Let you cut me open just to watch me bleed
Give up who I am for who you wanted me to be
Don't know why I'm hopin' for what I won't receive
Fallin' for the promise of the emptiness machine
The emptiness machine
Listening to “From Zero” without knowing, or simply trying to ignore, the history of Linkin Park, and in particular the events of the last seven years, is a stimulating experience in its own way. If this were a true debut of a new band, perhaps with a simple name change to mark the discontinuity, it would be an album made of alt-metal, rap-rock and pop-rock ideas without much originality but with some successful hits high ranking and a lot of work, typical of the giants of the mainstream. The themes are also similar to those of post-pandemic global pop, including anxiety, anger, empowerment and descriptions of more or less toxic relationships.
If this were a true debut of a new band, it would be a strange object, a little confusing but which would not fail to intrigue the rock souls who grew up listening to music like that of Linkin Park, Disturbed, Limp in earphones, strictly with wires. Bizkit, Korn but also… rock's Green Day mainstream of “American Idiot” and also Papa Roach, POD, Puddle Of Mudd, Guano Apes and many other names that were easy to find in the player compact disc of a teenager at the beginning of the millennium (like the writer).
The first song in the setlist, “The Emptiness Machine”, is perfect for playing rock and contemporary, with the male and female vocals alternating and the drums that count more than the guitars. His aggressiveness is perfect for Virgin Radio, good for Imagine Dragons' audience but also for those who don't want to continue listening only to the trap and reggaeton that flood Spotify. “Cut The Bridge” tries again, louder but equally harmless, while “Heavy Is The Crown” clearly returns to a known model of nu-pop-metal complete with a rap verse and samplewith a long scream that is one of the most impactful moments of the entire album. Equally formulaic are “Two Faced” and “IGYEIH”, more of the same of metal mainstream twenty years ago.
The more pop-rock component prevails in “Over Each Other”, despite some heavy metal guitar, especially for the clean singing that dominates it and which also characterizes “Stained”. We certainly return to sounds crossovers punk-stoner-metal in “Casualty”, which could come from a Fu Manchu album but is screamed like a Hatebreed song. The more sedate “Overflow” instead seems perfect for use in a blockbuster of Hollywood, even if its final explosion is a telephone call, and can be assimilated to the final “Good Things Go”, the quota ballad of the album with an emotional climax that surprises no one.
Even if “From Zero” didn't have the name Linkin Park on the cover we would say that it often resembles what we heard on hugely successful albums such as “Hybrid Theory” (2000), “Meteora” (2003) and, to a lesser extent, “Minutes To Midnight” (2007). It is clear that this is an album in continuity with the history of the band, or rather with that part of the discography that has best resisted the test of time. Mike Shinoda, Brad Delson and Joe Hahn are always the main authors of the songs and they haven't exactly reinvented their approach: dynamics, melodies, refrains from the past return in many songs, giving the impression that a time portal has opened that has magically brought back to the mid-noughties. Drummer Colin Brittain gets a lot of space in the mix, but the most delicate role falls to Emily Armstrong, called to replace the beloved Chester Bennington: she does it without imitating him but also without overdoing it, leaving more space for Mike Shinoda in the singing parts and giving time to his not exactly exciting rap; here and there he sacrifices his lungs in some screamat other times she proves herself to be a more educated singer than Bennington ever was.
In the endhowever, without the name Linkin Park and their history, without the references to their classics, this “From Zero” would never have caught the attention of many and would have been lost in a sea of somewhat obsolete rock publications and a a little nostalgic. To this writer, it seems like an opportunity above all to listen to Linkin Park again, those of the first albums, almost a quarter of a century (!) after their publication. Maybe even rewatching that famous video of Goku vs. Frieza. But what do I know? boomersbut what do Gen Zs know?
11/16/2024
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM
