Michael Keehan
Staff Writer
Very few rock bands from the 2000s had the success and versatility that the California-based band Linkin Park did. Led by singer Chester Bennington and rapper Mike Shinoda, the band burst onto the scene with their alternative rock/nu-metal debut album “Hybrid Theory,” selling 32 million copies nationwide and winning a Grammy for the song “Crawling.” Following that, they began experimenting with other genres for their next six albums, including more traditional rock and metal, hip hop, electronica, emo, pop, punk, industrial, and art rock.
The band was active from 1996 until Bennington’s death in 2017 during the tour for their seventh album “One More Light.” Following this, the band took a seven-year public hiatus while releasing anniversary editions of their first two albums and “Papercuts,” a greatest hits album from 2024. Later that year, on Sep. 5, Linkin Park released “The Emptiness Machine” as their first original piece of music, along with announcing a new album, tour, and line-up. The line-up in particular would see the return of Shinoda, guitarist Brad Delson, bassist Dave “Phoenix” Farrell, and turntablist Joe “Mr. Hahn.” In place of Bennington and drummer Rob Bourdon are Dead Sara frontwoman Emily Armstrong and producer Colin Brittain, respectively.
The hiring of Armstrong in particular drew ire, as even though many fans saw her as a solid replacement for Bennington, they were concerned over Bennington’s absence and Armstrong’s support of former actor Danny Masterson. Masterson was convicted in 2023 of raping two women in the Church of Scientology, who then helped cover it up. Armstrong, a second-generation Scientologist, attended a court hearing of the “That 70’s Show” actor, which drew criticism from Bennington’s son and Mars Volta frontman Cedric Baxter-Zivala, who alleged that Masterson sexually assaulted his wife. Armstrong took to Instagram to apologize for her attendance but did not comment on her association with Scientology, which is unclear as of now.
Linkin Park’s comeback album, titled “From Zero” as a reference to their old band name Xero, was preceded by four singles and eight shows leading up to the Nov. 15 release. “The Emptiness Machine” opens the album following a quick intro track, and is a duet between Shinoda and Armstrong that echoes back to their fourth album, “A Thousand Suns.” Other eras of the band are revisited, such as “The Hunting Party” on “Casualty,” “Meteora” on “Two Faced,” “Living Things” on “Overflow” and “Minutes to Midnight” on “IGYEIH.”
Personal favorites for me include the single “Heavy is the Crown,” used as the theme for Season 2 of the Netflix original “Arcane,” and “Good Things Go,” an emotional closer that ends the album on a good note.
Overall, the album is a solid return to form that showcases the best that the band has to offer, but nothing extraordinary compared to their early work. I’d consider it the middle of the pack when it comes to Linkin Park’s discography, but it’s still a good album for both newcomers and longtime fans. Linkin Park will embark on a larger tour next year, including at Philadelphia’s Wells Fargo Center on Aug. 16 with special guest Jean Dawson.