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Linkin Park – From Zero Review
Image Credit: Warner Records
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Today’s review has confounded me just a little bit. I will admit that I have been waiting for this one to drop since the reunion of the band in question was announced along with the tentative title and track listing for a new album. I will confess that, while I have been a fan of this group since their debut album was released 24 years ago this month, I tried my absolute hardest to take this album in with an unbiased and even kneel approach. And while I found some good within the walls of the tracks presented, there are also some concerns that I must bring up.
So, without any further ado, allow me to take you to the park…a Linkin Park, that is.
Linkin Park – From Zero
Release Date – November 15, 2024
Genres: Alt Rock/Nu-Metal
Band Lineup:
Mike Shinoda – Vocals/Rhythm Guitar/Keyboards/Sampler/recording/production
Brad Delson – Guitar/Co-Production
Dave “Phoenix” Farrell – Bass
Joe “DJ” Hahn – Programming
Emily Armstrong – Vocals
Colin Brittain – Drums/Co-Production
Track Listing:
1. “From Zero” (0:22)
2. “The Emptiness Machine” (3:10)
3. “Cut the Bridge” (3:48)
4. “Heavy is the Crown” (2:47)
5. “Over Each Other” (2:50)
6. “Casualty” (2:20)
7. “Overflow” (3:31)
8. “Two-Faced” (3:03)
9. “Stained” (3:05)
10. “IGYEIH” (3:29)
11. “Good Things Go” (3:29)
Regarded as one of the best bands to ever grace the music scene, Linkin Park has meant a lot of different things to a lot of different people. In my case, Hybrid Theory was an album that helped with a lot of emotional issues that I was having during my middle school years, when it was released. While the following release of Meteora sounded like Hybrid Theory part 2, it was the subsequent releases by the band that saw them experiment with different sounds and branch out and, in a way, caused some fans to turn on them as a result. The tension reached a boiling point in 2017 with the release of One More Light, with then vocalist Chester Bennington threatening anyone who called the band sellouts for the far more pop-oriented leaning of the album in question. Tragically, a couple of months after the album was released, Bennington was found dead, and the band decided to go on an indefinite hiatus.
And so, we arrive at the present day, with a remolded version of Linkin Park, and you wonder to yourself, “How can this band continue on without an incredible force like Bennington at the front?” The answer was to enlist a new vocalist by the name of Emily Armstrong from the band Dead Sara, and you have her handle the Chester parts in concert. As impractical as that might seem, the band was able to make it work during their reunion shows when they mined through the back catalog of songs in their disco. The true litmus test would be when the announcement came that a new album, the band’s first in seven years, was being released.
This is not an indictment of Armstrong, and I swear I will talk about the entirety of the album in the coming paragraphs, but I always thought that it would be foolish to assume that she would be a carbon copy of Chester and the way that he would sing/scream his parts. “Fans” were upset by her inclusion in the band, and there is stuff on the personal side that I won’t be going into, but it seems like some people were resistant to the fact that she should be in the band. Nevertheless, Armstrong does a good job overall with her vocal performances, and tries to make things all her own, which is paramount to the success that this album could have.
Aside from the obvious addition up front, there is also a new drummer in the band, as band co-founder Rob Bourdon did not rejoin the band for their initial reunion/album recording and was replaced by Colin Brittain. I would be remiss if I mentioned the fact that he sounds better than Rob ever did, but the difference is nominal, at best.
So, with ALL of that out of the way, how does From Zero shake out? Well, for starters, we need to mention the album name, as it is supposed to represent two things, the first being a new chapter for the band with Emily and Colin in it, and the second being the band’s original name when they formed back in 1996 when they were Xero. (Yes, the ZERO in the album title is not actually XERO, and I am disappointed that someone missed the opportunity to correct that mistake). From Zero has a hands-on approach to it, with every member of the band writing the music on every track, and then finding room for EIGHT additional writers, as well as two additional producers on top of Mike, Colin, and Brad producing the album, and two mixers, who had two mixing assistants as well. To say that there were a lot of hands in this album’s writing, production, and mixing would be a gross understatement.
And that, to me, is one of the album’s biggest problems. Given that it has been seven years since the band’s last release and given the fact that there are two new members in the group, I was hoping that they would take some risks on this album. To my disappointment, there aren’t many tricks that the band pull out, but what the album does offer is a wide array of sounds to the point that I had written down what song would sound like it belonged on a previous album. For instance, songs such as “The Emptiness Machine,” “Casualty,” and “IGYEIH” (which is an acronym for I Gave You Everything I Had) sound like they could have been placed on The Hunting Party, “Cut the Bridge” and “Over Each Other” sound like they would have been perfect on Minutes To Midnight, and “Heavy is the Crown” and “Two-Faced” are tailor made for Meteora. Heck, you even have a 311-sounding track in “Overflow” (Come to think of it, 311 DID have a song called Flowing), and “Good Things Go”, which is about as One More Light as it gets.
When it comes to how the vocals are managed, I always liked Chester leading, with Mike providing the bridge, and both interchanging on the choruses. That works here, although Mike taking the lead (and the way he sings it) on “The Emptiness Machine” just doesn’t sound right to me. Neither is the guitar contribution from Delson nor much of any contribution from Hahn. At least on the band’s earlier albums Brad was more pronounced, but he was ditched on One More Light and doesn’t really stand out on this album, while Hahn is simply reduced to programming. At least Ferrell gets strong production on his bass, and Brittain does receive a bigger wall of sound than Bourdon was afforded.
The bottom line is, you need to drop any preconceived notions that you might have had about Linkin Park at the door before you listen to this album. If you are expecting another spin on Hybrid Theory, you will stand to be disappointed. At the same time, if you are of the narrow mind and won’t give Emily a chance to show what she can do in the co-lead vocal role, then you will also be disappointed when she flexes all her vocal capacities across the ten tracks on this album (the introduction doesn’t count). If you go into this with an open mind and you really listen to the tracks for what they are, then you will get so much more out of the experience. This album is by no means perfect, but I am glad that it exists as a vehicle for the band name to continue and not just pack up due to the loss of their lead singer.
Recommended Tracks: “The Emptiness Machine,” “Heavy is the Crown,” “Casualty,” and “Two-Faced.”
