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Sound System: From Zero by Linkin Park
Feb. 9th, 2025 04:23 pmI have this tendency to sort of put off listening to bands' new releases, either intentionally avoiding them, or just not having enough interest in them to seek them out. I'm talking about bands that I've enjoyed and followed for a long time. And I'm not sure why I do that. In some cases I think it's because I don't hear super great things about the new songs, or I actually listen to the lead single and think "well, that's nothing special," and that kills my momentum for Consuming New Things. After all, it's easier to keep enjoying the old songs I've loved for years and not be disappointed by unimpressive new songs. Sometimes I'm happy with the new songs, such as with blink-182's One More Time..., and sometimes I'm generally underwhelmed, like with Sum 41's Heaven :x: Hell or Green Day's Saviors and Father of All Motherfuckers. (And honestly, the latter one there just kinda baffles me. What is up with that album?)
But I digress. My disinterest with new material from Linkin Park was a little different. For one thing, most of my affinity is stored in the band's first two albums (loooove those albums) and I haven't heard much of the more modern Linkin Park releases. And for another thing, well, one does tend to be skeptical about a band's new music after the passing of one of the most key members. I honestly figured there would never be new music produced by the band after what happened with Chester. I wouldn't have blamed them. But hey, they did it. And then outside interference made this situation a little weird.
The timeline is basically like this: Linkin Park released a new single with a new vocalist, Emily Armstrong, and also a new drummer, Colin Brittain, in September 2024; I heard questionable things about the new vocalist, which put me off; I saw something that might've debunked those questionable things, but by that point I wasn't very engaged with the whole deal so I said "meh" and didn't look any further into that or the new music; Linkin Park released a new album in November 2024 and I wasn't aware of it until early last week; I listened to the new album yesterday. I'm not going to say anything more on the topic of what may or may not be true about Emily Armstrong, because I don't care. I'm only here to talk about the music.
So, the album is called From Zero, which is a bit of a double-meaning from what I can tell. The first being pretty obvious: having to start over from rock bottom in the wake of losing Chester. The second meaning is actually referenced in the intro track, though the sentence is cut off. The first incarnation of the band, the group formed by three of Linkin Park's original members, was called Xero. Cool.
Bit of a rare case, in my experience, where the first half of the album feels weaker than the second half. It seems rather common to front-load the album with the big singles, the hits, and the more filler-type of stuff in the back half. I don't much enjoy the term "filler" when it comes to music, but I do have to say that some of the tracks on From Zero just don't hit me. They're fine, there's no bad songs here, but I found myself saying things like "this song is okay but it's not blowing me away" when I was taking notes for this review. The first real track on the record and lead single, "The Emptiness Machine," is a good example. S'fine. Doesn't hit like a lead single to me though. I can't recall if I actually listened to it before yesterday. One of the other singles, "Heavy is the Crown," does feel more like it, however. I know I heard it before this full album playthrough, because I saw the League of Legends video made with it. "Heavy is the Crown" is a very Linkin Park song: a distillation of the very functional structure and vibes of Linkin Park's music as a whole, I would say. If you were to listen to this album in a vacuum, like if you didn't know it was Linkin Park before pressing play, you would probably be able to know what band it was once that song came on, even with the new vocalist. Electronic hook over big guitar chords, drums you can bob your head to, rapped lyrics in the verses, anthemic shouted choruses. It works. (Emily Armstrong has a really long scream here too, I wonder if it was unedited. Shades of "Given Up.")
Some of the best times I have listening to these songs are when Mike Shinoda is rapping. I don't always have a big response to Armstrong's vocals— they're not bad by any means, and the woman can both scream and navigate nice melodies, so the basics of the Linkin Park package are covered and covered well— but when Mike flows, I nod along. All my favorite tracks from the record have Mike rapping in them, and these include "Overflow," "Two Faced," and "Good Things Go." And maybe I'm just a heavy music gremlin, but I pretty much always prefer the versions of the album's choruses with drums and other instrumentation over the quieter, drop-out versions. Surprisingly, the fastest and most aggressive song here, "Casualty," doesn't hit for me as much as others. In fact, "Overflow" right after it is more slow and mellow and feels more effective as a whole. "Two Faced" is an instant bop-along-in-your-chair song. As I said in my notes: "classic LP shit in the bridge, Mr. Hahn even!"
I was expecting at least one song to be clearly about Chester, but I actually didn't get the sense that any of the songs are about him. I don't object to this; Mike Shinoda put out some of his own songs about that (see his Post Traumatic EP) and I can understand not wanting to have the band's new material linger there. I wouldn't really even call any of the tracks on From Zero a ballad or anything. Probably the most emotional track is the closer, "Good Things Go," which changes the angle the rest of the album takes from an overt swing at someone else to a look inward and recognizing darkness within. The bridge and final chorus resonate the most, so the album ends in a good place.
Basically, this album alternates between the highs of that classic LP shit forged anew that made me want to replay, and the lows of "this is fine" that made me want to just listen to Hybrid Theory and Meteora instead. Maybe this is one of those things that takes time, and it'll grow on me? We'll see. But at least there are a handful of tracks I can happily add to my rotation.
And now, the obligatory lyrics-I-liked-enough-to-make-note-of portion of the review!
