I would absolutely love for them to take a 3-4 year break and make a new DBS and FM album. I'm not as much a big FM fan, but I'm always up for anything new from the guys. Asides from that, Chester's DBS songs were absolutely amazing live, I figure they didnt take as much a toll on his vocal chords as LP songs did so he could really use the break, I mean, I'm sure we've all heard the way he's singing songs like New Divide and Crawling recently, most notably to me being his performance at the Home Depot Center, the guy needs time. Imagine if Chester could sing VICTIMIZED/QWERTY live the way he used to pre-2007
I don't think the guys are gonna take a break. They've been talking (for real, this time) about how they want to release more and more new music more quickly and they did it with LT. It took less than two years after ATS for it, and they've been writing on the road and have said that they're in a great creative place and keep writing new stuff easily.
I hate to point it out, but the "backwards" direction you speak of is just a matter of opinion. To beat a dead horse, the purpose of Meteora, like it or not, was to solidify the band as a headlining act. I think that album did for the band what no album could have done. Yes, in retrospect, it could have been a lot better, however, the second album curse was something that Linkin Park was smart enough to stay away from. For the most part, a second album is not the time to potentially start turning people off to a band. I remember when Meteora came out, the band's popularity hit a very, very high note. I think that album served it's purpose. For LIVING THINGS, any album that was going to come out after A Thousand Suns, was going to be compared to A Thousand Suns. Personally, I'm glad the band did not try to do ATS 2. It took a lot out of them to write ATS and we may never see them come out with something like that ever again. The band needed to go back to having fun. I thought LT was a progression away from ATS. I thought it was neat to see them make an album using sounds and structures from every step of their career. I thought it was cool to see how excited Mike was for the release of the album. I felt like it brought the band closer to the fans. If anything, I think LT has made them more focused as a band. I think Geki is just about right here... I'm going to go with the Vegas show being the only 2013 tour date for the US. Also, LA and NYC are melting pots of artistic creativity and both are very much in the spotlight of what becomes popular. Coincidentally for LP, LA is their home town too, thus making it easier and more convienient to play shows there.
Its all a matter of music preference. I wasn't a big fan of FM, but there were just few songs I did enjoy compared to DBS for which I liked the entire album. So to that I say hell yes to a new DBS and FM album. Especially DBS
Personally I loved Living Things and so I want them to make more music as soon as comfortably possible for them - especially considering they're passing on another North American tour. I understand the idea behind "more time = more quality" but quite frankly ATS was probably made in approximately 2 years at the most. Everything before that was either a different sound altogether (Pretend to Be) or just experimenting. That and I want as much material from Chester in his singing prime as possible. The band's getting old and it'll take it's toll eventually.
Very much agree with this. The idea of the band taking another decent size break scares me since their longetivity may be starting to wane and such. Also, I'll be taking those damn cookies.
This year feels like a good time for the band to go do some solo stuff. It'd be awesome if Mike made an EP with himself on lead vocals, not restricting himself to simply hip-hop or rock. Solo work by Brad and Phoenix would be interesting stuff too, although I know this won't happen.
I don't agree with solo breaks either. With hindsight, the band's series of solos in 2005 looked like a waning interest in working on the Linkin Park sound, remedied only by allowing band members write whatever sound they wanted to. Besides that I feel that in generally the quality of the music is better together than apart. The band isn't as big as they used to be and a multi-year break might actually interrupt their career enough to knock them back to the point where people stop caring about the band. And among the people that care enough to remember and follow them, a multi-year hyped album just can't meet expectation all that hype builds up. Besides that, the life expectancy of rock stars are in their 40's. Perhaps Chester should consider retiring in a couple album cycles.
He doesn't have to retire soon, just look at Paul McCartney. Chester can keep on singing beautifully into his 70's, I really think that he should retire from screaming and aggressive singing though.
James Hetfield (Metallica) - 49 - can still sing with a raspy voice Marilyn Manson - 44 - can still scream like a psycho Phil Anselmo (Pantera/Down) - 44 - can still scream like a psycho Brian Johnson (ACDC) - 65 - still sing with his screamy voice Jonathan Davis (Korn) - 41 - can still sing agressively Come on, Chester is only 36, let him enjoy his agressive voice!
Seeing their age makes me realize that they do grow old and then it hits me harder that I'm getting older. *munching on cookies*