Kilmer

While still not groundbreaking news, I think this is a new step in the journey. All prior interviews were just saying they wanted to keep making music, but in this one he says that "Now the band has started talking about making new music together."  The new info sounds more active than the previous ones.

I'm still in vacations and my mind wandered to the concept of different levels of Linkin Park fans, each one with a new layer of knowledge. Of course there are subdivisions for each of these 5 levels and they may often mix, but this was made for fun, with the support of years following the band and observing the fandom, so please don't overthink, just sit back and enjoy.

The casual listener: the one who only knows singles. If the song has an official video, it's very likely that he knows how to sing the chorus. Yeah, he's gonna frown in confusion when Mike delivers Wretches & Kings + Skin to Bone + Hands Held High verse 1, but hey, nevermind, now they're playing Numb and he's totally happy. This is the guy shouting "Crawling" through the whole show.

The fan: the one who listened to the studio albums. He's very dedicated(pun intended) to his duty and has also watched lots of live performances on Youtube. He wishes they would play Powerless live and open with Don't Stay(Gacela intro) again. He went nuts when they added A Line in the Sand to the setlist. This is the guy shouting "A Place For My Head" through the whole show.

The hardcore fan: the one who knows the B-sides. He shed tears with the Not Alone video, failed to rap Reading My Eyes and listened to My December last month. He swears there is someone out there who owns a tape with a live version of Carousel. This is the guy shouting "No Roads Left" through the whole show.

The fanatic: the one who knows the LPU tracks. He religiously supports that Primo is better than I'll Be Gone and he would kill to get all those instrumental Meteora demos with finished vocal lines. He also had fun watching each "Making Of" of the albums. This is the guy who's tired of setlists made of singles and wishes they would play Across the Line or Slip.

The worshipper: the one who knows the leaked songs and lots of underground information. He was soothed by She Couldn't and bounced his head to Fiends. He unlocked the easter eggs in Frat Party at the Pancake Festival and he knows Unicorns and Lollipops. Every atom of his body screams "Pictureboard" and every night he dreams about its famous forbidden sample. This is the guy who disappears for months because he's been trying to find a recording of the Relative Degree show.

Well, I hope you liked it, feel free to comment and expand upon the idea.

I guess it's more of a logic disagreement than a favourite album war, cause I honestly can't choose a favourite one. I just don't think those 3 songs are as heavy as War, Mark the Graves, Rebellion or A Line in the Sand. Maybe No More Sorrow could kinda fit on the same level, but Given Up only gets quite heavy in the bridge and QWERTY is basically a new metal song. Of course it has lots of screaming and it's a classic loved by everyone but to my ears new metal songwriting is not as heavy as more complex drumming and heavy metal-ish guitar solos, no matter how many times you layer the guitars to make it sound fuller. And I actually prefer albums with less songs, ATS is alright only because 6 of the 15 tracks are intros and interludes. Supposing they released THP with the 10 other tracks(no Drawbar and The Summoning) it would still be outmatched in total time only by ATS and MTM, so the amount of tracks is unimportant when you have longer ones. But I agree UIG sounds a lot like Living Things because it has that electronic rock feeling, it's like Living Things with a slightly trickier guitar riff and a little solo.

 

I agree with this. However, I feel like a lot of fans were expecting THP to be in the metal genre. The way that Mike and the rest of the band talked about the album, it was heavily implied. I guess that for Linkin Park, it was a heavy album, but it's certainly not as heavy as a lot of other music that existed at the same time that the album was written and released. I feel like maybe if The Summoning, Until It's Gone and Drawbar all were replaced with other rock songs, the album would have been better. Those are the 3 tracks that I have an issue with, with I talked about in a previous post, and I know that 2 of those are instrumental/interlude tracks but they still take up an entire slot of the tracklisting, when an album has 12 tracks, each track slot is integral to the album. I do agree that they don't always do a full genre for each album, but OML was a pop album, plain and simple, it is what it is. TTM, I guess you could say is rock, but it's as close to pop as a rock song can ever get. TMM and Sharp Edges have rock roots but they are basically pop songs. NCSM isn't a rock song, IMO, it's more of like an alt. pop type of sound. You can have slower songs, like Final Masquerade, or What I've Done, etc. that are definitely rock songs, even though they're slow.

