So the music world was in hysteria this week because the news of Linkin Park coming back to the scene. Not only did they announce that they were back, but also the announcement of an upcoming record and the announcement of their new vocalist stepping in to fill the shoes of the late and great Chester Bennington, much like the Alice In Chains situation when they recruited William DuVall to fill in for Layne, which I loved by the way. That was a perfect fit, but filling in for Chester are some BIG fuckin’ shoes to fill.

Let me first share my love and history for this band, at least for the first 2 records, Hybrid Theory, and Meteora. Those records were ones where you can pop them in your boombox and never skip a track in the early 2000s, which, in my opinion, was a glorious time for the rock and metal scene at that time. When they released Minutes to Midnight in 2007, I slowly started losing interest in what they were putting out into the world. It didn’t speak to me or grab me as much as the first 2 records did because I gravitated towards the heaviness of the guitars, the rapping mixed with the clean and roaring vocals that balanced each other out with the instrumental DJ tracks that followed. Linkin Park was a musical melting pot at that time where they spoke to the rockers and hip-hop fans mutually, and that was not an easy thing to do at that time. After 2007, the band started leaning more towards the electronics side of the music, and let me be clear I have no issue with bands that want to try new things and move into a different direction, but at the same time you have to know who you are speaking to and Linkin Park lost a good part of their fan base because of this direction. They lost their balance, but that is just one man’s opinion on this matter.

September 5th, 2024, the band released their new single with their new singer. I’ll be honest at first, I had my conclusion that this was going to be garbage, much like a lot of people on the internet did before even giving the song a chance. I didn’t want to be one of those fans who was stuck in the past and shove away anything that can potentially be really good. Once again, I didn’t want to be that guy to say it’s trash before giving it a fair chance. I listened to the track several times this week to get an honest feel because when it comes to music, it can’t just be a one and done, not for an honest analysis at least and here’s what I got from it.

The track starts off with a faded drum track with a few piano notes with Mike Shinoda vocalized the first verse of the song which is a bit different because old school fans were usually used to Mike spitting some verses in a rap. At that point, it didn’t grab me yet, but the next verse was what grabbed in. The next verse came in hard with the hard rock guitars with a melodic rhythm to balance the track out that the old school fans had loved in the early 2000s, and then came in the new singer Emily Armstrong singing her verse. Until I heard this song, I had never heard of this woman before, and I love a female voice for a rock band. Especially when they have range and respectfully saying and lets be honest, not just there for looks to draw a crowd, and she can actually have some vocal range and depth. As the track goes on, it’s her time to sing, and I can tell she was building up for her finale to show us what she’s got, and I have to say I was not disappointed for 1 reason and 1 reason alone.

Towards the end of the track her and Mike joined in together with the band, giving it all they got while Emily goes for the exhaustingly high notes that we are so used to Chester vocalizing as he did in the first 2 records. Her vocals took me back to that place, and that power she had within her to go that high in vocal range that we are all used to as old school fans. Now, let’s not forget, as a singer for any kind of singer for a band, any seasoned singer will tell you the vocals that Chester had pelted out back in the day will tell you how insanely difficult that is for a vocalist. Not only are you testing your breathing, but you’re testing your lung capacity as well as putting massive pressure on your vocal cords, and as small as that organ is, that tiny organ will determine whether you fit in as a singer or not and my final conclusion is that she fits in.

Overall, this track is definitely worth giving a chance, and I can’t wait for the record to drop to see what else this new era of Linkin Park will bring to the table.