{"id":99125,"date":"2024-09-05T18:04:06","date_gmt":"2024-09-05T22:04:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/2024\/09\/05\/inside-linkin-parks-secret-comeback\/"},"modified":"2024-09-05T18:04:06","modified_gmt":"2024-09-05T22:04:06","slug":"inside-linkin-parks-secret-comeback","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/2024\/09\/05\/inside-linkin-parks-secret-comeback\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside Linkin Park\u2019s Secret\u00a0Comeback"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n\tI don\u2019t know if this is going to work,\u201d<\/strong> Mike Shinoda told his Linkin Park<\/a> bandmates one day in the studio last year. They were recording the vocals for a wall-rattling thrasher, and Shinoda, the band\u2019s co-lead vocalist and main producer, wanted his voice to match the pummeling production \u2014 so he tried something a little different. When he opened his mouth, he let loose with rare ferocity: After years of singing, rapping and harmonizing, Shinoda emitted a full-blooded scream.<\/p>\n

\n\tMonths later, Shinoda downplays the sound he makes on the track. \u201cIs<\/em> it a scream, though? Is it?\u201d the 47-year-old asks, mischievous grin widening. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of an awkward yell.\u201d He leans back on a couch in the lounge of Los Angeles\u2019 EastWest Studios, where Linkin Park recorded part of the new album that track would ultimately appear on; bassist Dave Farrell is sitting next to him, and recalls commanding Shinoda to \u201cpush more\u201d after hearing him wail in the booth. \u201cI don\u2019t think I\u2019m capable of doing more than that,\u201d says Shinoda \u2014 then he looks across the couch, toward Emily Armstrong. \u201cMy voice isn\u2019t built like Emily\u2019s voice,\u201d Shinoda adds. Armstrong, a seasoned scream-singer, subtly nods and replies, \u201cI got you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSeven years after Linkin Park pressed pause following the death of singer Chester Bennington, one of the biggest rock groups of the 21st century is roaring back \u2014 with a new lineup, album, tour and collective outlook. The band announced Sept. 5 that Armstrong, the veteran leader of power-rock hell-raisers Dead Sara, would be Shinoda\u2019s new co-vocalist, while studio polymath Colin Brittain (Sueco, All Time Low) would sign on as drummer and co-producer.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tLinkin Park Biography \u2018It Starts With One\u2019 On the Way From Billboard Executive Director of Music\u2026\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3><\/div>\n

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\n\tWith Armstrong and Brittain on board \u2014 as well as original members Shinoda, Farrell, guitarist\/co-producer Brad Delson and DJ\/visual director Joe Hahn \u2014 Linkin Park will release From Zero<\/em>, its eighth studio album, on Nov. 15 through longtime label Warner Records. The band will also play six arena shows across four continents this fall before \u201ctouring heavily\u201d in 2025, according to Shinoda.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd with a two-decade catalog of hard-rock hits \u2014 as well as plenty of fresh material \u2014 to bring back to live audiences globally, the band is aiming for stadiums next year. Linkin Park\u2019s new agency, WME, expects sky-high ticket demand for a band that has grossed over $120 million during its career, according to Billboard Boxscore. \u201cLinkin Park is one of the biggest touring rock bands of our time,\u201d says John Marx, partner and agent at WME, which the band quietly joined earlier this year. \u201cThe excitement their fans will have, being able to see and celebrate them after seven years, will be massive.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLinkin Park planned this new era \u2014 including the arena shows that will kick off Sept. 11 with a hometown show at the Kia Forum in L.A. \u2014 in total secrecy, with abstract rumors swirling across the Linkin Park fan sphere as the band once again became active, hammered out new songs and rehearsed. Months of outside speculation was followed by a week-and-a-half of band-sanctioned teasers \u2014 all leading to this week, when Linkin Park announced Armstrong and Brittain as new additions, launched a global performance livestream and released the hard-charging anthem \u201cThe Emptiness Machine\u201d as From Zero<\/em>\u2019s lead single.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAn immense amount of thought and care go into everything the band does,\u201d says Ryan DeMarti, the band\u2019s longtime manager (alongside Bill Silva and Trish Evangelista) at Machine Shop Entertainment. \u201cI feel the utmost confidence that commitment shines through in every social media post, every press release, every liner note.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tUnderstandably, Linkin Park is starting its next chapter with heightened sensitivity, as the first band project since Bennington\u2019s tragic death in 2017. Following a tribute concert featuring dozens of special-guest vocalists that October, Linkin Park\u2019s members went their separate ways: Shinoda released the contemplative solo album Post Traumatic<\/em> in 2018, then toured the world to commune with grieving fans, while Delson, Farrell, Hahn and drummer Rob Bourdon (who isn\u2019t returning for this new era) largely stopped making music.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs the members reconvened for 20th-anniversary rereleases of their multiplatinum first two albums (2000\u2019s Hybrid Theory<\/em> and 2003\u2019s Meteora<\/em>), as well as this year\u2019s greatest-hits album, Papercuts<\/em>, the future of the band remained uncertain. What could a version of Linkin Park without Bennington\u2019s fragile scream sound like?<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cPart of working under darkness was simply the fact that we didn\u2019t know how far we would get in our efforts,\u201d Hahn explains. \u201cWe didn\u2019t want to set ourselves or anyone else up for disappointment if we weren\u2019t able to do it. This has been years of struggling to understand what it can and should be.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThere is plenty of historical precedent for mega-selling rock acts reinventing themselves following the death of an iconic frontman: Think Queen with Adam Lambert, Alice in Chains with William DuVall or Sublime with Bradley Nowell\u2019s son, Jakob. If Linkin Park simply re-formed as a live act \u2014 with a new vocalist re-creating Bennington\u2019s parts on hits like \u201cIn the End,\u201d \u201cNumb\u201d and \u201cOne Step Closer\u201d \u2014 it\u2019d be able to book sizable venues. The band\u2019s numbers have been, and remain, huge: 22.7 million combined copies of the group\u2019s seven studio albums sold in the United States to date, according to Luminate, with millions of monthly streams seven years after the band\u2019s last activity and most recent album. And early last year, \u201cLost,\u201d an unearthed single released as part of the Meteora<\/em> reissue, cracked the top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100<\/a> and became Linkin Park\u2019s longest-leading Alternative Airplay<\/a> No. 1 in more than a decade, demonstrating the continued appeal of the band\u2019s classic sound.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe importance of their deep musical catalog cannot be overstated,\u201d says Tom Corson, Warner Records\u2019 co-chairman\/COO. \u201cLinkin Park\u2019s songs are timeless \u2014 they\u2019ve become part of the cultural fabric, and we actively promote and market their music, whether it\u2019s of the past, the present or the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

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