Music Linkin Park returns

[Mark]

They’re a polarizing band, primarily because of their mainstream success and their stylistic changes from the early albums. They’re not everyone’s cup of tea, but, a lot of us grew up listening to “Hybrid Theory” when it hit the shelves because it was a refreshing take on the nu-metal scene. I was fortunate enough to see them live back in 2003, on tour with Metallica, Limp Bizkit, Deftones, and Mudvayne. They were electrifying… they had even the old school Metallica fans getting into their music.

I absolutely despised their work after “Minutes to Midnight”. Their first two albums, and the “Collision Course” album that they did with Jay-Z were (and still are) fixtures on some of my playlists. When Chester committed suicide, it was during a period where other musicians (Paul Gray, Joey Jordinson, Chris Cornell, for example) and people in my personal life were losing their lives. It bothered the hell out of me, because not only were people in my personal life dropping like flies… the musicians that provided an outlet for me were as well. After a while, I stopped listening to music that reminded me of death, and started favoring more optimistic stuff. In doing so, I kinda fell out of the loop with news.

Fast-forward to the other week, news started circulating about Linkin Park coming back. I’m not an angry teenager anymore, and the only thing I’m one step closer to is the next step, and it does matter to me nowadays. A lot of my favorite bands have carried on without original members. There’s a huge precedent going back as far as rock and roll for it. AC/DC made some of their best music with a new singer. Metallica went on after losing Dave Mustaine and Cliff Burton to different reasons. Even currently, bands like Slipknot are made up of only half of the original members. I’m always open-minded enough to give a band the same chance I gave before a new member was introduced.

With that said, I watched the live stream found here:



Although I’ve listed a bunch of mainstream bands in this post, I’m a music snob. These bands were in rotation for me before they became mainstream, I even had the Hybrid Theory demo that was put out before they became Linkin Park. Music has always been my number one passion, and I’m kinda torn with what I saw from that livestream event. On one hand, I’m glad to see them come back and give it a shot with another singer… on the other hand, I get a lot of the criticism people are giving this new venture of theirs.

What do y’all think?

 

[rktaker]

kind of skipping around the live stream here and one thing I will say I will keep an open mind with Emily. I think the toughest thing about it is their doing old songs on this live stream so even skipping around I'm just thinking of Chester so it makes it harder to hear with someone else singing the old songs at the very least. I will wait to hear more new songs from them to really kind of have some kind of judgement on it.

 

[Quagmire]

While not a huge fan other than a couple songs, I almost feel like it would be better if they rebranded themselves

 

[Jon]

I was a Linkin Park fan growing up. I didn't follow them as closely as Godsmack or Disturbed, but they were up there, especially in high school for me. I was saddened by the passing of Chester Bennington. His unique voice fit the genre Linkin Park played to.

I know bands change lead singers all the time. For death, or relationship breakups... But it's never the same. I love Journey, but they are not the same without Steve Perry. Arnel Pineda is great, even sounds like Steve Perry, but it's still not the same.

But when your lead singer dies... maybe, like Quagmire said, it's time to rebrand. Especially in this case. I don't know ANYTHING about this Emily Armstrong. I'm sure she's a great singer, I'm sure she's a great person, but trying to listen to her pull off a Chester Bennington was... not ok on my ears. It was painful to listen to, and I'm not sure she will ever be able to do it and sound right.

 

[Mark]

I was a Linkin Park fan growing up. I didn't follow them as closely as Godsmack or Disturbed, but they were up there, especially in high school for me. I was saddened by the passing of Chester Bennington. His unique voice fit the genre Linkin Park played to.

I know bands change lead singers all the time. For death, or relationship breakups... But it's never the same. I love Journey, but they are not the same without Steve Perry. Arnel Pineda is great, even sounds like Steve Perry, but it's still not the same.

But when your lead singer dies... maybe, like Quagmire said, it's time to rebrand. Especially in this case. I don't know ANYTHING about this Emily Armstrong. I'm sure she's a great singer, I'm sure she's a great person, but trying to listen to her pull off a Chester Bennington was... not ok on my ears. It was painful to listen to, and I'm not sure she will ever be able to do it and sound right.

