Geki

I actually don't agree with what Rick Rubin said at all. I know Linkin Park is and was Mike's band for the most part, but Chester was super unique and just as good of a vocalist as the guys Rick mentioned, even better, IMO. To me, Linkin Park was always the six guys. I know Xero had a different vocalist and Phoenix wasn't a permanent member for a few years, but the actual band name Linkin Park was just always those six guys to me. So now that Chester has passed, I think Linkin Park is the five guys. That's why I hope they continue as a five piece, if they decide to carry on. Not sure if Rick was suggesting to replace Chester and carry on or not, but that's kind of what I took from it. It's funny too that Mike said he realized after doing the Hollywood Bowl show that none of those awesome performers were nearly as good as Chester, and they just didn't fit, even though they were good. As for the song descriptions, there are a lot of songs I want to hear. They all sound pretty cool.

I have never tuned in for a listening party before but I might do it this time. Usually I like to either drive and listen to the album or lock myself in my room and just play the album with no distractions. Lol. I'm weird about that stuff. Totally forgot about the Sound Space show, too. Friday will be cool. Hope I can hear the album tonight or tomorrow (still have hope).

I think this London show is epic. Probably my favorite show of the HT cycle. wish they released it. I read somewhere that it was for a DVD but now I know it never came out.

So how do you even get tickets to such a thing then?

When?? Still can't listen to the album. Is it Friday?

What's the point of going to something like that for the money that it costs? You see like 1 song. LOL.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1p3W2e0uIQ Where can I buy this DVD?

Nah it’s not 1993 anymore. The days of hyping an album for months and months and making fans wait is stupid to me.

Oh wow I forgot Fight For Your Right. Sounded badass.

The last time I was waited for release day to hear an album was never.

I agree with everything you said. I mean Chester was a rock God first and foremost, just listen to him sing with real rock bands and stuff from over the years, he was Godly. I saw him with Kings of Chaos in Boston in late 2016 and he sounded AMAZING. I’ve also seen him with STP many times and DBS, etc. But check out his other features with Camp Freddy, Hunger Strike and so much more. But he could definitely do hip hop 100% and sounded great. Definitely an odd comment. As far as LP continuing, they can’t replace Chester. Can’t be done. And Mike knows it, that’s why he says it. I’m glad the tribute show helped him realize that nobody is Chester in case he was having doubts or something before. Haters will say that Chester wasn’t a God but he was. Like I said, listen to those real rock band songs that he has done, don’t just credit him for like ITE. (Haters)

Lol it feels like everyone has heard the album except for me. Didn't want to have to wait since I'll be busy Friday and won't have time to sit down and devote enough time to listening to it. I had some big free time today and yesterday, as well as tomorrow, so I was expecting to be able to listen to it then. Didn't think I'd really have to wait until the actual release day. I can't remember the last time that I was forced to wait until the actual release day of an album to hear it. Even my pre-ordered copy of OML came in the mail a few days before the release day.

Liked his thoughts on replacing Chester. Nobody can. Continue the band as a 5 piece and I'll support it 100%. Mike is fully capable of fronting the band, which we've learned even more so now with Post Traumatic, he can sing well. He has sang well for a few years now, though. I would never support replacing Chester as a 15 year fan of the band who has seen them 19 times and owns thousands of dollars worth of merch. Can't be done. It's also funny that Mike said he wasn't very good with hip hop. One of Chester's absolute BEST vocal performances of his entire career was the ending of Slow Ya Roll after the last chorus, the Young Buck track. I also loved his verses on Blackout and Sorry For Now, they were fantastic to me. I also loved him rapping Sabotage in 2012. B12 was also great. Hmm. Lol. Chester was just great at anything.

Has the album leaked yet? Not asking for download links but just wondering. It's crazy to me that it hasn't yet. I really didn't want to have to wait until Friday to hear the rest of the songs but I guess I will have to. It sucks reading all these album reviews of people who heard the album and not being able to hear it just as a fan who wants to listen. I thought maybe my pre-order of the album from Mike's site would come in the mail.

Sounds fine to me.

