It has been 14 years since Linkin Park last performed in the Middle East, but the band is finally making their return to the region. Linkin Park was announced last month as a headliner for Soundstorm 2024, one of the biggest music festivals in the world, held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The band will be performing in under 24 hours tomorrow night at 21:00 local time (UTC+3) for their first-ever appearance in Saudi Arabia. Linkin Park will be the first of the featured headliners to perform, playing on the main stage—dubbed "Big Beast"—for day one of the festival, following Arabic pop legend Abdul Majeed Abdullah.
![[IMG]](https://www.lpassociation.com/upload/images/121124-181937_5WBnXba.png)
Linkin Park’s last appearances in the Middle East were during the A Thousand Suns era in 2010. The band performed at the Formula One Grand Prix in Abu Dhabi, UAE, on November 13, 2010, followed by a show in Tel Aviv, Israel, two days later. An LPTV episode was dedicated to the two performances and the band's travel to the region. Mike Shinoda also made a two-date stop in Tel Aviv for his solo tour in 2019, but fans in the region have had to wait a long time for the full band’s return—Linkin Park has released four studio albums since their last time there! This is a real treat for fans in Saudi Arabia, with the band's first-ever visit to the kingdom also marking their long-awaited return to the Middle East.
Linkin Park is among the latest talent to be tapped for the Soundstorm festival, organized by Saudi Arabian promoter MDLBEAST, now in its fourth year. Soundstorm is the Middle East’s largest multi-genre music festival and has been drawing large crowds of hundreds of thousands year after year. Previous iterations of the festival have brought headliners such as Bruno Mars, Post Malone, and Calvin Harris to the stages in the Banban neighborhood of Riyadh.
This year's festival, running from December 12–14, features a lineup with several notable Western acts like Eminem, Muse, David Guetta, and of course, Linkin Park. Several past Linkin Park collaborators are also performing, such as Busta Rhymes, Steve Aoki, and Martin Garrix, with whom Mike collaborated on "Waiting for Tomorrow." These artists are interspersed alongside several very large names in Arabic and Middle Eastern popular music, such as Abdul Majeed Abdullah, Elissa, and Majid al-Muhandis.
Linkin Park's last performance was nearly a month ago in São Paulo, Brazil, on November 16th, wrapping up their run of globe-trotting arena and stadium performances. The November 16th performance was part of their two-day filmed performance at Allianz Parque (whose signage was draped over to say "Linkin Parque") for From Zero's global release. Footage recorded in São Paulo will be released as a concert film sometime in 2025. The band delivered two fiery shows to the electric Brazilian crowd, who mirrored the band's energy, with even mellower songs such as "Castle of Glass" sparking circle pits.
The band has kept their set relatively stable following the September 5th comeback, though they have thrown in several surprises throughout. This has included live debuts of both "Keys to the Kingdom" and "All for Nothing" from The Hunting Party, as well as surprise debut performances of "Heavy Is the Crown" and "Casualty" prior to the official releases. The live debut of "Casualty" in Arlington, Texas, saw Mike Shinoda drumming up the crowd, calling on all the old-school fans to return to the pit for the new song's bridge.
The latest single from From Zero, "Two Faced," made its debut early in the set on the first night in São Paulo, just two days after its release as a single. The song garnered great crowd reaction, channeling Linkin Park's early work, captured here by drone footage uploaded to the band's YouTube channel:
Given the festival format of Soundstorm, the band will certainly be making some large changes due to time constraints. Linkin Park is scheduled for a 75-minute set, much shorter than the two-hour performances seen during their arena shows and closer to the roughly hour-long performance on September 5th. Historically, festival performances have often resulted in some mellower songs dropped from the set: "One More Light" was left out for many festivals in 2017 and "Final Masquerade" saw frequent cuts for festivals in 2015. Some of the deeper cuts, such as the acoustic rendition of "My December" that has seen much love from fans, seem like possible cuts to fit Linkin Park's timeslot.
It seems likely the band will keep many of their staple hit songs, as well as some combination of the From Zero songs they have debuted so far. Their last performance on November 16th included the four From Zero singles—"The Emptiness Machine," "Heavy Is the Crown," "Over Each Other," and "Two Faced"—and the aggressive thrash-toned "Casualty," which replaced "Given Up" for the last three shows. As "Casualty" seems primed to be a mosh pit staple, we hope that it will be kept for the Soundstorm performance!
This is Linkin Park's last performance for 2024, barring any more surprise announcements. Fans won't have to wait long though, as a short three-show run in Mexico is scheduled to start at the end of January, kicking off the band's massive 2025 world tour.
Let us know your thoughts on Linkin Park’s return to the Middle East! Stay tuned for updates and come discuss in our forums.
