Sorry For Now is by far the biggest highlight to me. I hope he plays it for the show in NYC. Kenji is dope, too. Wish he played Kenji when I saw Fort Minor in Boston back in 2006. Would love to see it now. Running From My Shadow is also a good live song.

Oh yeah I was definitely expecting a few years at least after Chester passed for them to even start writing again. 100% understandable.

Any word on an Instrumentals version of Post Traumatic coming out digitally? I know Mike provided us Instrumentals and Acapellas for the first 3 songs back in January. Would love to have an instrumental of Make It Up As I Go.

Joking aside, I see no reason why we can't discuss potential future stuff.

Continuing on by replacing Chester would be the shittiest thing in the world. I wouldn't support any of it. Either continue as a 5 piece or just end the band. The band has already had a 20 year legacy basically and has had tons and tons of number one singles and albums. They've toured the world time and time again. Wouldn't be a big deal if they decided to end the band for me. They've cemented themselves in history just fine. I know a lot of hardcore fans on here don't want it to ever end but most casual fans already think that they're done. Mike is doing his own music now, he doesn't even need the other members of Linkin Park. But if he did want to continue Linkin Park, I'd support him fronting the band as 5 piece. Like I said, replacing Chester, no fucking chance in Hell that I would ever support that. If they do decided to end the band, I want completed b-sides, unreleased live, etc. One More Light would be a nice final album but I hate how Sharp Edges closes out the album and not One More Light. Oh well, Sharp Edges still related to Chester a lot and his life, so I guess it's fine as a final song for their discography. No doubt the label will want to milk the ending with a greatest hits like every band does. It'd be cool if they did one similar to MCR's greatest hits that got put out after they broke up. But yeah. If they do continue as a 5 piece (only thing I'd support) who knows. Looking For An Answer would be a great final Linkin Park song, make it the final song on a greatest hits if they do end the band. Mike could record the version from Hollywood Bowl in the studio, it was perfect like that, no need to add chipmunk shit or trap beats to it like he did with OML.

Does anyone think that the volume of the album is low? Sounds kind of quiet compared to other albums, even by LP and FM, etc. Some tracks are mixed louder than others.

Epic post. You explained it perfectly. Where is the quote from Mike about Make It Up As I Go being from OML? I know that I read it somewhere. It wasn't just the Brad Delson credit that gave it away, plus the fact that we know K.Flay worked with Mike in 2016/2017 anyways. I know Mike talked about it before the album dropped somewhere. Does anyone think that the volume of the album is low? Sounds kind of quiet compared to other albums, even by LP and FM, etc. Some tracks are mixed louder than others.

Did About You hail from the OML sessions since it has blackbear or did Mike make it after Chaz died? Make It Up As I Go and Place To Start hailed from OML sessions we know for a fact.

Nice show. A little short but a solid little set. Can't wait for NYC.

I agree 100%. Mike is a lot more confident now, even since just a month ago or so. You can tell. If you remember back in the day when Mike ''sang'' live for the first time, it was In Between, and Chester would help him, which it needed at the time. Some of the ATS tracks too, Chester would provide some help. Victimized is also a good example from 2012. In recent years, Mike started to get better at singing and now he's really good and confident, it seems. Sorry For Now at Identity wasn't the greatest but it's still badass that he played it, and I think if he plays it again, he will sound much better. Castle Of Glass sounds really good. And he will get better with doing these shows and stuff. He will be ready to front Linkin Park if he wants to revive it. He is more than capable. You aren't just going to replace Chester, it's just not really an option IMO, and one that I would never support anyways, don't mean to sound harsh. I think it would be natural for LP to continue where they left off with Mike fronting the band. He will be able to sing a large portion of their catalog that they played live and he will be able to make songs work, too, by changing them a little if he has to. And then once they write a new album, that's an entire album to throw into the live set essentially, etc. It's stupid to me when people say ''he won't be able to sing Qwerty or Figure.09 or Given Up, etc.'' it's like, they didn't play that shit anyways in 2017. Focus on the songs played in 2017 and then all the new songs that the band will write for an album. More then enough. Chester didn't scream on every song the band made, and half of the ones that he did, they never played live, or very rarely did, especially in recent years. What songs had screaming in the set in 2017? OSC and Faint? BIO? That's it. 3 fucking songs. Mike can let the crowd sing the damn scream parts in those songs because they are all like 15 seconds long. LOL. He did BIO at his shows. Fuck it. Mike can handle it. Anyone that doesn't think he can is an idiot, IMO. Anyone that was thinking in the past year that Mike can't front LP, etc., is proven wrong now with Promises I Can't Keep and others.