Stuck on repetitions that are only hypothetical. & Grew up thinking trying meant you never really lose. - "Cut the Bridge"
Waving that sword when the pen won't miss / watch it all falling apart like this. - "Heavy is the Crown"
Your truth's not rigid, your rules aren't fair / the dark's too vivid, the light's not there / I start to give in, but I can't bear / to put it all behind, I run into it blind like—" -"Two Faced"
Trying so hard to be sympathetic / but I know where it's gonna go if I let it / and I let it. - "Stained"
Fuck all your empathy, I want your fury 'cause I will just / tell you I'm better then, better then / spit out my medicine, medicine." - "Good Things Go"
But I digress. My disinterest with new material from Linkin Park was a little different. For one thing, most of my affinity is stored in the band's first two albums (loooove those albums) and I haven't heard much of the more modern Linkin Park releases. And for another thing, well, one does tend to be skeptical about a band's new music after the passing of one of the most key members. I honestly figured there would never be new music produced by the band after what happened with Chester. I wouldn't have blamed them. But hey, they did it. And then outside interference made this situation a little weird.
The timeline is basically like this: Linkin Park released a new single with a new vocalist, Emily Armstrong, and also a new drummer, Colin Brittain, in September 2024; I heard questionable things about the new vocalist, which put me off; I saw something that might've debunked those questionable things, but by that point I wasn't very engaged with the whole deal so I said "meh" and didn't look any further into that or the new music; Linkin Park released a new album in November 2024 and I wasn't aware of it until early last week; I listened to the new album yesterday. I'm not going to say anything more on the topic of what may or may not be true about Emily Armstrong, because I don't care. I'm only here to talk about the music.
[Click to read the rest.]
So, the album is called From Zero, which is a bit of a double-meaning from what I can tell. The first being pretty obvious: having to start over from rock bottom in the wake of losing Chester. The second meaning is actually referenced in the intro track, though the sentence is cut off. The first incarnation of the band, the group formed by three of Linkin Park's original members, was called Xero. Cool.
Bit of a rare case, in my experience, where the first half of the album feels weaker than the second half. It seems rather common to front-load the album with the big singles, the hits, and the more filler-type of stuff in the back half. I don't much enjoy the term "filler" when it comes to music, but I do have to say that some of the tracks on From Zero just don't hit me. They're fine, there's no bad songs here, but I found myself saying things like "this song is okay but it's not blowing me away" when I was taking notes for this review. The first real track on the record and lead single, "The Emptiness Machine," is a good example. S'fine. Doesn't hit like a lead single to me though. I can't recall if I actually listened to it before yesterday. One of the other singles, "Heavy is the Crown," does feel more like it, however. I know I heard it before this full album playthrough, because I saw the League of Legends video made with it. "Heavy is the Crown" is a very Linkin Park song: a distillation of the very functional structure and vibes of Linkin Park's music as a whole, I would say. If you were to listen to this album in a vacuum, like if you didn't know it was Linkin Park before pressing play, you would probably be able to know what band it was once that song came on, even with the new vocalist. Electronic hook over big guitar chords, drums you can bob your head to, rapped lyrics in the verses, anthemic shouted choruses. It works. (Emily Armstrong has a really long scream here too, I wonder if it was unedited. Shades of "Given Up.")
Some of the best times I have listening to these songs are when Mike Shinoda is rapping. I don't always have a big response to Armstrong's vocals— they're not bad by any means, and the woman can both scream and navigate nice melodies, so the basics of the Linkin Park package are covered and covered well— but when Mike flows, I nod along. All my favorite tracks from the record have Mike rapping in them, and these include "Overflow," "Two Faced," and "Good Things Go." And maybe I'm just a heavy music gremlin, but I pretty much always prefer the versions of the album's choruses with drums and other instrumentation over the quieter, drop-out versions. Surprisingly, the fastest and most aggressive song here, "Casualty," doesn't hit for me as much as others. In fact, "Overflow" right after it is more slow and mellow and feels more effective as a whole. "Two Faced" is an instant bop-along-in-your-chair song. As I said in my notes: "classic LP shit in the bridge, Mr. Hahn even!"
I was expecting at least one song to be clearly about Chester, but I actually didn't get the sense that any of the songs are about him. I don't object to this; Mike Shinoda put out some of his own songs about that (see his Post Traumatic EP) and I can understand not wanting to have the band's new material linger there. I wouldn't really even call any of the tracks on From Zero a ballad or anything. Probably the most emotional track is the closer, "Good Things Go," which changes the angle the rest of the album takes from an overt swing at someone else to a look inward and recognizing darkness within. The bridge and final chorus resonate the most, so the album ends in a good place.
Basically, this album alternates between the highs of that classic LP shit forged anew that made me want to replay, and the lows of "this is fine" that made me want to just listen to Hybrid Theory and Meteora instead. Maybe this is one of those things that takes time, and it'll grow on me? We'll see. But at least there are a handful of tracks I can happily add to my rotation.
And now, the obligatory lyrics-I-liked-enough-to-make-note-of portion of the review!
Stuck on repetitions that are only hypothetical. & Grew up thinking trying meant you never really lose. - "Cut the Bridge"
Waving that sword when the pen won't miss / watch it all falling apart like this. - "Heavy is the Crown"
Your truth's not rigid, your rules aren't fair / the dark's too vivid, the light's not there / I start to give in, but I can't bear / to put it all behind, I run into it blind like—" -"Two Faced"
Trying so hard to be sympathetic / but I know where it's gonna go if I let it / and I let it. - "Stained"
Fuck all your empathy, I want your fury 'cause I will just / tell you I'm better then, better then / spit out my medicine, medicine." - "Good Things Go"
