leftshoe18

We never have the tracklist until it ends up in some fan's hands.

What time is the event?

I feel like I'm in the minority here as I'm totally digging the medleys and mashups thing they're doing this cycle.

It gets really noticeable at louder volumes. When I get an actual copy of an album after listening to a burnt 320 rip and blast it in my car, the difference is night and day. 320 gets the job done though so I'm not really all that picky about it.

Umm...no. Teenagers will be teenagers. My dad's contemporary 15-year-old rebels had the same mindset in the 1980's and it occurred when I was in Junior High/High School in the 2000's.

#HybridTheoryMasterRace

Ugh...what the fuck was I thinking? lol This is why I'm hesitant to say that The Hunting Party is my new second-favorite Linkin Park album. I absolutely adored Living Things after my first listen to it and now I think it's the worst album they've put out (well...a tossup between that and Meteora anyway).

I think his signature is just a clever way to say "Linkin Park is always getting better." Notice how they are listed in reverse chronological order.

I agree that Chester really brings it on A Line In The Sand. I was blown away after seeing lots of people saying that Chester's vocals on the track were lacking and then he brings that awesome chorus. The only thing I personally didn't like about A Line In The Sand was the main riff that was way to similar to Victimized. If it was part of the same album as Victimized, it probably wouldn't have been so distracting and would seem like a callback instead of a "we forgot that we used this riff in another song" moment.

My impressions after two listens: Keys to the Kingdom: I feel like an intro track (something like Wake) would have been nice right before this song. Have that last note ringing out as Chester starts screaming the intro. That would be so damn cool! But alas, I'll take what we get. lol The riff that kicks in after Chester finishes the first go-around of the chorus really sets the tone for the album. It kicks your balls in the face and doesn't let up from there. Loving the structure as it reminds me of one of my all-time favorite LP tracks: Victimized - in fact the whole song reminds me of a grittier version of Victimized until the bridge. Brad delivers a nice solo and then we get the chorus one more time with some changes to the musical portion. Overall, this is one hell of an album opener! All For Nothing: This song is another nice aggressive track. It loses steam a bit in the second verse when Mike tries (unsuccessfully in my opinion) to switch up his flow a bit. Love Page's contribution to the track. Powerful chorus with the back and forth between him and Chester. This would have to be one of the weaker songs on the album in my opinion. Guilty All The Same: We've had this song for months and I still can't get enough of it. One of my favorite songs from the band and one of the standout tracks on The Hunting Party. Brad flexes his guitar muscles on this one with some awesome riffing and a nice solo in the outro reminiscent of the live Faint outro. Hip-hop legend Rakim comes in with a verse for the bridge that works out so much better than I thought it would when I first learned of the pairing. Once again, I just can't get enough of this track! The Summoning: A nice interlude. Compared to the A Thousand Suns interludes, it's nothing special but there definitely needed to be some breathing room after the first three tracks as the following song, War, doesn't let up one bit. War: Another of my favorites from the album. Hearing people compare this to Green Day, Black Flag, and Nine Inch Nails really set the bar high for me and the song delivered. Love the old-school punk rock vibe this has going for it and Brad's solo is one of the highlights for the whole album. This one will be in heavy rotation for years to come for me. Wastelands: Mike delivers (in my opinion) his best raps of the album. I especially love the "John with no Yoko" line and the delivery on the last couple bars of the second verse is just flawless. The chorus is a bit generic but I love the guitar riff behind it. The song serves as a nice throwback for old-school fans like Lies, Greed, Misery and Wretches and Kings were on the previous two albums but is overall nothing special. Until It's Gone: This song gets a lot of shit around these parts but I've liked it since day one. They took the verse-chorus-verse structure that they've used so many times and made it interesting with a little tweaks (double-length second verse, no pre-chorus in second verse, etc.) but the lyrics aren't strong enough to elevate this to the next level. One of - if not the - weakest songs on the album comes to a close with a nice little interlude into Rebellion. Rebellion: Before I go into this one I may be a little biased towards this track. lol Daron Malakian is my favorite musician of all time (I named my youngest son after him!) and when I heard he was collaborating with Linkin Park it was so exciting! Since the release of the Scars on Broadway album in 2008, we've only got three songs from Daron (including this one) so I may be a little excited about this new music from the man. lol Anyways...this song was everything I dreamed it would be and then some! Mike delivers with some strong verses and my new favorite Linkin Park line - "I want a flood, I want an ocean" comes from the first one. Daron's guitarwork meshes extremely well with Rob's drumming which surprised me a bit. I expected it to sound very jarring hearing Daron over somebody other than John Dolmayan's drumming but Mr. Bourdon stepped in with a superb drum track that really helps pull the song together. I love the way the song climaxes with Chester's screaming bridge - the old man's still got it in him! Mark the Graves: It's like No Roads Left but heavy (well...combined with the end of Blackout)! Chester delivers some of his finest vocal-work on any Linkin Park track in this one. It's nice and heavy in a way that I never expected to hear from this band. I love the build as we go from soft Chester to "pissed-the-fuck-off" Chester by the end of the song. Definitely a stand-out track that is fairly different from the rest of the album - in a good way! Drawbar: Tom Morello jams over some piano. Nice soothing track that reminds me of Black Light Burns third album a lot (that's a good thing in my opinion). One of my favorite instrumentals from Linkin Park and I like that Tom wasn't brought in to do something predictable. The song transitions into Final Masquerade with a nice little preprisal (totally a word lol) of the chorus piano bit. Final Masquerade: Chester delivers another beautiful vocal performance. This song sounds like Too Late (by Dead By Sunrise) crossed with Leave Out All The Rest. Some powerful lyrics in the chorus that really hit home for me. This was my least anticipated song on the album because every preview described it as an "80's rock style ballad" which I guess I can kind of see but it's a lot closer to the typical Linkin Park ballad than it is to the glory days of hair metal. This is another of my favorite songs from the album and a very pleasant surprise. A Line In The Sand: Love Mike's singing in this one. Wish the song would have built a little more naturally. The way the heavy part just kind of "kicks in" was a little abrupt which I didn't feel necessarily worked for this song. The main riff is a little distracting because of the immediate similarity to the guitar riff in Victimized. I do like the apparent lyrical callbacks as well as part of Guilty All The Same's riff (or what sounds like it anyway) to kind of tie the whole album together. Album cohesiveness: The album flowed very well from start to finish. The only thing I would have changed would be to add an intro track ala Wake. The way Keys to the Kingdom starts makes it feel more like you're starting in the middle of an album than at the beginning if that makes sense. The interludes really helped with seemingly out of place songs like Until It's Gone and War to really find a home in the album. Track Scores: Keys to the Kingdom - 8 All For Nothing - 7 Guilty All The Same - 10 The Summoning - 6 War - 10 Wastelands - 7 Until It's Gone - 7 Rebellion - 10 Mark the Graves - 9 Drawbar - 10 Final Masquerade - 10 A Line in the Sand - 8 Album cohesiveness: 9/10 Overall Score: 8.5/10