The Hellfest line-up for 2025 has just been officially announced, and Linkin Park has been revealed as one of over 100 acts performing across the 4-day event happening in Clisson, France. One of the biggest yearly metal festivals in all of Europe, Hellfest 2025 will be running from Thursday, June 19 through to Sunday, June 22, and playing host to big names such as Muse, Korn, Falling In Reverse and Electric Callboy. Linkin Park will be the headliner on Mainstage 01 for the final day, preceded by a series of acts including Cypress Hill and Refused.
Linkin Park has headlined Hellfest once before, shortly after the release of 2017 album One More Light. The band was infamously met with a less-than-welcoming response from the crowd, but that has evidently not deterred them from returning. This June 22 date will be part of a June/July 2025 tour leg that includes a few other European summer festivals; the band is scheduled to headline events such as I-Days in Italy and Rock Werchter in Belgium during that period.
Information on getting tickets to Hellfest 2025 can be found on the event's official website.
Source: Linkin Park on Twitter
Linkin Park has just uploaded a live recording of My December that was filmed on September 22nd at the bands show in Hamburg, Germany, to their official YouTube channel. This version of the song has stripped away the drums and electric guitar, featuring piano, bass, acoustic guitar, vocals and a little bit of scratching. You can check out the recording of the song below.
Source: Linkin Park YouTube via @Qwerty19
Linkin Park's Mike Shinoda and Emily Armstrong sat down with lyrics site and digital media company Genius to discuss the lyrics to From Zero's lead single "The Emptiness Machine." Armstrong and Shinoda break down the meaning of the lyrics line-by-line in the video, and also discuss some of the background behind the track and its writing. Give the video a watch below!
Come and discuss your thoughts on their breakdown in our forums!
Source: Genius, @Serious Dave
It has been announced that Linkin Park band members Mike Shinoda and Emily Armstrong will be part of an "exclusive and intimate event" for iHeartRadio on December 6.
The "event" will presumably consist of just an interview with the pair about Linkin Park's latest album From Zero, released last month. iHeartRadio's announcement post gives a little more clarification, saying that it will be broadcast live for U.S. listeners at 8 PM ET / 5 PM PT on their stations ALT Radio and Nu Metal Radio.
Linkin Park recently released their new album, From Zero, on November 15th, and the band is keeping the celebration of new music going during an exclusive and intimate event in Los Angeles.Per the post, the exclusive interview will be hosted by Woody of The Woody Show. Strangely, he interviewed Shinoda and Armstrong recently as part of an iHeartRadio / Linkin Park event in late November, and excerpts from that interview, such as this one, have been shared on Instagram by ALT 98.7. It's quite possible that this upcoming "live" iHeartRadio broadcast will simply be the premiere of that conversation in full.
[...]
During iHeartRadio LIVE with Linkin Park, Shinoda, along with Armstrong, will open up about their new album and more, during an exclusive interview hosted by iHeartRadio's Woody. Fans can tune in to listen to iHeartRadio LIVE with Linkin Park on Friday, December 6th at 8pm ET/5pm PT via iHeartRadio's ALT Radio and Nu Metal Radio stations on the free iHeartRadio app.
Either way, this will be new content, and U.S. fans can listen in via the free iHeartRadio app when this program airs at 8 PM ET / 5 PM PT on December 6.
Source: iHeartRadio on Twitter
From Zero might've missed getting a #1 on the Billboard Top 200, but that doesn't mean that the album skips out on making history. For the first time in the history of the Billboard Hot Hard Rock Songs, all of the songs on the new album (excluding the From Zero (Intro)) have managed to make it in to the top ten on the list.
Linkin Park makes history by monopolizing the entire top 10 of Billboard’s Hot Hard Rock Songs chart dated Nov. 30 with songs from the band’s comeback album, From Zero.
The set, released Nov. 15, concurrently launches atop four rock-based Billboard album charts, with 97,000 equivalent album units earned in the week ending Nov. 21, according to Luminate.
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From Zero also becomes the band’s ninth No. 1 on Top Hard Rock Albums, which began in 2007 – breaking Linkin Park out of a tie with Pearl Jam for the most in the chart’s history. The new album dethrones Linkin Park’s own 2024 greatest hits package Papercuts, which spent the preceding seven weeks on top and has reigned for 18 weeks total this year.
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“The Emptiness Machine” leads the way on the Nov. 30 Hot Hard Rock Songs tally for an 11th total and consecutive week. In the week ending Nov. 21, it earned 6.1 million radio impressions and 5.6 million official U.S. streams and sold 1,000 downloads. It concurrently ranks atop the Rock & Alternative Airplay and Hard Rock Streaming Songs charts.
The top Hot Hard Rock Songs debut of the group, “Cut the Bridge” (as Nos. 1-4 already logged chart history as they were released before the release of From Zero), arrives at No. 5 with 3 million streams.
Source: Billboard via @minusxerø
Linkin Park has just uploaded a recording of their latest single "Two Faced" off of their new album From Zero from their November 15 performance in São Paulo to their official YouTube channel. This recording is much more cinematic than what was shown on the short livestream that the band did and what is currently available to watch online, lots of different angles and shots in here. Give the video a watch here below.
