On September 5, 2024, Linkin Park released their track ‘The Emptiness Machine’ with their new vocalist Emily Armstrong. Fans weren’t expecting a return, as after Chester Bennington died in 2017, the band did not release any music recorded after his passing. The return has gathered some attention, both positively and negatively. Last month, the band released their first album with Armstrong, ‘From Zero’, a title referencing that this is a new start for the band—their first album without Bennington.
The Album
The album starts with a short intro, as most albums do. The first track, ‘The Emptiness Machine’ has a sound reminiscent of earlier albums from the band. This is mostly due to the breakdown at the end. The song is overall a good introduction to Armstrong’s vocals. She sounds like a female version of Bennington at some times. The second track, ‘Cut the Bridge’ is a small dive from what the album opened up with. Mike Shinoda’s rapping on the track doesn’t do him justice for his first attempt at it on the album. It just doesn’t fit right on the song. The chorus isn’t particularly good either. It sounds more like a My Chemical Romance song than Linkin Park.
The third track, ‘Heavy is the Crown’ feels like a warped cover of the song ‘Faint’ on their album ‘Meteora’ with some elements of pop music thrown in, like the distant muffling of Shinoda’s voice on the pre-chorus. The most unique part of the song has to be that element. It isn’t a bad song, but it isn’t exactly anything new and exciting that fans would listen to over the song it sounds like. Like any Linkin Park song, the instrumentals of the songs are great. For most of the music on this album, it’s up to the vocals to bring the songs together.
‘Over Each Other’ is the next song on the album, and it’s something new. This song lets Armstrong show off her vocals and successfully proves she’s not a replacement for Bennington, but the start of a new era for the band. ‘Casualty’ however, is the complete opposite. Armstrong can let out a good scream, but an entire song of her screams just does not work. Shinoda’s screaming abilities aren’t very good either. ‘Overflow’ is a much softer and better song. The intensity increases near the end of the song, but it’s much softer than ‘Casualty’. It feels boring in the beginning for a Linkin Park song, but the softness feels like the perfect way to balance the album out after the last track. These three songs are up and down, in quality and tone.
‘Two Faced’ really brings the energy after ‘Overflow’. Mike’s rapping fits this song and reminds you that this is a Linkin Park album. This song is like a culmination of a bunch of older songs, so it doesn’t give the same repackaging feeling that ‘Heavy is the Crown’ does. ‘Stained’ feels like a song you would hear on pop radio. That doesn’t make it bad by any means, and it reminds you that the album isn’t simply an old dog sticking to old tricks after the last song. There isn’t much to say about it, as it all feels like something you might hear playing on mall speakers. None of those songs are ever ‘bad’, they just have a corny feeling to them as with this song.
The next song, ‘IGYEIH’ has the heaviness return to the table. The lyrics feel too long for the song, as you can hear Emily trying to fit the words into the instrumental often. Ignoring that fact the song sounds pretty good. The last song on this album is ‘Good Things Go’, which is another song with a pop music feel. This feels like the right song to end the album with. Mike has some rapping on this song, which isn’t anything very impressive. Armstrong’s vocals are just as good as they were on most of the less heavy songs. It isn’t anything very interesting to listen to.
Closing Thoughts
This album isn’t anything very new, to say the least. The production is good but for Linkin Park, it has always been good. It doesn’t feel like they’ve tried anything new musically and go for the same old feel. When the songs are heavy, you can hear the same chords you would in older songs. When the songs are soft, it doesn’t sound interesting and reminds you of any old pop song. Emily Armstrong could be the next big pop star if she wanted to, as she’s a good singer and works well with different sounds. There isn’t anything bad to say about her, but the music itself is very bland. Linkin Park has always been known for their unique sound and style, but to return after seven years with almost nothing new is not a good look. On a 1-10 scale, I give this album a 6.