The album leaked minutes before I started working. Less than two hours to go before I get a chance to listen to it!

So...it leaked.

There are a lot of remixes that are created mostly from scratch. If Mike says it's a remix then it's a remix. Edit: Examples are With You and By Myself from Reanimation.

Eight-year-old me became a fan of the band in 2000 with the release of Hybrid Theory.

That's like...your opinion man. lol

As of right now: Rebellion Rebellion Rebellion Rebellion Rebellion Rebellion Rebellion Rebellion Rebellion Rebellion No particular order.

I'm surprised with the apparent chemistry between Daron's guitar work and Rob's drumming. This sounds so much like System of a Down it's unreal! Rob doing his best John Dolmayan impression. lol Mike's vocals are so fucking good on this. Lyrically it's also one of the best songs LP has ever written which is a nice change of pace from the other three which were pretty mediocre (outside of Rakim's verse on GATS). Chester's chorus vocals are done in a very unexpected way. I got a similar feeling listening to them as I did the first time I heard Wretches and Kings. It's just something we're not used to from Chester and it works so well in this song. And then those screams on the bridge. FUCK YEAH! This is easily my favorite song of the four released so far and may find itself as my new favorite song from the band period.

No particular order: Cry to Yourself (DJ Lethal featuring Chester Bennington) Out of Time (Stone Temple Pilots with Chester Bennington) In Stereo (Fort Minor) Let Down (2005 Live version) Out the Back (Fort Minor) Petrified (Fort Minor) Believe Me (Fort Minor) Move On (Fort Minor) The Morning After (Julien-K Remix) B12 (Grey Daze)

Guilty All The Same sounded fucking dreadful until about the second chorus. Nailed that and Mike sounded great on the bridge. Wastelands should hopefully be a live staple for years to come. They pulled that song off beautifully.

I would go and get this but then I'd be tempted to listen to it and I'm on a Hunting Party strike until the full thing is available.

Sublime has been a fairly popular band for quite some time.

Dat music. <3

One from each album: Runaway Numb Valentine's Day Wisdom, Justice, and Love Powerless

Probably not coming down from there. That's about what Best Buy typically sells new CD's for.