Director: Mark Ritchie
Editing: Igor Kovalik
Color: TheBrewery.co
Mixing: Ethan Mates
Lighting Design: Celine Royer
Creative Direction: Mike Carson
Additional footage: Mark Fiore
What do you think of the performance? Come and discuss in our forums.
Source: Linkin Park YouTube
A new episode of LPTV FROM ZERO has just been uploaded to the official Linkin Park YouTube channel. In this episode we get to see some great behind the scenes footage of Linkin Park climbing atop the 02 dome in London before their performance at the 2024 League of Legends Worlds event. We're also treated to plenty of footage of the band before their performance in Paris, including checking out the stadium stage and Phoenix being bored before the band takes the stage. In Texas we get a short but promising country rendition of The Emptiness Machine performed by Mike Shinoda. You can check out the all this and more in the episode below.
What do you think of the episode? Come and discuss in our forums.
Source: Linkin Park YouTube
Linkin Park's Mike Shinoda recently discussed the band's new album From Zero on Radio 1's Rock Show with host and musician Daniel P Carter as part of a segment called "Start to Finish" which features deep dives into full-length albums. The full 2-hour broadcast of the programme is available to listen to via BBC Sounds (and will remain so for the 30 days), and the half-hour "Start to Finish" interview segment with Shinoda begins at approximately the 1:00:30 mark.
Carter and Shinoda begin by looking back on the emotions, both within the band and among devoted fans, surrounding Linkin Park's initial return with a different line-up. Shinoda assesses the overall comeback as having "gone to plan" from his viewpoint, and praises his co-frontperson Emily Armstrong for her stage presence in addition to vocal prowess.
The pair then get to discussing a selection of songs on From Zero, with Shinoda giving insight into the timeline on writing and recording for each one. Among other things, he talks about how lead single "The Emptiness Machine" was one of the earliest-written songs on the album (before a Linkin Park comeback was being seriously considered), the intentional choice to have "Overflow" be a mid-album curveball after exploring a more familiar sound in the album's first few songs, and the idea of writing a "pre-Linkin Park"-style song in 2024, which resulted in "Two Faced".
This is the third appearance Shinoda has made on BBC's Radio 1 during the From Zero album cycle, following two interviews a month apart, in (respectively) late September and late October; this latest interview coming at the end of November follows that pattern.
You can listen to the whole interview here.
Source: BBC Sounds
Linkin Park band member Brad Delson has appeared for an interview in American guitar publication Guitar Player, where he details his contributions to the band's new album From Zero, currently the #1 rock album in the world.
Even as he is less visible than before due to his absence on the stage, Delson remains deeply involved in every aspect of the From Zero album cycle as a whole, beyond just recording the songs on the album:
“We put a lot of love into the creative of the show. Even though I’m not onstage, I’m still intimately involved. I helped design the set list and the whole flow of the show, and every day we talk about the shows. It’s a huge labor of love."
"I really love being in the studio, and I feel like that’s where I’m most energized and I really thrive and I contribute the most. For me, it’s about making authentic, clear decisions and wanting to bring great energy to whatever I’m working on."Regarding the impact of Emily Armstrong becoming a member of the band, Delson relates:
"We were just messing around, doing stuff in the studio, and Emily said at one point, ’Hey, I’m happy to just come here every day, whether you need me or not. I want to be around what’s happening.’ The amazing thing about this album was everything just kind of fell into place, naturally, just based on, ’Hey, this is fun. We like doing this. Let’s do more of it.’ It was the desire to just hang out together, be creative, and then the music led the way."Delson also highlights the mentality the band took on when creating the new album. In talking about Linkin Park's creative versatility in the writing and recording process, he likens it to a bag of tools:
"We weren’t afraid to reach into the more signature bag of tools on this record. [...] I think on some previous records it was always ’Innovate! Innovate! Innovate!,’ always wanting to challenge ourselves to go somewhere new. I think because we had new elements [i.e. band members] already as part of the palette we didn’t hold back in terms of using things maybe that we used early on, just ways of writing and ways of playing.The article also features Delson mentioning his experience watching Linkin Park perform live from an audience member standpoint, talking about some specific songs off From Zero, and his perspective on the band being in a different zone in the wake of a hiatus.
You can check out the whole article here.
Source: Guitar Player via @Qwerty19
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- Mike Shinoda interview on Kerrang! Radio
- Linkin Park interview on KROQ
- Linkin Park posts behind-the-scenes footage of Worlds 2024 ceremony
- ALT 98.7 announces private Linkin Park event in Los Angeles
- Colin Brittain appears on Drumeo
- LPTV FROM ZERO: Making of "Two Faced" Music Video [Episode 10]
- Thank you, Linkin Park.
- Mike Shinoda & Emily Armstrong interviewed on Zach Sang Show
- Mike Shinoda and Emily Armstrong interview with AltWire
- From Zero Out Now | Release Day Thread