It is not about erasing the past,” Mike Shinoda told the audience at the LA Forum last week, during Linkin Park’s first public show in seven years, “it is about starting this new chapter into the future.” It’s a chapter that was always going to be subject to scrutiny – the long-awaited return of arguably the most loved millennial rap rock band. A group whose 2000 debut Hybrid Theory sold 32 million copies and helped define the nu metal era, but who tragically lost their singer Chester Bennington to suicide in 2017. Already, though, this new plotline seems drawn from a dark and turbulent courtroom drama.
Heard on hits such as “In the End” and “Numb”, Bennington’s anguished rap-rock lyricism and persona, often coloured by his experiences of childhood abuse, depression, and addiction, were definitive cornerstones of the band for many fans. Replacing him was always going to be a bumpy process, as it is with any charismatic frontperson; Queen, for example, never really stood a chance.
According to the band, who had trialled working with several singers in the years since Bennington’s death, Armstrong is the perfect fit for his formidable sneakers. Having first auditioned over three days in 2019, she finally clicked during recordings last year and is now taking some of Bennington’s original parts on older songs on tour. “When I started to hear Emily’s voice on things, it was like the first time that my brain would accept it as a Linkin Park song,” Shinoda said. For the band’s DJ Joe Hahn, it was Armstrong’s signature guttural scream that sealed the deal: “That did it.”
Critics and fans initially welcomed her arrival.Reviewing the comeback single “The Emptiness Machine”, the first new Linkin Park material to feature Armstrong, New York Times critic Jon Parales noted that she “shares Bennington’s facility in pivoting between melodic belting and throat-shredding screams”, while fans on Reddit described Armstrong’s addition as “a worthy reboot” and “the best step they could have taken”.
Leave a Reply