Mike said I.O.U. was going to be a Fort Minor song but he decided to put it on Post Traumatic because according to him, once his friends heard him talking shit on a track, they knew he was on his way to becoming whole again. Genius has the quote. We knew that Mike revived Fort Minor in 2015 obviously because of Welcome and some shows, so it's not a surprise that he would make some songs once more for it in the future. He probably did write about it around the time of the European tour last June/July with LP, but what does it have to do with anything? Not every song on the album had to directly be about Chester. I actually don't think a large portion of the songs in fact are. I think Over Again and Promises I Can't Keep directly deal with the pain Mike experienced from losing Chester, and possible Can't Hear You Now, but the rest of the songs are really about Mike's own individual issues after coming out of the tragedy, and some are just Mike being badass like I.O.U. or his verse in Lift Off, etc. The album has a wide variety of topics but it all deals with grief, that doesn't mean the songs have to directly be about Chester. And I'm sure that in the future Mike might write some songs about Chester too, it doesn't have to be this thing that is tackled all at once and that's it, you know? M.G.K. also said that he recorded his verse quickly during an ''off day'' in Berlin last year. Could have also been during the June/July European tour for LP. The fact that he said off day makes me think it was. Like I said, Mike has been making his own stuff since like 2003, but it never got in the way of Linkin Park or anything, just like Chester's stuff didn't either. Linkin Park was it's own machine and Mike and Chester were both 100% committed to it before anything else. Chester asked the band if they cared that he was going to put out an album with Dead By Sunrise, and he said if they didn't want him to, he wouldn't have done it, same with STP. Mike also asked the band about his solo stuff, etc. So yeah. I remember an interview from July 2015 when the band was doing press in China and Chester was like ''Mike writes music all the time, he was even writing music on the plane over here'' and then Mike played a little clip of something sounding like Bruiser, anyone remember that? Chester used to say he would record song ideas into his phone, etc. Chester also said around May of last year that he wrote about 5 songs on his own and he wasn't sure if they'd ever come out. Mike and Chester always just write music, I think most musicians in bands do, it doesn't always have to be for the band. I don't think Lift Off serves as a break, I think it fits really nicely with the album. It's still a pretty dark track, I think Mike's verse is the most upbeat of the entire song. The chorus from Chino and M.G.K.'s verse are a little dark. I.O.U. is just Mike straight up being gangster and it's a nice touch, it's badass.

Got the hat in the mail a few days ago and I love it. I stopped collecting shirts and hoodies and stuff for the most part a while ago but I do love collecting hats. But yeah, the hat is cool, that’s all I wanted to say.

Keep in mind that Mike making his own music even back last year before Chester died is 100% irrelevant because Mike has been making his own music as far back as 2003/2004 on the tour bus during Meteora. Chester made his own music as well. Linkin Park was still in top form and was going to continue to be for years to come, it wasn't like Mike was going to put Linkin Park on hiatus or anything close to that. Mike even said that this was never his plan but due to Chester's passing and the uncertainty of the future from that he decided to put out this album. You don't just simply continue right away when the absolute legend such as Chester fucking Bennington passes. Mike even said that right before Chester passed they were having talks about the future and future tours and albums and Chester was so excited, etc. Just wanted to add that here.

Good review, I enjoyed reading it.