Well, of course it wasn't as heavy as many other things, they would have to write death or black metal songs to get to that place, but it was the heaviest and rawest ever for Linkin Park as a collection of songs. I believe you're overthinking The Summoning and Drawbar, they probably wouldn't replace them with full songs anyway. The fact is that THP has lots of songs that are longer than the average LP radio hit so it makes up for these short tracks in terms of the album length. Intros and interludes aside, there are more full songs in THP than in ATS. I'd call TTM and NCSM alt/electronic rock, it's nothing they haven't done before except maybe for the clapping sounds. It's the mixing that gives it a pop feeling, turn the guitar volume up and more than half of OML fits into Living Things. Sharp Edges is their folkiest song though, it's very reminiscent of Three Band Terror and Devil's Drop, that folky vibe to where Living Things almost went but they intentionally avoided.

The Hunting Party was the heaviest Linkin Park could have done without entering metal or metalcore territory, it works as a great heavy rock album with some alternative metal songs in it. Now I think it's a total waste of time trying to stick one single genre on an album that has songs like Waiting For The End, The Messenger, Burning In The Skies, When They Come For Me, etc all in one album. There is no genre to ATS, it's purposely done to sound like a genre orgy. And even if some albums are "not rock albums", all of them have rock songs, even OML with Nobody Can Save Me and Talking To Myself.

People tend to have a huge problem with expectations. They make their minds about what they wanna listen to or how the song "should be" by just reading the title, and then when it turns out to be different they say it's bad because they were expecting something else. That's not the artist's fault, it's all yours. We should just take the music as it is and appreciate what was made, instead of projecting our own wacky fantasies and hoping they are right.

Doesn't seem like there is much excitement for it and the views show it. Not to mention you don't hear it that much anywhere.

That's the exact reason why musicians go on with their bands even after a fellow member quits or dies. The band name has a weight of its own, it carries a concept and it's easily recognizable. Also, it's a brand, and if you strengthen that brand enough, like Linkin Park did, you'll get much more radio play and media than one member doing solo.

There's no evidence that Mike's role increased or Chester's decreased from MTM onwards. The actual quote says that Mike already worked like a producer within the band in previous albums, but Rick Rubin was the first one to point it out to him, and thus shared the credits. There are songs from MTM and after that we know to be autobiographical by Chester(Given Up, Valentine's Day, In Pieces, The Messenger, Heavy, Halfway Right); we also know Blackout and Keys To The Kingdom came from him freestyling the vocals, and we saw various LPTV videos where he appears discussing lyrics(The Catalyst, Burn It Down, A Light That Never Comes, just to mention a few). The Hunting Party was the only album where he said he was not that much in the studio, but that was because of STP, and even then he brought KTTK's chorus, War's guitar riffs and probably more.

 

Who gives a fuck lol I live in the USA I can complain about whatever I want when I want

This guy's always such a whiny brat, even the HT dinosaurs are more rational.

A song that doesn’t suck most likely got cut for all the pure garbage that is One More Light. I hate that album so much.

Oh come on, so much whining, he clearly said they changed the song after Linkin Park discarded it. It's safe to assume it would have the same vibe and production the others had if they chose it for the album.

This is great, I guess I prefer the song this way, even the keyboard sound in the last chorus is good. Only the mix is lacking of course. I really don't care about the source, we had an In The End demo online before they put it on the LPU cd, the Crawling one was never officially released and it's out there. There's also She Couldn't, the list goes on.

My biggest love for this album is that every song is so great to sing along to, the work on the melodies was really great. And even if they went for a poppier sound, the lyrics still have substance and meaning, they're not talking about being rich or getting hoes(except for Stormzy )

It's always interesting to me to hear other peoples' opinions. It's a reminder how diverse the fanbase is and how opinions are all over the place. Remember that time Mike said a "majority" of LP fans are "gamers"? I don't think I've ever met an LP fan that plays video games, lol, nor have I heard of someone playing them. I guess his opinion on that is why they decided to put songs into games. Remember that guy at the Camden LPU Summit who said "can you please pick a better game to put a song into?" or something, LOL

 

For the 10/27 show literally the only guest I didn't like was Oli, lmao. That's pretty funny. I thought Gavin nailed LOATR. I know everyone has different opinions, it was just funny that you said Oli was your favorite. Nothing wrong with that. The show was just a tribute to Chester and that was the only way they could play all of those songs plus all of those guests loved Chester. Really weird Leto didn't come and it sucks Papa Roach couldn't cancel their European dates so Jacoby could come. Besides Jay-Z playing a show in Anaheim and those other two... they got everyone obvious. Maybe Corey Taylor. Who knows, it was done well though in my opinion.

