if there's any solo's on this album they will pprobably be played by mike seeing as he played the BITS solo live. Mike is just the better guitarist in the group imo.
How the hell is the Iridescent guitar part "bad?" It fits the song just fine, and Brad even has the sense to vary it slightly from playing an E-A-C triad over the A minor chords to just playing A and C over the F chords so the E note doesn't clash with the underlying harmonic structure. Shows that he's well aware of both "horizontal" (playing within the key of the song) and "vertical" (playing based off of whatever chord is being played at any given time) guitar playing styles. Brad has GREATLY understated his guitar contributions on A Thousand Suns in just about every interview. Most of Burning in the Skies was Brad, the guitar in Jornada Del Muerto was Brad, the Waiting for the End solo was Brad, the chopped-up guitar on Wretches and Kings was all originally played by Brad, at least some of Iridescent was Brad, and all of The Messenger was Brad. And that's just the stuff we know for certain. Brad played at LEAST as much guitar as Mike on ATS, if not more depending on who played the guitar parts on songs that could've realistically been either of them (The Catalyst, When They Come For Me, etc.). That interview you're referencing also doesn't say anything REMOTELY close to "Brad doesn't play any guitar on Living Things." I guarantee he has numerous guitar parts on the album. I'm scratching my head at you lumping Chester in there too. I can count on one hand the number of LP guitar parts that are known to have been written by Chester... The BITS solo was done by Brad in the studio.
The Aussie Boys (Nish and Minuteforce) for the win!! Oh and i dont think there will be any solos on the record due to the fact that linkin park wanted to make a firecracker record. In my opinon, a guitar solo reduces the intensity and energy of a song..
MTM is the only album that Brad did guitar solo's on, right? I heard that Mike did the solo for BITS on ATS. The BITS solo is my favorite guitar solo that LP has ever done. Anyways, I don't think there will be. These songs are supposed to be ''firecracker'' songs for the first 8 tracks, and then rest of the songs are described as electronically driven experimental songs. MTM was a stripped down, basic rock and alternative album. It had some old school hip-hop elements and some punk and synth elements too, but nothing electronic really at all. I think the solo's were born out of that feel and creativity, which LIVING THINGS doesn't seem to have in common.
I really want there to be, but i know deep in my gut I will be disappointed. I just wish Brad would get out of his comport zone a bit more. Removing the powerchords in ATS was a smart move as it allowed the band to be heavy in different ways, but the guitar on the album (with the exception of BITS, W&K, Iridescent) is pretty bland and basic. So far, BID seems like the same old same. LGM on the other hand sounds a bit more interesting, yet still nothing spectacular. I hope we do hear some more creative guitar parts on LT at least one a couple of tracks. Argh, see this above all really frustrates me the most! Brad DOES have the technical skills to write/play some epic shit, but none of this hardly ever comes across on the album! Dammit Brad, show of some time will you?