Justin

Anybody can add lyrics to Genius. There is absolutely no chance, whatsoever, that LP would have "It's like the 4th day of July, reckless like you're making rockets to blow up in the sky" as lyrics. It seems like somebody did a writing exercise on what they think the lyrics would be for songs with those titles.

Is this the first time that Joe addressed the audience on the mic during a show?

It is a throwback to the vintage LP sound. Mike rapping, Emily singing really hard and screaming. High energy. Definitely not thrash metal lol It sounds like Meteora meeting THP in the middle, with a dash of MTM. It doesn't fit perfectly on any specific past album, but those elements are all there. It is going to be a really big song, I think.

I don't think the desire to move away from nu-metal was purely Mike. When they did the nu-metal version of Heavy, I believe it was Chester who said "There's your Hybrid Theory, now shut the fuck up". That doesn't seem like something he'd say unless he also resented the constant calls for LP to go backwards in their evolution with each album. I also don't think he was ashamed of THP. He had said in the years after THP that he wanted to play more of those songs live and was even willing to extend their set times to do it, but they brought it to a band vote that he was on the wrong side of. KTTK specifically is one I know he wanted to play after THP was released and was never able to make it happen until now.

It sounds like Meteora crashing into The Hunting Party in a beautiful way.

I saw Gene Simmons at my job one day when I worked at a grocery store. This would've been sometime between 2009-2011. He was there filming a segment for Family Jewels. Anyway, I'm glad this was his take on the whole situation. I agree with him.

Yeah it's not a good comparison. They don't make original music. They tour and play Queen songs exclusively that were recorded with Freddie. Linkin Park is making new music. The equivalent of what Queen is doing would be like if LP decided to tour as Linkin Park + Emily Armstrong and only played older LP songs without making any new music together.

I definitely think the PT album was a big step for Mike, as was the entire PT tour and his performance of LFAA. He made himself more vulnerable than he may have been comfortable with because he knew that fans were hurting too and he wanted to let them know that they weren’t alone.

I think his birthday would be a far more likely place for a direct tribute, as in taking time out of the set to talk about him for an extended period of time or play OML. I remember one year Mike posted something on 7/20 and said that he doesn’t want that date to become the day we celebrate Chester, and that he’d rather it be 3/20 instead. Celebrating his birthday as a way to celebrate his life makes sense. As far as not currently having a tribute in the set beyond “In the role of Chester Bennington: All of you,” I wouldn’t ask why they aren’t doing something. I’d instead ask for a suggestion on what they’d do and when? I think it’d be really emotionally taxing to play OML every night, for example. Same as a montage or anything else. It would either be too hard emotionally, or maybe they don’t want the alternative either where it becomes just another part of the set, part of the routine, and loses all emotional impact. The band has grieved and has had 7 years to process their loss and reach acceptance. It’s possible that an extended tribute every set would be bringing them back to the dark place they were in after they lost him and they may just not want to put themselves through that every night. I think Mike mentioning Chester at the top of every show and saying the audience is his voice is a good balance of paying tribute while not bringing the vibe and energy too far down.

I think you took a wrong turn somewhere in the forums before posting that response in this thread. Lol

This was what Mike was talking about on the Zane Lowe interview. It's not just about being able to sing or drum the parts live. They have to get along. Their personalities have to click. It's cool now to see exactly what he was talking about.

That was in LA, which is either where he lives or near where he lives.

If they were always ST, then wouldn’t Mike casually calling Scientology “pretty dark” have been a problem? I don’t know much about the inner workings of Scientology, but I’m pretty sure “Don’t publicly disparage Scientology” is like rule 1.

Implying that Mike is now a Scientologist sounds like the kind of thing someone says when they feel the attention of the public and the media shifting away from you. Like a last gasp before everyone fully moves on. No doubt some people will absolutely take this and run with it as if it’s an absolute fact, but yeah I agree with needing some actual proof of that claim rather than just “Hearing from sources in the know”.

Please consider the fact that Mike, Phoenix, Joe, and Brad have literally had years to come to terms with Rob's departure and move forward. If they seem sort of nonchalant about it, that's probably why. They didn't talk to us about it when it first happened because, as Mike explained, they still didn't know if and when LP would actually return at that point. It was before the From Zero album sessions ever even began in earnest.

It's a super toxic subreddit lol The post about Jaime there had like 6 thousand upvotes.

She actually said she attended one pre-trial hearing as an observer, which is different than the claim from Cedric which is, I believe, that she attended multiple hearings and actively participated in victim intimidation. I think that the people who want a statement would say that's still a cop out and not enough. It would be something, which is better than silence, and enough for a lot of people to read between the lines when it comes to Emily's current status with Scientology, but I don't think Cedric and Chrissie and the Growing Up In Scientology guy would be satisfied with it. They want her to explicitly and forcefully denounce Scientology. A roundabout statement that implies that her status as an active Scientologist has changed won't be enough for them and the people who have been the most adamant on the subject.

I felt like her statement was clear on whether or not she supported Danny Masterson, but the internet said it was bullshit and not enough. I don't know what people expected with that. As far as Scientology, it's wild to me for people to say they're a dangerous cult who will threaten you, harass you, surveil you, kill your pets, etc. if you leave and speak negatively about them, and then demand that Emily herself do exactly that.

"Falling for the promise of the emptiness machine" has 13 syllables. "Standing at the end of the final masquerade" has 12 syllables. EDIT: Now that I think about it, the way they sing "at the end of" kind of sounds like they insert an extra syllable, so I guess that's accurate.

Fantano has completely adapted to fit the majority opinion of his viewing audience. He is the living embodiment of the fauxmoi subreddit. Somehow it's become that the burden of proof is on her to prove a negative, otherwise everything being said about her is true by default.

I have missed pre-show posts so much!!! This all still feels so surreal. "Linkin Park's tour kicks off tomorrow" is a sentence that I sometimes doubted we'd ever be able to say again. I am so happy that they're back, and I can't wait for 2025 tour announcements. I hope to see some of you at the hopefully multiple shows I am able to attend!

I have a feeling the instrumental, and maybe even the acapella, will be released on streaming services pretty soon.

I don’t think that’s indicative of anything negative, necessarily. Mike addressed it with Zane Lowe. There’s nothing else to say, really. I definitely don’t think the band wants to answer “So what really happened with Rob?” during every interview.

Linkin Park is a brand as much as they are a brand. They aren't going to respond to any of this in real time. We'll never know about it, but I'm sure they've been having meetings with Warner and their PR team on how to proceed and what the next steps have to be. Again, she was present for the live stream and the only time she's said anything publicly over the following 3 days has been the statement denouncing Masterson. The only interview she was featured in since the live stream was the pre-recorded interview with Zane Lowe. Mike has been doing media over the past few days alone, when the obvious move you'd think would've been having her in on those interviews as well since she has been one of the main topics since as the band's new singer. I wouldn't be surprised if Warner is having her take a step back for now as they navigate all of this.