ALBUM REVIEW: FROM ZERO, The New Record By Linkin Park
Linkin Park are back with music; their 8th studio album is released on Friday, November 15th, and it’s a full length album with 11 new songs. The new singer Emily Armstrong is ‘replacing’ Chester Bennington, who sadly passed away in 2017. 7 years after his death, the band decide to go through with the legacy of Linkin Park and put out a new record called From Zero.
From Zero contains 10 songs and an intro, such as ‘The Emptiness Machine’, ‘Heavy Is The Crown’, ‘Over Each Other’, and ‘Two Faced’. Even though I had to get used to the voice of the new singer at first, she sounds fantastic and made the album really feel like a Linkin Park album from the 00s again.
First single
The new album From Zero was announced during the first show Linkin Park played since October 27th. They opened the show on the 6th of September with their new single called The Emptiness Machine which was an introduction to the new singer of the band. The song starts off quietly with Mike singing, and before halfway through the song, Emily drops in; this is the first time we hear her voice for Linkin Park. She sings the chorus with lots of power in her voice; this song feels like a classic Linkin Park song with heavy guitars, lots of power, and uptempo.
Second single
The second single, Heavy Is The Crown, was released on the 24th of September. This song was made as a song for the 2024 League of Legends World Championship and is also appearing on the Netflix series Arcane. This is a song that contains the nu metal sound from Linkin Park and also has Mike rapping on it again. The 16-second long scream Emily has without taking a breath on the song, which is a super unique thing to be able to do, gives many fans the idea of Given Up where Chester had a 17-second long scream. The first time this song was performed live was in the Barclays Arena in Hamburg, Germany, on the 22nd of September. This was played before releasing it, which left many fans surprised when Emily did the scream live in the stadium.
Third Single
On the 24th of October, we got another single called Over Each Other; this was a much calmer song than the last 2 songs they’ve released. While it still contains some heavy guitar, the tempo is calmer, and it has a more sad vibe than the other singles. I do need to say that Emily’s voice fits the song very well, and it’s a pleasure to listen to when you have it on.
Final single
On the 13th of November, Linkin Park decided to drop the last single before the album release; it’s called Two Faced, and it starts off with the same sound you hear in Numb, we hear this before going into the part where the guitar drops in. The verses are rapped by Mike while the chorus is sung by Emily. This song sounds like the nu metal sound Linkin Park is known for; the sound of heavy guitars, good rhythm, and uptempo make it sound like a 00s Linkin Park song.
First part of the album
We start off with an intro of the album where we hear a voice say, “From zero. Like, from nothing.” Which indicates that this is a new start for Linkin Park with a new album. This intro leads into the first full song called ‘The Emptiness Machine.’ This sets the tone of the album and gives us the memo that Linkin Park are back. With the new vocalist Emily Armstrong and the new drummer Colin Brittain, the new era of Linkin Park has started, but with the same alternative/hard rock sound you know Linkin Park from. The next song on the album is called ‘Cut the Bridge’. This is a very catchy song with the catchphrase, “Cut it down, cut it down, down, cut it, cut it down.” This part of the song makes it catchy and something everyone can sing along to. This song is not as heavy as you are used to from Linkin Park, but the song still is an uptempo song with a nice drum beat that you can jump to when listening to the song. This is also the first time on this album that we hear Mike rapping again; this will come back more often throughout the rest of the album. To close off the first part of the album, we end with ‘Causality,’ a song where we jump in and we hear Emily putting on her screamy pants; we hear her throw out a very loud scream at the start of the song. After the intro we get into a heavy sound, with a heavy guitar riff played by Brad Delson; this is more of a metal song with Emily screaming and the drums being uptempo in the chorus and Mike rapping the verses in more of a screaming style, with a lot of power in his voice.
The second half of the album
We start off the second half of the album with ‘Overflow.’ This song starts off very calming; the tempo is a bit slower in this song, and the vocals of Mike and Emily are a lot calmer than in the other songs of the album. The song stays calm until the last part of the song, where the song gets a rougher and darker ending, with Emily screaming the song title. This shows the various qualities that Linkin Park possess as a band. After Two Faced, we move into ‘Stained’; this is a song that leans more towards the alt-rock side of music. With slightly less heavy guitars and a slightly calmer drum rhythm and slower tempo, it provides a more rock sound instead of the nu-metal. Nevertheless, this song still has a lot of power and emotions provided to it. The next song on the album is ‘IGYEIH’. This song is called IGYEIH, which is the abbreviation for I give you everything I have. We immediately hear this at the start of the song by Emily screaming, “I give you everything I have.” Followed by nice rough guitars and a nice drum rhythm, which makes you immediately interested in the rest of the song. It’s a nice and catchy song that’s almost entirely sung by Emily, except for a small part in the pre-chorus. After a small break, the song ends with Emily screaming, “From now on, I don’t need you.” This song is a powerful song, which is definitely worth listening to once, because it is also musically very well put together with Joe Hahn behind the record player, which can be heard clearly in this song but also in other songs. The last song on the album is called ‘Good Things Go.’ This is a perfect album closer because the song is about good things coming to an end, just like this album that ends after this song. It’s a very calm song and an emotional song. It is the last song of the album and therefore the closing song of the band’s first album after 7 years and the first album together with Emily. The instrumental of this song is a perfect ending for a good album with different genres in it because it is a kind of symphony that comes together in one. Sung with a lot of emotion, we say goodbye to this album and the first album of the new Linkin Park era.
Conclusion
This was the first album in 7 years, and what an amazing album Linkin Park have put out once again. The different genres of Linkin Park were clearly audible, and the new vocalist did an amazing job, even though it takes some time getting used to for people to hear Linkin Park without Chester singing. In conclusion, we can say that Linkin Park have started their new adventure with Emily Armstrong very well with this new album, and I can’t wait for the world tour to start and see what kind of music they’ll start to make in the future. In conclusion, I would definitely recommend everyone listen to this album at least once, because it really gives you the Linkin Park feeling even though Chester is no longer the singer of the band.