I actually agree with him, and not only for games but for geek culture in general. Just look at the amount of AMVs on Youtube with Linkin Park as soundtrack, and there was also Transformers to help create that bridge between the band and geeks

I changed my wishlist a little bit, for now I want to hear some unreleased songs

 

1. Patients/No Roads Left But One (No Roads Left Demo w/ Chester's Vocals)

2. In Between (2006 Demo w/ Chester's Vocals)

3. Figure.09 (Original 2002 Demo, From LPTV)

4. Thoughts That Take Away My Pride (Unreleased Meteora Demo)

5. Machine Shop Song (2005/2006 Demo)

6. Pac-Manny (Blackout 2010 Demo, Freestyle Lyrics)

7. Song Q (Hands Held High Demo, Another Chorus)

8. Fire In The City (Minutes To Midnight Demo)

9. EBow Idea (No More Sorrow Demo)

10. Dust Brothers Song feat. Linkin Park (2001 Demo)

11. Coffee (Keys To The Kingdom Demo, Alternate Ending)

12. Pictureboard (Hybrid Theory Demo, LPU9 Version)

Figure.09 would be awesome, it almost had verses sung by Chester, I hope they still have that. How do you know about the alternate ending in Coffee and another chorus in Song Q?

I love to hear demos that didn't make the album cause it gets us deeper into the writing process, always so cool. Unless it's a really rare live song like HTF, ETR, VD, IP, etc., all the other ones are easily found on Youtube in good quality, but a piece of music by them never heard before? That's dope. Hope they take time to heal and release something.

This will be great to listen. Doesn't the Live in Madrid count as a live release?

 

I agree. Meteora does have a few songs that seem like an evolution. Easier To Run, Breaking The Habit and Numb all feel like the direction of Minutes To Midnight, and Nobody's Listening is very experimental, like you pointed out, it wouldn't have fit on Hybrid Theory. The rest of the songs could have, but I love that sound.

I feel like BTH points more towards ATS, with the dreamy strings, the electronic glitches and stuff, but ETR and Numb do feel like perfect bridges between HT and MTM

When you say Chester was a rocker you're forgetting he was a huge fan of Nine Inch Nails, Depeche Mode and Twenty One Pilots, all full of electronic and industrial sounds. I'd rather say he had a pretty broad taste. I get the kids thing to an extent, surely the production is trap-inspired but it's not like they're talking about partying or whining about ex-girlfriends leaving them, most lyrics in the album are very dark, there's even an autobiographical description of Chester's drug abuse in the past. Also, it's not really weird to have that change from THP. For ATS they openly avoided anything that would sound like HT and Meteora, and they still put out a song like Wastelands less than 4 years later. Things just change, it's normal.

I can't imagine how hard it was to make this video, choosing from the lptv episodes and so on. I cried a lot just watching it. It's really a nice touch when the camera zooms in Rob writing "sincerely, Linkin Park".

I don't agree with Tommy being permanent LP vocalist. For couple shows ok, but not forever. Pure metalhead wouldn't be good fit for a band like Linkin Park. Aaron Lewis or Johnny Santos would be great. At least for me.

Just because he sings in a metal band it doesn't mean he wouldn't fit in Linkin Park. Someone could listen to Grey Daze and think "oh their vocalist is great but a pure grunge guy wouldn't fit in Xero", without knowing he was already a fan of Nine Inch Nails, Depeche Mode, and even hip hop artists.

I think aside from the unreleased material it would be cool to release a compilation with all the singles. I know we've heard it all a thousand times but it would feel like closing a cycle, and surely it would be good for the label, so yeah. It would work well as a dualdisc release.

I don't think Wakefield would fit, but I'd love more White Pegacorn songs

They may do that but that doesn't mean they're going to do world tours again. It's going to be different. I can't believe there's so much denial here about that fact.

I rather not talk with so much certainty about what I don't know. Many things may or may not happen, but his words certainly point forward in a positive way.

Except, they wont.

Oh sure, Phoenix wrote about healing and building the future of Linkin Park but that was just a prank.

sucks being honest on a forum full of fanboys.

 

claiming a review is subjective is the same as saying the review is biased. subjectivity has no place in reviews as it allows personal views to dictate the direction of your conclusion. Taste is subjective, and sure some subjectivity is allowed when reviewing, but you have to be overwhelmingly objective when your review is not just personal.

 

Based on reviews for OML, the vast majority consensus is that it's not a very good album. average at best.

it's one of their worst reviewed album to date, i'm sorry that this seems to be hard to digest for some of you but facts are facts.

 

if we do not critically evaluate what we consume, we are no better than sheep.

Make up your mind instead of relying on what others say. I give zero shit about what other people think of the music I listen to, as long as I like it, it's good.

I think we can also expect some live audio or video album from last tour with Chester. It can be very successful commercially (we know at least 4-5 shows were filmed and probably audio from all shows recorded) and interesting as historic artefact. So, it's great opportunity for recording company.

I'd love that, they made Frat Party, LIT, RTR, Madrid, and then just stopped making DVDs, kinda missed those.