I will wait until Friday to listen to the album in full. Just a couple more days to go and the excitement is really ramping up now. I've been on these forums (and over on LP Live too) reading everyone else's impressions/thoughts on the other songs from the album. My takeaway from what I've read so far is that From Zero is a bit more experimental than people expected and in a good way, with some nods to the band's previous eras and also pushing forward into new territory. Curious is an understatement to how I feel about the songs I haven't heard yet. Definitely an exciting time to be a Linkin Park fan.
Yeah that's it, and it's what a lot of their later stuff has been missing. The lack of electronics hurt The Hunting Party imo, and One More Light is nothing but boring synth pads, this album brings the interesting electronics back.
It's honestly much more experimental than we might have expected. To be honest, at some points between the release of TEM and HITC, I thought we’d get an album aimed at pleasing the crowd always calling for a new Hybrid Theory/Meteora. I was glad to hear the album and see that it has just as much post-Minutes to Midnight influence as it does the more traditional LP sound. Its like they get all the critics from OML and ATS and improved the sound with audible layers of guitar and drums.
I’d even go as far back as the Xero cassette honestly. There are a lot of subtle sonic throwbacks to that EP.
Overall, it’s a really compact fireball, blasts here and there, very emotional altogether, whether with wrath or loss or love.
Yeah I think a lot of that has to do with them bringing back a lot of that sample style that their early work was built around, where normally I feel they'd go for modern production conventions. It gives it a bit of vintage grit I like. I also like that it doesn't go too hard on that. I think my favorite word to describe this album so far is "balanced".
I know everyone is raving about the guitarzzz but I fucking love how pronounced the drums are in the mix. These tracks are PUNCHY.
I don't recall an LP album drop/leak in which there has been such a lack negative feedback. Really cool to see
From what I'm reading here, seems like Mike really revisited some very old Xero/HT stuff at some point in the recent past. Like, he was literally wearing an HT 1998/1999 era shirt in the "Already Over" video. At the time, I was really surprised he was acknowledging that distant past again. But all for the best. As a band, when you can recapture the magic and the excitement of the beginnings, good things happen.
The album is rightfully named From Zero, because they really went back and took everything from Xero and onwards and melded it all into a great album.
Oh yeah, I'm also glad that others have pointed out that this album has good variety. That's always welcome for me and it's part of Linkin Park's versatility as a band. It sounds like we're in for a treat with From Zero!
I truly believe the 20th anniversary celebrations really helped the band embrace the past and finally relinquish this idea that everything has to be as different as possible from their early sound.
Yeah I liked the OML cycle but it always kinda bothered me how much it seemed they almost talked disdainfully of their first couple albums during that time. Mike saying nu metal should be dead, various other comments. Seemed they reacted to the backlash by doubling down against HT. It looks like in the past few years they've revisited those albums and the things that made them unique, having the anniversaries. And this album has folded all of that into one album that really took a full retrospective look at their career when crafting its songs. It makes me really excited for the future!
Two faced, HITC, and Cut the Bridge are some of the biggest HT/Meteora throwbacks we've had in a very long time and it makes me happy. Stained is a pretty interesting melodic track too - really diggin it. Update, correction: Cut the Bridge is very M2M, but digging it still. Reminds me of Bleed It Out.
Oh Overflow sounds really different, definitely one of their most experimental songs. I wished it was longer tbh. From the HT/M nostalgia songs IGYEIH is clearly my favorite, Emily's vocal performance was insane. For all the hype I wasn't feeling Casualty at all, the chorus was weak and Mike's vocal performance was a nice change but nothing special. The riffs were also underwhelming. Two Faced was a bit better, but just like HITC it's just copying Figure.09, especially the bridge is exactly the same as the demo. Cut the Bridge was nice, but it's basically Bleed It Out 2.0 until the great Mike's bridge. Stained was great, amazing chorus. Definitely should have been a single instead Over Each Other imo. Good Things Go sounds really like a Mike's solo song, but I loved it. Especially Emily's vocal performance was by far the best of the album. Edit: After the second listen it sounds like a comeback album, keeping a familiar sound and doing what they're known for. Every song sounds like it could have been a single which is one of the reasons why people love HT and Meteora so much. In another time line this is the album that most of them hoped MTM would have been. Personally it's far from my favorite, but it gets the job done let's see what the future brings.
As recent as the Twitch sessions, Mike was dismissing nu-metal saying it wasn't challenging to make. Now those same influences are celebrated on From Zero. Hindsight is a powerful thing.