On FROM ZERO, Linkin Park Start Again

aka let's appreciate awesomeness while we still have it

If you close your eyes and listen to even just a snippet of almost any track off Linkin Park’s From Zero—which dropped last week!—but were told it was a song by some up-and-coming poppish rockish band instead of Linkin Park, the math would math in your head. I guarantee it. Don’t deny that it wouldn’t. Shut up when I’m talking to you, I should say.

Now, for me, saying something like that is a well-earned compliment to the band’s willingness to evolve but simultaneously give people that classic Linkin Park sound they so desperately crave. Which we’ll get to. But since From Zero was announced I’ve seen an inordinate amount of complaining from Linkin Park diehards. Oh, how they love whining on Twitter (I refuse to call it X) about how “this isn’t Linkin Park,” and complaining in the comments sections of live show snippets posted to the band’s official Instagram page about how “[they] miss the old Linkin Park”.

It’s not like you can’t sympathize. Those fans grew up listening to the band a certain way during a certain time in their life, and for them there’s just something about those nostalgia-tinged days listening to, say, 2007’s Minutes to Midnight, and so nothing could ever possibly measure up to that. The passage of time means we’re never getting a Meteora Part II (though we did get a six (6!) disc 20th anniversary edition of it last year.) And how many bands with regular rotation on rock and alternative radio, or key placements on Spotify playlists, have long overstayed their welcome and put out rehash record after sellout joint that end up being mere drops in the musical ocean? Or, even worse, an easy means of selling concert tickets?

But here’s the thing: From Zero isn’t bad. Like, it’s the best thing they’ve made in fifteen years. But some people just cannot get over how a woman is singing lead vocals now. They can’t get used to Emily Armstrong. They miss Chester Bennington.

I miss Chester too. I must’ve been thirteen when he died. One of the first, if not the first celebrity death I can remember hitting me like a truck. That and Robin Williams. I was the classic case of being a kid who found their music during That Time™️ when no one understands you and everything is annoying, and so you turn to the angry, angsty bangers on the skipless Hybrid Theory to get your feelings out. That was likely the first “heavy” album I loved. It had the catchiest melodies, the punchiest drums, the perfect amount of screaming. And From Zero isn’t anywhere near an abandonment of that formula.

I am not so much reviewing this thing so much as I am happily acknowledging its existence. It is good enough that I wanted to write about it, okay?! Even tfhough “Cut the Bridge” is a “Bleed It Out” redux, and “Two-Faced” borrows a little too much from “One Step Closer,” and that the album’s sequencing is strange, making the experimentation on songs like “Overflow” feel unnecessary when the rest of the album rips as hard as it does. But it’s their first album with Armstrong, so let’s cut them some slack. Those more introspective songs will get better with time as she continues to gel with Mike Shinoda and co. I know they have a “Shadow of the Day”-esque classic in them. People have been saying that “Good Things Go,” the record’s last song, already is that classic, but I found it too generic to warrant a mention.

But yes. If you are looking for memorable choruses designed to roar through Marshall amps that are themselves pointed toward stadium audiences, you get plenty of that on From Zero. Other radio-ready veteran rock bands do the same thing, but Linkin Park sound like they’re actually trying, goddamnit. And those little interludes of studio chatter interspersed throughout sure make it sound like they’re having fun again.

They also did an excellent job picking singles in a nuanced way. “The Emptiness Machine” is the big, surprising “we’re back” statement no one expected, reeling you in by having Shinoda take the first verse and chorus before Armstrong enters. “Heavy is the Crown” is the band saying “we’re back… like we never left.” After everyone called them sellouts when they put out One More Light, their last album with Chester, it feels sick to finally hear them go off as only they can. It’s true that Shinoda’s lyrics feel ripped straight out of the eighth grade diary I maintained for maybe two weeks, but what else did you expect from him? The more unexpected thing is how good he sounds. He’s got serious chemistry with Armstrong, he full-on screams his verses in “Casualty”—he’s completely reinvigorated, a man who’s found his purpose again.

And Armstrong was the perfect choice to lead Linkin Park into their second act. She’s not replacing Chester so much as carry on his legacy, breathe new life into the band. It would’ve sucked if they picked a male Chester-soundalike instead—the comparisons would never go away. But Armstrong’s got range and emotion and power for days. Listen to that scream on the aforementioned “Heavy is the Crown”. Every time I hear it I mutter a swear word under my breath.

Last night the band live-streamed the first six songs of their São Paulo show. Four classics and two new songs that blended right in with those classics. Brazil loves LP. They knew all the words to “The Emptiness Machine”. Par for the course when it comes to Brazilian crowds but I was still impressed. The reactions the band had to it were hearwarming as hell. And you could see Emily let out a sigh of relief after she nailed the opening chorus of “Crawling”. I can’t imagine the pressure she’s under to deliver for such a huge, passionate, worldwide fanbase. But she’s crushing it. The whole band is. What a wild and awesome thing it is to finally have them back in our lives again.