It's actually on the DVD. Insert the DVD into your computer and then get the Mp3 folder. You'll have to go to My Computer or the equivalent of My Computer for whatever OS you're using. It'll be there. Copy it to your desktop and there you go. It'll be 192kbps.

Fantastic post. THIS x100.

I thought the story of ITE was that Mike locked himself in a studio overnight in L.A. and the next day he had In The End in a pretty semi completed form, and he then showed it to Rob, who said he loved it. Chester hated ITE and OSC, so much so that he said he didn’t even originally want them on the record. But maybe he did come up with the chorus. The demos of ITE that we have are different lyrically so obviously they re-wrote the song and shit, and Chester laid down exceptional vocals for the album version (the Chester vocals on the demo were blah to me.) I think Chester wrote lyrics for LP all throughout their career. Videos even show him writing lyrics for UIG off of THP and Heavy off of OML. I’m sure he contributed lyrics to every song on the main albums that have lyrics at some point or another. Mike and Brad come up with the music primarily and then Chester comes up with lyrics and melodies (he’s said before). But Chester has come up with some other stuff too like SIB intro, the guitar solo on SOTD, Blackout verses, etc. And probably way more.

Those are all good. I love watching the Berlin 2012 DVD, I agree that the sound quality is excellent. Live In Texas has always been a guilty pleasure of mine even though the sound was overly tweaked up and the guitars were cranked up, etc. It's nostalgic and just a badass show to me. I also love watching the DVD for it with a few beers, etc. A lot of people think 2004 is like the holy grail, but I think 2003 is better, honestly. 2003 was so sick, you just have to listen to the right shows. Guitar Center Sessions 2014 is good, but not holy grail worthy to me. Camden 2014 also is one of my least favorite Carnivores shows even though it's really the only full source we have in SBD quality. Hollywood Bowl had a much better mix and was a much better show to me, I just wish we got GATS and GU in full from it. Surprised that those have never surfaced. Bottom line, there are a lot of just really great shows and I think a lot of people naturally will say the shows that they have the closest bond to are their favorites. Rock AM Ring 2004 is good but Live In Texas was the first real time I ever heard a live recording of LP and I still love it.

The Camden show will probably be pretty short in comparison to the NYC show. I'm banking on the Identity L.A. set with a new song or maybe two new songs added. Maybe he will play around and swap some songs out for others, etc. But I don't expect anything less than the set Identity L.A. got.

I’m thinking we will get the same set as Identity L.A. with a few added songs. He said recently that he wanted to add a new song. And this will be a big show for Mike. It’s his own show, not a festival, etc. It will be a good time. But yeah, I’d say probably an hour and a half or so, like Soul said.

Read my above posts. Chester contributed a shit ton to Meteora and especially MTM, too. I think he contributed the most to MTM more than anything, actually.

I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to attack you. I just wish some people would give Chester some more credit. He was a huge part of Linkin Park.

It does help, thank you. I was wondering if possibly the show had the same merch as Bamboozle 2007 since it was only a week or so later, that was my first show, and there was some merch. Only a few shirts and a hoodie, which I still have the hoodie. Not sure if I still have the shirt.

I know, I get it. Chester sucks, Mike is the king of the world. Chester contributed absolutely nothing to Linkin Park, etc. Your quote though disproves absolutely nothing in my entire post though, but yeah. Your post proves that Chester wrote lyrics in Linkin Park even as far back as Hybrid Theory. He also has said in many interviews that he wrote lyrics to a lot of the Minutes To Midnight songs and some of Meteora songs. I can't give examples of albums after MTM but he definitely contributed a lot to the first three albums. And even if he did do nothing, which isn't true, he was still the voice of the band. He performed those songs. The world associated him with them either way. That's like saying the ghost writer for Taylor Swift deserves all the credit and Taylor doesn't. Ultimately it's really the performance and Chester sang most songs, especially with the first three albums. Hell, I remember people saying that Mike was barely on MTM at all and it was all Chester, even though Mike did some songs. Like I said, I can't say past MTM but yeah, for those first three albums, Chester helped a lot. It was just as much his band as anyone elses. LP was always a unit in those days.