Surprised there isn't a more recent thread for them, but whatevs. Anyway, they used to be one of my favorite bands up to Meteora, but haven't really interested me since the release of Minutes to Midnight, mostly being hit or miss in the past few years. Their newest album, The Hunting Party, is about to release tomorrow (June 13, 2014,) and it might be the first time I've anticipated a Linkin Park album in more than 6 years. Every song I've heard so far (Guilty All the Same, Until It's Gone, Rebellion) have all been...really good, at least to me. It's been both a mixture of their older, more personal style, and their newer, somewhat cleaner(?) sound, without coming off as dull, annoying, or other-band-esque...if that makes sense. I'm gonna stream the full album soon. Does anyone else have thoughts on the new album?
I am loving the album art but I haven't heard anything of theirs for a while, I may give it a listen because I do love the band, I loved their older stuff and I loved their newer style, it would be interesting to see both combined and hopefully can up their game again. I will have to give them a listen when I can : D
Minutes to Midnight wasn't very good. I didn't even listen to their album after that but Living Things was actually pretty good. If Hunting Party is going to be bringing back some of their old sound with their latest...sound then I'll be (kind of) excited for it. I miss Linkin Park's heavier songs.
Just finished listening to The Hunting Party. My initial impressions. This could all change with more than one listen. On the whole, I don't care for it that much, but this may be because I like their newer stuff as well and didn't feel like a "return to formula" was needed from the band at all. People who liked old LP and have been dissatisfied with their newer stuff will probably like this more than I did. For me, there were only a few standout tracks and the others were entirely forgetable. I still don't care for Guilty All the Same. My favorite track is Wastelands, followed by (in no particular order) Rebellion (dat intro. most energetic lp riffs ever.), Final Masquerade (barring the incredibly dumb lyrics), and Mark the Graves. A Line in the Sand is okay but way longer than it needs to be. The instrumental track, Drawbar, is okay as well but only because there's so little in it there's not much to find fault with. I really dislike the production on this album. Guitars sound just awful. I've heard productions go for this raw sound that work, but this one just doesn't. For me. I may come to like it in time but right now I'm not loving it. edit: absolutely adore the album art. Though I have to wonder if they'll ever use a different color palette for a studio album. Always grays and whites with a touch of color here and there.
Minutes to Midnight and A Thousand Suns were both disappoints to me, even if MtM has my favorite song of all time on it, still was a disappointment as a whole. Living Things gave me faith in them again. I haven't listened to the new album, but being that they are my favorite band, I probably will go out and buy it before listening to it.
I'm that small percentage of the LP fanbase. Every album they put out, there had been at least 3-4 songs I loved from each one. Sure some lacked quality, especially their newer ones, but the new album was no exception. I found my songs that I really enjoyed. Also, I'm happy that they're slowly getting back to their older roots. TBH, I dare not turn on the radio >_>
I've bee seeing a lot of that from artists that have been really great in the past and get worse with time. For example: Paramore, Rascal Flatts, Carry Underwood, Taylor Swift, and so on. When ppl keep trying to make their sound match what "modern music" thinks it should sound like, it gets worse. For once, can't artist just stick to their roots, older artists who are still making music do, and ppl love their music still.
I"m one of the rare few (at least it feels like it) that loves the new direction Linkin Park has gone in. Do I miss their old stuff? Yeah, but I still love their newer stuff. However, The Hunting Party seems really lackluster for me. Not sure what it is. It kind of feels like they're deliberately trying to appeal to the fans who prefer their older stuff, but keeping their new sound and it...just fails. I don't know. I'm giving their album another listen to right now, hoping that after it sinks in, I'll love it, but right now, it's just meh.
I am agreed with this, I liked their old stuff but actually preferred their newer stuff (Wretches and Kings anyone?). I gave the album a listen and got through most of it but none of the songs stood out to me as something I would listen to again and again and have on my iPod which is a shame because I do like the band. I don't know if it was just me but I found this album to be heavier than their previous stuff which I didn't really like.
So I finally took the time to listen to this album and it surprised me how wrong you guys were with attempting to place the sound of this album. It's not a callback to their older stuff. Their older stuff depended heavily on riffs whereas this album follows more or less a similar formula to Living Things. The only difference is that it's heavier...and the writing on a whole seems to be weaker than Living Things. Nothing about this album screamed (irony?) "old Linkin Park" to me. That's not a bad thing but when it came to the heavier stuff...at least their older stuff was more memorable. All that being said, I still liked this album. Linkin Park may not be a band made up of virtuosos but they can still make something catchy.
I liked Living Things and the sounds that LP was going for. It seemed like a good balance between A Thousand Suns and Hunting Party. Most of the songs on Hunting Party in general seem very messy imo. My favourite songs on there would be Guilty All The Same, Until it's Gone and Final Masquerade. I also noticed they copied a bunch of things from Living Things. There's a part of A Line in The Sand that is the exact same as Until it Breaks from Living Things. Regardless, now listening to it, I think Hunting Party is a great album with nice songs, although some just sound very messy. I like the direction they took with it overall though.
It's pretty heartbreaking for me to revive this thread after the death of Chester. Ever since the day, the new album seemed to feel much sadder and meaningful than it normally did previously. Even on their Youtube channel, comments are flooding with mourning. Having a long history with this group, it hits hard. One of the few artists I actually bought a CD from. Their songs actually helped me get through some hard times back in middle school. It's safe to say without their songs, I might have been a very different person today. Nevertheless, I have great sorrow for the band and wonder what this could mean for the future of Linkin Park. It will be hard to replace a person like Chester.
Hard to honestly say this, but I don't think they should replace Chester. When a band usually replaces a lead singer, it's not that great, so I think they should just call it a day in respect of Chester. That said, it is heartbreaking what happened. While I used to make fun of LP, I've honestly seen in the past few years that their music is pretty good and why it has helped so many. Thanks for the music, Chester, we won't forget you! :)
