Linkin Park Band Members: Potential or Just Right.

A new album is on the way and the thought has been brought up many times to whether each of the band members will step up in their jobs or will they do what they think they are supposed do. The band members are Chester, Mike, Dave, Brad, Rob and Joe. Create a list of what you believe each of the band members should do - what you want to hear, or how you think they should progress.

Chester seems to have stepped up his game in the new samples of WID. Do you think Mike should continue to rap? Most of you guys have evaluated Brad, so how do you think he should step up? Rob's drumming in Qwerty was superb, should he change or should he just be Rob. And then there is Joe - video director and DJ. DJ I say. Yes. How should he progress to his potential, or does he have one?

Those are just some considerable questions to be aware of. There are many others, so think of more and how each band member should pick up their game face. In "step up", i mean, step up their game or improve. no pun intended lol.

So when Minutes To Midnight is released, come back to this thread, refer to what you typed and see if your predictions of potential or not was correct. If you think that you have concluded on a decision, quote your before and state your after.

Follow this template if you wish:

Brad:

Chester:

Dave:

Joe:

Mike:

Rob:

 

brad: better guitar playing

chester: continue with vocals from the clip and also the type of vocals he had on slow ya role, oh yea can't forget the screaming

dave: stop being so simple

joe: keep up the scrathing and directing i hope they haven't neglected him too much

mike: maybe try stepping up the rhymes a little bit and do some more backing vocals

rob: continue with what he did on qwerty

 

Brad: I hope he shows off something on the guitar so he can get some recognition for it, but I also think he should do some interesting simple things like he's known to do. I think he should keep that simplicity throughout the record, but also show the intricate side of things that he claims he can do, and I think would sound good doing it. We need something different with the guitars.

Chester: Chester needs to show off his singing, and I also hope he shows off his screaming. He needs to hold notes, and he needs to hold screams. He needs to show off his new vocal skills that we've witnessed on the previews of What I've Done and on the Young Buck track, but I also like the aggressive side a lot so I hope we're not done with that.

Dave: Bust out something we'd hear on a punk rock record. Some bass solo/intro thing. It'd be interesting to listen to a track that was very bass driven.

Joe: I'm not really sure about Joe. Maybe he'll make an instrumental track or something, and load some samples during concerts? I'm not sure.. they seem to be trying to get away from all that.. however, I really do enjoy that electronic feel.

Mike: I wouldn't mind if his vocal parts were minimal on this album. He'll have enough to do during live concerts if the songs are anything like what is being described in interviews. I like the switching between vocalists, but I wouldn't be disappointed if he doesn't do as much. He's doing a ton of work already.

Rob: Step up his drumming a bit? Honestly, though, if there isn't insane drumming skills on this new record I will not be disappointed. It really just doesn't bother me either way.

 

Good job. It would be interesting to see if Dave leads a song. Can't forget about the screaming. If there are songs like ASP, then your in luck!

 

yea dave leading a song would be really awesome and well new for linkin park

 

Well we know Bras doing a solo, so we can assume hes stepping up.

My main concern is Phoenix, if anyone needs to show a bit more its him.

 

Brad: I think this will be a breakout album for Brad. We already know he's got a solo on The Little Things Give You Away, and just from the little clips we have of What I've Done, he has a cool little melodic part in that as well. I knew Brad had stepped up his playing by the end of Projekt Revolution in 2004, just because he was starting to get comfortable with being a little improvisational during songs, and he was rarely making mistakes anymore. Being around a producer who has worked with guitarists like John Frusciante, Daron Malakian, James Hetfield, and Kirk Hammett can only help Brad. He won't be the world's new guitar hero or anything, but I bet his playing will gain the respect of a lot of people. And you might laugh at me for this...but I wanna see him use a wah wah on a song. He used one on the studio version of Step Up but that's about it.

Chester: Chester's already one of the best modern rock singers out there. The only singing improvement I'd like to hear is to have him go into his lower range more. He did some pretty low baritone parts on a couple old Grey Daze songs, and I know that part of his range didn't just disappear. He also hasn't done much in the way of falsetto singing, I think it could work nicely on some of the softer parts. Lyrically, I'd like to see him improve a lot. On Meteora a lot of his lyrics just came across as ridiculously childish and simplified (c'mon, he rhymed "heal" with "feel" and "real," lol), and were almost devoid of metaphors and symbolism. He said this album is a bit more political, and that line he gave as the first line of What I've Done sounds very un-Linkin Park-ish, in a good way.

Phoenix: I KNOW Phoenix has been held back in Linkin Park up to this point. If you listen to old Snax stuff and ignore the cheesy "God is so awesome!" lyrics, some of the bass stuff he lays down on those tracks is just oozing with funk. I wanna hear him play slap bass on a new song, I think it could work very well. If they're doing Motown vibes on this album, why not lay down an old school funk bassline? I'd like to see him do more fills and start deviating away from the guitars. He's even said himself that he tends to play it safe and just play roots based on what the guitar is doing, and I know he's better than that. Also, somebody give the man a mic stand at live shows! He sang backing vocals in The Snax and sounded just fine doing so. There's some parts of LP songs that have 3 vocal parts going on at once on the studio versions (ending of Papercut, chorus of Points of Authority, etc.) , and though Mike and Chester cover things very well live, I think Phoenix's singing has always been an unused option for them.

