Linkin Park - From Zero (Warner/Machine Shop) [Simon Black]
For the last couple of months, it seemed like my internet feeds were getting absolutely swamped with all things Linkin Park, and one thing I hate more than most is overhyping… To be fair this band are no stranger to this viral marketing effect. Their debut Hybrid Theory was probably the last physical media release to experience this phenomenon before we all went digital. That hype turned me off at the time, but when it did eventually hit my platter, it stayed there. This from someone who generally despises everything that Nu-Metal contributed to the genre, but I’m happy to be honest and confess that it’s going to be one of my desert island disk albums, come the increasingly inevitable apocalypse. But Hybrid Theory was a thing way back in 2000, and 2024 is a very different world.
What grabbed me with that debut was absolutely cemented by a live performance, where the interplay between the two frontmen made this something so different from the rest of the sub-genre, that I really did regard them as something entirely separate. Chester Bennington screaming his damaged soul out remains one of the most heart-rending and moving musical experiences, and one that has passes down the generations with both my children feeling the tug too. When he passed in 2017 like many, I thought that was it for them because how do you replace the most unique part of the band?
When Dead Sara vocalist Emily Armstrong was announced as the new singer bringing the band out of their hiatus, I have to say I was sceptical. Not because of anything to do with her abilities as a musician, nor any of the (mostly disinformed) controversies the internet got all worked up about, but simply because she was not Chester Bennington, one of the most unique frontmen I’ve ever come across. Can it even be said to be the same band under the circumstances?
Changing singers is a challenge for any established band, and it can go either way with regards to brand survival. One option is that you could just close the door on the past and treat them as a separate act that just share a name. One example here might be a Marillion - which almost feels like two completely different bands depending on your preference. The challenge with that analogy is that there are also two separate fan bases for the Marillion example – so radically different is the contrast between the two eras. Or there’s the other extreme, where perhaps Black Sabbath makes a better comparison, where the fan base appreciates them regardless of who is standing in front of the microphone, with the churn of singer just being part of the rich tapestry of their history.
But this is not about conjecture now – we have a new, full album on which to base opinions. Well, I say full, because at just under thirty-two minutes of run-time, including some faux studio fillers pieces with nothing over four minutes, it’s really not a lot to go on. What it lacks in run time, it makes up for in punch and then some.
The first thing that strikes going in is that this definitely has the musical feel of the Linkin Park of old, and Mike Shinoda taking the first few bars of vocals is reassuring before Armstrong kicks in and proves that she doesn’t need to fill Bennington’s shoes, because she’s got a perfectly good pair of her own. Opening with single The Emptiness Machine makes sense, as it’s an absolutely belting track in and of itself, and the one with the closest links to the past. After that From Zero ploughs its own furrow and I find myself not caring about the changes, because it’s a really, really strong record on its own terms.
The songs have a lot of tonal variety, and Armstrong has the same range and flexibility that any Linkin singer needs, but without the levels of deeply raw open hearted self-expressive exploration of Bennington’s deepest pains, troubled past and the damage done by them that sadly he ultimately could never escape from. When her screams come (and boy do they come), they are screams of anger, not personal angst; it’s her voice, not a lame copy of his. This is also an older, more mature band that we have been deprived of for some time, so it does feel like a large evolutionary leap rather than a step, but that’s fine because songs like the Pop-anthemic Stained, or the more aggressive Heavy Is The Crown are going to fill those stadiums just fine, thank you very much, especially if she can take that lengthy scream of the latter out on the road night after night.
Where this transition is different again from other examples is that all this deliberation on my part is not making the slightest difference on the impact of this new line up. This well-driven viral marketing campaign has worked. The news of the return, the careful delivery of a bridging single and a globally streamed live performance have all indicated that Linkin Park are very much back, and Emily Armstrong is very much capable of the role. The world thinks so too, or it wouldn’t be selling out the stadium sized shows that are coming up, so it’s a moot point, because the transition has happened, and very successfully. I guess what we all have to do as individuals is decide whether we actually like what see and hear now.
In my case, that’s a definite yes. 10/10
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