Well, I’ll leave this here if your mind is inquiring about the new singer.

 

[Jon]

Well, I’ll leave this here if your mind is inquiring about the new singer.

View attachment 20242

**Sigh**

 

[Mark]

**Sigh**

Exactly. I tried to avoid the whole “celebrity gossip” shit, but there’s some things that just aren’t cool.

 

[Jawneh]

I don't know about any of the drama in the background. Linkin Park was always a band I enjoyed listening to, but never went out of my way to choose to listen. Same with their new thing. Cool blast from the past and I'll listen to it on the radio.

That's about it though.

I was more excited about the new Blink 182 single than this though.

 

[Fool's Requiem]

Well, I’ll leave this here if your mind is inquiring about the new singer.

View attachment 20242

 

[Mark]

I don't know about any of the drama in the background. Linkin Park was always a band I enjoyed listening to, but never went out of my way to choose to listen. Same with their new thing. Cool blast from the past and I'll listen to it on the radio.

That's about it though.

I was more excited about the new Blink 182 single than this though.

Very rarely does any of that stuff make it’s way to me, because I don’t really subscribe to pages that cover that kinda gossipy bullshit, so the fact that it made it to the more reputable sources and quickly is what caught my eye.

Initially, there were comments about her being a “DEI hire”, which is pretty dumb considering the rest of the band’s members. Those comments were easy to ignore, because they’re obviously cheap shots from ignorant minds. Then, there were comments made about deliberately trying to avoid “replacing” Chester, but that doesn’t really add up when you consider how hard she was trying to mimic him in the livestream. The studio version of the new single certainly shows a wider distinction between her voice and her voice while imitating Chester’s verses, but that also leads to a whole different discussion about how much post-production help she had.

All things considered, seeing how I posted this a couple days after the announcement and have had a couple more to stew on it… I don’t think she’s a good fit at all, dude. Yeah, she might be able to fit higher in the range than Mike Shinoda does, which is essentially what Chester did, but just because she fits in range doesn’t mean she fits. I’ve seen a lot of people dogging on the band for being tone deaf, considering the subject matter of a lot of their music is mental health… and that’s just a topic that just doesn’t exist in Scientology in any capacity beyond disregarding its existence and blaming it on aliens or some shit. It definitely comes across as disingenuous, and the fact that she has addressed the whole incident with Danny Masterson without addressing her role in intimidating/harassing a victim during the preliminary statements of the trial OR her current status with the church cult seems pretty damning to me.

 

[Fool's Requiem]

 

[VashTheStampede]

 

[Mark]

View attachment 20308

I have another that I won’t actually post… it involved her, on a couch, with the rest of Linkin Park standing behind her.

 

[Fool's Requiem]

I have another that I won’t actually post… it involved her, on a couch, with the rest of Linkin Park standing behind her.

coward

 

[Mark]

coward

Fuck your peer pressure.

 

[VashTheStampede]

 

[a dip goblin]

I saw Linkin Park way back in 2001, and it was quite the great performance. They were on the main stage of Ozzfest that year, and one of my favorite performances. I also wish there were more releases along the lines of Collision Course

I'm not disappointed they brought in a new singer. I'm disappointed they brought in someone who defended Danny Masterson.

 

[Mark]

I'm not disappointed they brought in a new singer. I'm disappointed they brought in someone who defended Danny Masterson.

They should have brought in this guy.

 

[rktaker]

my friend went to their concert on Monday said he enjoyed it. He still doesn’t know how he feels with Emily singing the older songs but feels she’ll be better with the Emptiness machine and the other new stuff they make

 

[Jon]

I just....... don't like it...

 

[Jon]

Sorry, she'll never sound like this....

 

[Ben]

I just....... don't like it...

Ew. Yeah, no. That's the first time I've listened to her and I'm already over it.

It's just so strained and forced compared to Chester. Voice even cracks now and then as she loses it.

 

[Mark]

I just....... don't like it...

