Linkin Park – From Zero Album Review

18th November 2024 0 By Laura Jane

It’s been 7 years since the passing of Chester Bennington (July 20, 2017) and the band has finally returned with a brand new album and a slightly different lineup and welcome Emily Armstrong (former vocalist of Dead Sara) as their new co-vocalist alongside Mike Shinoda and new drummer Colin Brittain replacing former Rob Bourdon. The welcoming of new vocalist Emily received both positive and negative feedback from the fans, some people adoring the new addition to the band others feeling that it wasn’t a good fit and it was disrespectful towards the legacy of Chester Bennington.

My opinion on it, remaining slightly neutral is I can see the opinions being valid from both sides. I believe that the choice was great for the band however, I do believe they should have possibly renamed and left “Linkin Park” in the past and moved forward with a new, fresh project. I’m not here to write about my opinions on the lineup change or if I feel it was a step in the right direction so I won’t go into to much depths about that as after all, this review is about the new album “From Zero” not the current line up of the band.

On first listening to the album “From Zero” it is a very similar take on the good ol’ nostalgia sound of Linkin Park with new vocals thrown in the mix. I don’t think the album has achieved “bad” standards but for me, it just didn’t hit the spot. I’ve tried to approach this review with an open mind and remove any correlation between OG Linkin Park and what is the current Linkin Park, but I still just couldn’t gel with it. I know I know, it’s not the same “band” to be judged against the old albums such as “Hybrid Theory” and “Meteora” but we’re judging this collectively as a “band” and “new album”.

Tracks on the album which stood out to me were “The Emptiness Machine“, “Heavy Is The Crown” (Both of which had were released prior to the album release), “Two Faced” and “IGYEIH”. I feel that these were strong tracks that should be highlighted on the album as great tracks, the other tracks on the album however lack (I feel) much substance and don’t quite do it for me. That means from the 11-track album only 4 were notable, that’s not even 50% were appealing.

Overall, I feel that album could and will only get an ‘okay’ reason why? Simple. I feel that it’s not the same (I hear you barking, yeah it’s not. It’s not got Chester… but honestly, no that’s not the reason) although it has nostalgic throwbacks in some elements, in general, you could remove the name “Linkin Park” and replace it with any band name and it would be passable as something new and you could not really identify this as “Hey this is the new album from Linkin Park” without having knowledge of their new releases. Now, I know that might make 0 sense as bands’ sounds change, the lineups change, etc etc but this album just feels completely off-brand and not in a good way.

I’d rate this album 6/10 and that’s only just scrapping to a 6. I enjoyed some parts, loathed some, and just generally really fucking hate some, some tracks on this album I wouldn’t piss on if they were on fire if they were human beings. I feel this album will always be up for interpretation of both negative and positive and unfortunately the main factor that will set them apart is the view on the change in line up not the album musically, which is a shame but it is what it is. When a frontman that was the driving legacy of a band is ‘replaced’ it’s what is going to cause that divide. I do hope if you listen to this album you do not let this be a factor in your decision of how you find the album to listen too. All in all the band shows their ability to adapt, change, and move forward from a musical stance but under the premise of “Linkin Park,” I just don’t see it being something that was enjoyable for me, personally.

Score 6/10