Justin

Thanks for the Sopranos flashback lol

Does anyone else remember a video of Mike being followed by paparazzi? He was clearly busy, and the guy started being rude and basically implying that Mike was acting like a big shot who didn't have time for fans anymore. This was many years ago. Like probably 2008 or even earlier. I was showing someone a video of paparazzi being shitty to someone and had the idea to find this one as another example and couldn't find it anywhere. It's dumb, but it's bothering me now and making me think it might be a Mandela Effect thing lol

He's one of the only people I have blocked on Instagram. I just can't. Once he went to see LP live and, in response to Mike saying that the band isn't trying to erase the past, started screaming "AHHH! YOU'RE USING MY WORDS AGAINST ME, BITCH!" I was done.

100% agreed. You guys feel like family to me at this point. I love this site.

Chester vs the 2nd chorus of New Divide was iconic. "Give me rea-" 😂

OML does seem to get unfairly maligned a lot of the time. I see it being spoken of at times as if it's just a given that of course it's their worst album, and that's not fair.

The thing with that criticism is that it feels like no matter what LP's next album sounds like, you'd say OML is still the last true LP album simply by virtue of it being the last LP album with Chester on vocals. Am I wrong? Like is there a world for you in which their next album causes you to say "Now THIS is a Linkin Park album"?

I really like the harmony on the chorus of HITC. Also, GTG... Incredible song. Incredible melodies. Incredible performances by Mike and Emily.

He literally said "I don't like it" in another interview, but he didn't single out that band specifically. He was talking about watching any LP cover bands that include a vocalist who tries their best to sound and look just like Chester, of which there are more than one, and how they quickly shot down any thoughts of getting a Chester soundalike to bring back LP. He ended up saying "That's good for their band and what they do, but I don't want that in our band". I get the feeling that he personally doesn't like the concept of cover bands at all, since there was also an interview where he implied that if a band is good they should tour on their own music instead of someone else's, while at the same time I'm sure he appreciates the fact that he's able to say that LP even have tribute/cover bands. So he's never going to be so blunt as to say "I don't like cover bands that play our music", but he has made it pretty clear over the last few years that he isn't a fan.

One of my favorite songs on MTM. I think it could work in their current live show during a change-of-pace type section. I have full faith that they'd be able to work out at least a cool transition that includes a verse/chorus of In Between.

I'm not usually one to say this about most LP songs, but I actually do think Easier To Run is far too personal as Chester's story for anyone else to sing.

I'd like the band to bring back the 2001 live version of High Voltage.

Honest question: Do the transitions in ATS hurt the listening experience for you? I'll admit that I enjoyed hearing the songs end with no transitions when we got the instrumentals for ATS.

I liked it when it was first released and I still like it now lol I remember when Mike debuted it on IG live and the only thing I didn't like was how short it was. I was never one to be like "Oh no it's too poppy sounding!" I try to take songs for what they are without preconceived notions about what they should be, and I think Heavy is a good song. It's not LP's best. It's probably not even in my top 30 LP songs, but some people's over the top response to it has always been silly to me. As for the album as a whole, I think these songs would've been well received if they'd been released like 1-2 songs at a time on different albums. OML is like answering the question "What if FZ was full of songs like OEO or Stained?" Those songs were great as a change of pace, but when you sit down and listen to OML all the way through it is easy to find yourself wanting the band to kick into another gear just once. It says a lot that the outro of SFN is one of the most high energy moments on the entire album.

I haven't had time to write a full review yet, but I'll give my current rankings for top FZ songs and LP albums! FZ Songs: 1. Good Things Go 2. The Emptiness Machine 3. Stained 4. Overflow 5. Two Faced 6. Over Each Other 7. IGYEIH 8. Heavy is the Crown 9. Cut the Bridge 10. Casualty Albums: 1. A Thousand Suns 2. Minutes to Midnight 3. Meteora 4. Living Things 5. From Zero 6. Hybrid Theory 7. The Hunting Party 8. One More Light

This could be a good thing. They've been going really hard since September, and 2025 will obviously be huge and pretty much non-stop for the band once the tour gets going. The break might be a good chance for them to catch their breath, so to speak, and relax for a while. That's a bit of an understatement, I'd say!

Sounds like they spent way too much by booking huge bands, had to raise ticket prices as a result, and then didn't sell nearly enough to make any of it financially viable.

What makes those songs sound poor as compared to "newer" songs like Keys and AFN, in your opinion? Is it just something about the way he plays them? He does use the same setup that Brad would be using if he was on stage as far as I'm aware, so it'd have to be his actual playing style right?

Most of the people saying that wouldn't actually care enough to read this interview. They just want to hate on the band by saying "It's not even LP anymore, everyone left". They're not going to actually research the topic. It's not even worth the mental energy of debating them in the first place.

I think it's more that they don't want to be perceived as a tribute band, nor do they feel the need to keep reminding us that everything that do from this moment on is dedicated to the memory of Chester Bennington. We all know that it is and always will be. Linkin Park is still trying to forge their own way forward with Emily and Colin as full members and just releasing the first of hopefully many albums with them. Overdoing it with Chester tributes and nostalgia for the old days runs the risk of Emily and Colin starting to be perceived as stand-ins for the real singer and drummer of LP, if that makes any sense. So while obviously no one will ever forget Chester or erase his legacy, it's probably going to become more of a time and place thing when they choose to explicitly pay tribute to him or dedicate things to his memory. With all that said, Mike and Emily both talked about Chester during the Zach Sang interview that was released on the same day that From Zero was released. I don't think there's a hesitation to talk about him or an effort to keep people from thinking about him in anything they do.

I haven't received my physical CD yet, but I did get the expanded digital edition that has the 46 page digital booklet. There isn't a traditional "thank you" section. It's photos, lyrics, and credits at the end. The only thing outside of that is the single line "We are profoundly grateful to everyone who helped make this possible. Thank you."

Check out this video, featuring Drumeo's Brandon Toews learning the drum parts for every song on From Zero! Featuring comments on each track from LP's own Colin Brittain.

I disagree with this entire comment, but I feel like I need to point out that Brad is still in the band.

Yeah but the flipside of that logic is that the band still wants to be the band. What I mean is that if Chester were here, this would've been a song that Chester sang solo without Mike, just like Emily sung it solo without Mike. I don't think the band is going to say "You sound great Emily, but unfortunately you're not a man so either you need to scream or Mike is going to need a vocal part in this song at some point".

I mean I was just going by Chester's own comments during the ATS era when he said "I don't want to scream anymore. I think all of us at that point were going, ‘If I keep doing this, this is just what I’m going to keep doing for the rest of my life.’” Then in 2012 he said "I'm a 36 year old man. I'm not an angst-ridden teenager anymore." So I'm not saying there's a cut-off age where an artist must stop making nu-metal. I'm saying that Chester himself alluded to not wanting to make that type of music anymore as he got older. Not entirely. That album is about real feelings that the band members were having in their lives at that time, some of which were negative, but it's not like the album is a downer as a whole. There are some positive songs on that album that convey a message of hope. Yes, but they didn't want to deliver it in the style of Hybrid Theory. That's partly why they did a nu-metal version as a joke and then said "There's your Hybrid Theory, now shut the fuck up" before having to edit that comment out due to so many "fans" feeling personally insulted.