Joe: I'd like to see him do more weird sound effects. He's amazing at what he does, but if you watch him at live shows, he really just alternates between scratching and playing samples on his MPC pad. He could really open up new ground if he experimented more with tremolo, phaser, etc...and he could also start using more varied scratching sounds, he mostly sticks to one basic scratch tone.

Mike: What can't this guy do? The difference in his lyrics between Meteora and the Fort Minor stuff was like a complete 180-degree turnaround. I'd really like to see him go for a more personal style of writing like he did with FM instead of trying to generalize things as he has on past LP songs. I don't want his vocal contributions to drop as a lot of people think they will, but I wouldn't mind seeing some more songs with him playing keyboards and guitar. Based on interviews, it seems that will be the case.

Rob: Rob's always been a rock solid drummer. I can't really think of much for him to improve on, except that I'd like to see him do more fills and vary the endings he does to parts. I'd also like to see him at least experiment with a double bass pedal, but based on pics from the studio it doesn't look like he did.

And as a whole, I'd like to see them experiment with time signatures more. They did a song in 6/8 (From the Inside), so I'd like to see more 6/8 or 3/4 songs, but also I'd like to see them try maybe 5/4 or 7/8, or even just switching time signatures in a song. Kenji by Fort Minor was a good example, every line in that song was 3 measures of 4/4 followed by one measure of 2/4.

 

i thought FTI was 3/4 hmmm. Maybe they should use 12 bar blues lol

 

god job adding in the LP at the bottom. I would like to see LP go blues for 4th album lol blues ftw!

 

thats pretty much everything i wanted to say.

 

Brad: I would like to see Brad get a little bit more complicated with his guitars, not just using power chords for riffs.

Mike: This may apply to chester as well, I would like Mike to improve on lyric writing. He had some amazing lyrics on the Fort Minor mixtape. I think that he should write some lyrics of that calibur of MTM.

Linkin Park: I would like to see them be a little bit more expiremental. Songs where LP experiments a bit, such as Breaking The Habit, and Nobody's Listening, are some of thier best songs. I would like to see them take some everyday sounds and put them in thier songs (kind of like how Pink Floyd used coins clinking and cash register noises as the beat on part of "Money").

Other then that, I think that Linkin Park is great.

 

Do you guys think your predictions may seem closer with the new single?

 

I agree. Also, if you take a look at the track-by-track analysis of MTM and any other news we've been getting lately, I think it might fit the direction we are hoping for.

 

Chester:already has one of the better voices in the business.his challenge is to give his lyrical content something more to it and make every line a winner and not a weak one

Brad:brad has so far been a solid no frills guitarist that can be depended upon to do his part.he has shown big improvement since rick ruben has been producing this album, so all looks good for brad in the improvement stakes

Mike: mike is an inspiration to many musicians out there no doubt.he can do it all just about except maybe sing like chester,although it sounds like he is giving it a go on M2M.his challenge really is to really just take his over all package to the next level and get into the creative side of the industry like he has been doing a little of for sometime now

Joe:is joe hahn the forgotten man of LP?while it seems he has become just that in live clips and what not, he to will no doubt be stepping things up creative wise like producing the video and so on

Rob:rob has been a solid performer in a similar vein to brad.he will however need to step up the game this time around again to.i do likethe rawness of the drums in 'what i've done' apose to some songs like 'faint'.there is now a real factor to it

Phoenix:lets face it.bass is not the most inspiring part to play in a band.but given that,phoenix still needs to step it up.he is playing it safe and could really be doing more.he'll never get there most attention, it just doesn't seem his go anyway...but a track with phoenix leading would be awesome

Linkin Park:

 

Chester & Mike: Need to write better lyrics but that seems to be going allright on MTM. I also don't like it that Mike's raps are virtually gone on the new album.

Brad: He writes pretty cool riffs but I would like to see him doing something else than powercords.

Joe: I would like to hear more songs like With You where he kinda takes the lead and even has a solo. Maybe he should learn how to play the guitar and the piano so he won't just have to bob his head on half of their shows.

Rob: Don't really know what he should change about his drumming.

Phoenix: He should stop following Brad's guitar. He should go his own way or follow the vocal melodies or the drums.

Linkin Park: They shouldn't tell every detail about how they made the album. It kinda looks childish to me.

 

hmm..Joe may be very infrequent in this album considering that he provides the hip hop and electronic element along with mike. even if they are taking a more rockier direction, joe could still be a stand out. like on Numb which was a rock song with no rap, Joe and chester were pretty much the main focus.
he has the little special effect which he plays in what i've done, and when they play it live i assume one of his vinyls plays the piano part but i cant hear him anyway in no more sorrow or given up

 

then again, maybe Wake is a solo hahn track like cure 4 the ich or session