I took my old lady down the rabbit hole of bands losing singers hiring new ones, etc. I used Chester as an example of a musician putting his own stamp on a song while still properly paying tribute to the original singer by playing this for her:



Followed by:



Followed by:

 

[Spectro]

The Emptiness Machine is really an earworm. I don't really like the new singer as much as Chester, but I don't think she's too bad. Somewhere in an alternate universe this is playing on the radio:

 

[Gloom-is-good]

Oof. I don't think anyone can replace Chester.

I will say I didn't hate everything about Emily's covers but I think if she tries too hard, I don't think she'll get that far in the end. I will see myself out.

 

[Spectro]

It seems like almost any time a band tries to replace the vocalist they are never as good as the original one.

 

[Jon]

It seems like almost any time a band tries to replace the vocalist they are never as good as the original one.

Mostly true. Though, I will say that even though no one can replace Steve Perry, and it took them a while to find him, Arnel Pineda has done well.

I think the issue specifically with Linkin Park is Chester had such a unique voice. And those songs are HIS vocals. Emily... doesn't sound right. And at the risk of sounding sexist, I'm not sure any female vocal could have replaced him. Especially her where she sounds to be struggling to match his vocals and it just doesn't sound right.

It'd be like Disturbed trying to replace David Draiman with Amy Lee. There's just no comparison.

 

[Jawneh]

Nightwish has done pretty decent with their vocalist changes. Multiple changes actually. We can still argue if one is better than the previous or next one, but all of the ladies sound great and have all done great songs.

 

[rktaker]

Mostly true. Though, I will say that even though no one can replace Steve Perry, and it took them a while to find him, Arnel Pineda has done well.

I think the issue specifically with Linkin Park is Chester had such a unique voice. And those songs are HIS vocals. Emily... doesn't sound right. And at the risk of sounding sexist, I'm not sure any female vocal could have replaced him. Especially her where she sounds to be struggling to match his vocals and it just doesn't sound right.

It'd be like Disturbed trying to replace David Draiman with Amy Lee. There's just no comparison.

see I think we just have to accept no one is ever going to be Chester. saying things like "it's just not the same or Emily is not chester" is just not fair. no matter who Linkin Park replaced Chester with was not going to be Chester. the One thing I do agree with is that it does seem Emily is trying too hard and would probably benefit from bringing her own style rather than trying to copy Chester. and it was mentioned before that Linkin Park should have rebranded but I honestly don't know what the difference would be if they did or not because we know it's still Linkin Park just with a new singer and Drummer. that's like saying Avenged Sevenfold should rebrand if they had to replace M. Shadows for some reason. like We still know it's Avenged Sevenfold. so what does it matter if Linkin Park rebranded or not?

 

[Jon]

no matter who Linkin Park replaced Chester with was not going to be Chester. the One thing I do agree with is that it does seem Emily is trying too hard and would probably benefit from bringing her own style rather than trying to copy Chester.

I think the latter part is where I'm at. I think if she weren't trying to replicate him I'd feel better about it.

Maybe it's because all I've heard is her trying to sing their old stuff that I just don't like her singing them. It doesn't SOUND right. But maybe when they get to new stuff it won't be that way? I dunno.

 

[rktaker]

l I've heard is her trying to sing their old stuff that I just don't like her singing them. It doesn't SOUND right. But maybe when they get to new stuff it won't be that way? I dunno.

I do get that, I feel the same way my friend thinks like once their new Album comes out and more new songs come out they'll do less of the older songs so we'll see

 

[Nae'blis]

She has a good voice, but she's trying too hard to be someone she's not! If she would do her own thing it'd probably be better.

It was like when I saw Queen+Adam Lambert. He did his thing instead of trying to be Freddie, and he was great! He even said so himself at the concert: "I know what some of you are thinking... He's no Freddie Mercury! Well, no fucking shit I'm not!"

 

[dimmerwit]

It was like when I saw Queen+Adam Lambert. He did his thing instead of trying to be Freddie, and he was great! He even said so himself at the concert: "I know what some of you are thinking... He's no Freddie Mercury! Well, no fucking shit I'm not!"

This was exactly the example I was going to use.

Helps that Adam Lambert has such a good voice. I remember watching him all those years ago on American Idol, he always stood out.