Linkin Park Band • Page 113

I listened to Minutes To Midnight on my way home from work today. It's the first time I've listened to a Linkin Park album since Chester died.

Was a real hard listen because the lyrics hit so different now, but it made me realize all over again just how much I miss this band and their music.

I know we'll never get to hear Chester again, but I hope one day we'll hear the rest of the band doing something. Too much of a great talent for it to vanish into the ether.

 

Probably something with the Meteora 20th anniversary if I had to guess.

 

Not to take away from talks of the band and Chester, but I always thought this was a good cover. Deryck does well singing Chester’s part and it’s nice to see Mike Shinoda happy

 

Yeah Deryck does that well. It's almost a crime to hear that song and not have the breakdown included though.

I hope Meteora gets the Hybrid Theory treatment with a lot of unreleased stuff. I know some of the LPUs have had Meteora demo instrumentals on it but I'm SURE there are some full fledge songs recorded out there in some form or another.

 

If memory serves, there's at least 3 full songs from Meteora that they've never released, plus the demos of songs that did come out (including a version of A.06 with vocals) and the remixes the band apparently did back when the album came out. Probably not enough for a bundle the size of HT's, but they could definitely put together something cool.

 

It's funny because I felt like No More Sorrow reminded me of a Sum 41 song.

 

not to change the subject, but i've thought a lot recently about what the future of LP holds, specifically thinking about hypothetical scenarios where they made more music without Chester. what would this ideally look like? i'm not sure i'd be down for Mike handling all vocal duties, so either another joins or someone else picks up Chester's share of vocals. sonically, where could they potentially go? thinking back to all of their previous material, i'm not sure if the sonic niche they filled is as prominent in 2022/2023, but i honestly don't know what direction they'd go in.

 

I'd love an album with Mike on vocals honestly. always loved his voice, and trying to find someone to take Chester's place just seems like not a good idea

 

The problem is if they choose to continue as Linkin Park, then to perform all those songs, they'll need someone other than just Mike.

Which they could absolutely do. I have no doubt that there are vocalists out there deserving of a shot who could hypothetically take the reins.

 

I don’t see them continuing on at all. Maybe a few one-off shows with special guests. But nothing consistent.

 

i'm just glad i got to see them at least once with chester

 

Mike had said on an interview a couple years ago that they'd already decided they wouldn't add another vocalist of they decided to continue as a band.

 

I've been saying the whole time that if they continue it should be with Mike as lead vocalist with a smattering of guest/featured vocalists on record and special guest vocalists on tour. No permanent Chester replacement.

 

They can do whatever they want, but at this point it seems like just keeping the same members and a new band name is the best possible choice

 

I still think a 5-piece Linkin Park would work.

No reason why they need a new full time vocalist, and no reason why that reinvented version of the band couldn’t still be called “Linkin Park.” Their return single and return tour would both absolutely be huge. A new album plus reinvented songs that can fit the new band format would be a sufficient set list, and then they could occasionally break out other songs depending on their openers’ vocalists (without becoming a karaoke band).

But, yeah, it’s obviously ultimately up to what (if anything) feels right to the actual people in the band.

 

The only reason I disagree with this is because quite a lot of their songs rely on screaming vocals that I can only assume Mike cannot pull off, seeing as how he's never attempted.

Unless you're suggesting excising that part of their sound completely, in which case I think it then ceases to be Linkin Park. Linkin Park, while they are all over the place in sound, do have aggression at their core, and that's what draws a lot of people to their music. To get rid of that loses part of the band's identity.

You can't just "occasionally" break out Crawling, for example.

 

I mean… you can, lol. Like you said, their sound has been a lot of things over the years. If they carried on with a blend of rock, pop, electronic, rap, and even heavy parts that don’t have those screams, it’d still be the same band.

Claiming otherwise feels like a real throwback to late 00s “scene” fandom debates, imo.

 

I don't really care what it feels like, but I'm pretty sure that making a setlist that excises any screaming parts like that will cut out quite a lot of their bigger hits, including most of Hybrid Theory.

 

i can picture mike screaming to a few of chester’s vocals, but those songs would be very few and far between.

example: have the crowd do the screaming during the OSC bridge.

 

Honestly maybe outside of some special reunion stuff it just doesn't sound like any of them have a huge desire to tour anymore.

 

If they want to continue under LP with just Mike as a vocalist, I’d imagine their set list would consist of mainly new songs with some reworked / reimagined classics.

 

I don't really want to keep dwelling on this, because it's an imaginary argument for a future that may or may not exist at this point.

Switching gears, one thing that has struck me is that there haven't really been a lot of bands that have tried to recapture Linkin Park's formula that I'm aware of, which kind of surprises me.

I mean, there was Dry Cell, who never even got to put out their first album officially before breaking up. And then there was Dangerkids, who kind of mashed the style with metalcore.

I dunno, there are rap-rock bands, certainly. From Ashes To New comes to mind. And the band Red always gave me a strong LP vibe, but with orchestral music instead of electronics.

I guess what I mean is clearly LP had an influence on a lot of bands, but I'm hard pressed to think of any band that's actively tried to follow in their footsteps.

 

That's a fair point, they really do stand alone in a way a lot of other artists don't

 

That's basically what they had been doing since 2011 lol

 

Setlist.fm says otherwise, but okay.