Let me start off by saying I’ve been a huge fan of Linkin Park since day one basically. When they released their first single I was still living in Houston, TX at the time. Houston is a city that’s big on music and not just country music as a lot of people seem to think. As the single One Step Closer started getting air play, it was getting a ton of it on stations like 94.5 The Buzz there in Houston, so I had no choice but to hear it as that’s the station I was listening to mostly at the time.
I instantly fell in love with the tones, the beats, the sounds and just the over all energy of the song and the band. I was hooked and have been ever since. There was just something very catching about Chester Bennington’s voice that still resonates with me today, even seven years after his passing.
When Chester passed away, that hit hard with me. It was actually one famous person passing that affected me more than I thought it would. Not in terms of mental or emotional to where I was suffering from mental health issues or anything similar, just the fact that he was such an amazing singer and artist and knowing that we’d never hear anything else from him again. And of course not knowing if we’d ever hear anything new from Linkin Park themselves which again was tough since I loved their music so much.
Let’s fast forward seven years after Chester’s passing and to the news that we got on Thursday, September 5th, 2024 with regards to Linkin Park officially being back together and announcing a new singer, and let’s not forget, a new drummer too. It was news that had been rumored for a while that LP would be announcing a female singer, but then also there were rumors of other singers too that were male. Nobody really knew who it was going to be or even when.
Then comes the countdown event on their YouTube that ended up being kind of nothing more than announcing a date of September 5th. A date I quickly got excited for, but wasn’t sure what to expect.
I then had a friend in a Discord server post a link that Linkin Park had just announce Emily Armstrong of Dead Sara as their new lead singer. I was instantly shocked, mind blown and many other things. Why you ask? Mainly because I have listened to a bit of Dead Sara so I was familiar with Emily and her sound. I was instantly hyped to hear her do some old Linkin Park songs to see how she could handle it. Little did I know at that exact moment, but LP was doing a 15 song show to introduce her and Colin Brittain, who was the new drummer replacing Rob Bourdon. I instantly tuned in, which you can go back and watch here if you’d like.
Listening in and the instant Emily sang her first note, I knew this was the one who belonged in Linkin Park at this time. Not someone to replace Chester of course, as Chester can’t and never will be replaced. That’s not what the band wants or desires to do. Instead, this is simply a new chapter for them. Linkin Park 2.0 if you will. Someone to do the best they can possibly do to fill his shoes and carry on the legacy in his name, in LP’s name and hopefully make Chester proud. I personally feel Emily can and will do all of these things and she’s going to do it with ease.
So let’s talk about Emily herself and why I feel she’s going to be the perfect fit for Linkin Park going forward. First and foremost, she can sing and she can do so damn well. She has a beautiful voice when she sings. Plus like Chester himself, she’s what they call a scream singer. Again, like when she sings, she can scream and make it sound so good and she does it with little to no effort. She pours all of her emotions into both her singing and her screaming, and that is something very important.
For me, while the acoustics at the From Zero live event weren’t the best, Emily and the band did really well together. They looked natural and as if they had been doing this for years. Which oddly enough, they have been working together off and on for a bit over 5 years now. With what they had to work with in the setting they were in, Emily sounded good. You can really see and hear her range from singing softly to screaming those parts within songs that Chester did for nearly 20 years.
Let’s not forget that the very first song was actually a brand new song, The Emptiness Machine, that will be included on the upcoming From Zero album that will be released on November 15th, 2024.
The new song sounded really good. What was even better was, LP had announced that the new single and video for that single would be available publicly right after the show via their official YouTube. This is where Emily’s true talent was really shown in my opinion. Have a studio recorded song and video without all the crazy, silly, not so good acoustics of a live show really showcases what she can do both while singing and screaming. While there’s not a lot of screaming on The Emptiness Machine, at least not like former Linkin Park is concerned, she does show off a bit of her scream talent and I’m here for it.
It’s going to be interesting to see if the fans accept her or not. LP has a very large fan base as we all know and I’ll be curious to see if the larger part of them accepts her or rejects her for whatever reason.
There are sadly already people giving her a tough time for her religious preference which is Scientology. Not sure why these people feel it’s necessary to give her a hard time about this, when they themselves have their own religion that others don’t like or feel do a lot of bad things. To me personally, I don’t care what religion she chooses to embrace. That’s up to her and her alone. That’s not for me to judge and I don’t feel others should judge anyone else, especially when they themselves make mistakes or have different religious or political beliefs. But that’s a completely different post from what this is all about.
So what does the future hold for Linkin Park? Obviously nobody knows that and doubtful that we will have any kind of clue for a while yet. The band are certainly optimistic and hoping that they continue down the road of success just as they did originally with the original line up that included Chester before he passed away. I’m hoping that happens and I feel they have a great chance of making it happen as I firmly believe Emily is a great addition and one that can help lead down that path.
I’m certainly curious to hear your thoughts about the new Linkin Park with Emily Armstrong. What do you think about her voice? Do you feel she’s the right choice or fit for Linkin Park going forward? Do you feel that after seven years it’s the right time for LP to now move forward and do new stuff without Chester? I’d love to hear what you have to say and what you feel with regards to all of this as well as your thoughts on the new song The Emptiness Machine and if you’re excited about the new album, From Zero, or not.
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