Let me just start out by saying that Linkin Park is my favorite band of all time, they were the band that got me into modern rock music, I've seen them twice in concert and it's been amazing watching them grow as I grow. I'm 18 now and have enjoyed their music since I first heard In The End, but didn't really get into their music until I bought Hybrid Theory in early 2004 when I was 12. From there I was hooked, and I have in my itunes every recorded song, demo, remix, live CD, DVD, and a bunch of amateur recordings of them too--- simply put I have every LP song available... For the past year and a half or so I have moved away from listening to LP as much as I used to. I still love them just as much, but I listen to them mostly as a treat now. I have been able to go a month or two or even longer without having a good LP listening session. I think it's been great because when Across the Line and Not Alone came out, they hit me hard and felt incredible. It felt amazing to hear the LP sound in such a fresh manner, I guess I just got on LP overload after 5 years of listening to them pretty much every day like a habit. This has also made going back and listening to their older albums such an incredible experience. When the new LP album comes out later this year I will slowly start to listen to the whole LP discography more frequently before the album release but I'm planning on keeping my LP dose fairly limited until then, I just think it will make the new release that much more amazing. Doing this has also allowed me to widen my musical tastes a bit and explore new things, and since then I have gotten really into Angels and Airwaves, Saosin, Anberlin, A Day to Remember, and a ton of other cool bands and I've shifted to liking more post-hardcore and punk stuff and even some pop-punk. Though my musical tastes have changed from more of a heavy-metal thing to alternative stuff, I still love LP. I'm excited to see where the new album takes them and I'd love to see them mix their roots with the new melodic tastes they explored on M2M. On the new album I'd love to see them hold onto the melodic side of songs like Leave Out All The Rest, Valentines Day, etc but bring back the edginess from their first two albums that I felt was missing on the hard songs on M2M like Bleed it Out and Given Up. They need to bring back more of Mike's rapping and bring back the forcefulness of songs like From the Inside, Faint, One Step Closer, etc while bringing it out in a more melodic manner. The last thing I want to see, and I do not think LP will go down this road, is to put out something that falls into the Nickelback, Theory of a Deadman, Shinedown category of mainstream... Though LP is one of the biggest rock bands in the world, I think their music is far from being mainstream and they are so unique in their sound. Though Minutes to Midnight was dominated by Chesters vocals, I felt like a lot of those songs just didn't bring out the best of him. And New Divide was just a horrible song, by far the most mainstreamed and boring song LP has ever done. I'm not saying that the album itself should sound like this but I'd love for Chester's vocals on the new album to sound like Not Alone and Leave Out All The Rest for the softer songs and more like Crawling, Figure.09, and Faint for the harder songs. Also I've heard they're bringing back more alternating Chester/Mike vocals and that's quite encouraging
I think the new album is going to be epic and, while alot of my confidence in this statement is hope more than anything, I think we'll have an album that will come close to topping Hybrid Theory. The reason I say this is because, while MTM was a great album, the band didn't live up to anywhere near the potential that album could have reached and I think the band will take the foundations of the positive aspects of MTM and extend them to greater heights thus finally filling the potential of their new sound. Welcome to LPA btw.
Honestly, I don't expect much from the new album. 'Not Alone' and 'Across the Line' aren't really my cup of tea. Even though these two songs originated from MTM demos, signs are pointing towards the band moving more into that direction. Also, I recently listened to all their albums back to back and I realised I don't like more than 4 songs off each album. I guess my music taste has changed. I do like the entire Collision Course EP, though. And I'm not even a fan of Jay-Z.
I feel the opposite about Not Alone and Across the Line... I feel those songs had something that was missing throughout most of Minutes to Midnight
Terrific post Saoberlinwaves, I'm basically in the same boat as you. I hardly listen to LP much now compared to when I first got into them. Good points on the new album. Though I love shinedown and like ToADM & Nickleback, that "mainstream" rock sound would not benifit LP. Of course we all know LP are mainstream to an extent but I do hope for the next album especially that they move away from LOATR/Numb's poppy sound and try something a bit more experiement or even unconentional, yet not completly losing the melodic side LP are known for.
I just can't help but wonder if they are going to throw us for a loop again. MtM kinda came out of nowhere. Considering that QWERTY was the first to come out of the sessions. If you pause and think about it, QWERTY, Not Alone, and Across the Line all have a similar sound; yet, none of them sound like MtM. Very odd.
I don't mind them having mainstream aspects in the ballads, my biggest issue is when the hit songs like What I've Done and New Divide get all generic sounding... I liked What I've Done but New Divide was the worst LP song I've ever heard, I apologize to those of you who like it but there was nothing about that song that makes me want to listen to it more than once to be honest... Chester's vocals were horribly overproduced, stayed in the middle range, and the instrumentals were boring to put it nicely. Across the Line and Not Alone brought a sense of emotion within the songs that I thought were missing in New Divide and in a lot of the harder songs on M2M. When I said I don't like seeing them go mainstream that doesn't mean I don't like the slower songs, in fact I think the slower songs on M2M were the strongest songs on the album.
Well, to be fair, New Divide was written for a mastream/blockbuster movie so it had to have that "sound" for it to work within its context. Its a crowd pleaser, but there will always be the minority who dislike it for that reason.
I want heavier LP to show it's face. My musical taste has changed alot since the old days of HT and Meteroa. Minutes to Midnight was a good album but I think I would have liked it more if it wasn't LINKIN PARK. It didn't have that identity to me. I thought when it was coming out that it was just going to be a more melodic extention from what was already there. It was completly out there. When songs like LOATR came on the first time i popped the CD in I was like "wtf is this". The new releases to come from them like Not Alone, New Divide and Across The Line are decent track on there own right but still kind of suffer from the fact that it doesn't sound like LP to my ears. Even with 3 years almost to adjust to the "new" LP sound it still doesn't work for me. It could be me though. I have kind of turned to the more heavier,aggressive music like that of UnderOath and August Burns Red. However I do miss the sound of the HT and Meteroa days. I still listen to both of those albums every once in awhile and it all ways draws me in as if nothing had changed. I want to hear Mike do his thing and I want to hear the rough side of Chester again.
I hated them. I don't like the songs that spotlight Chester post-Meteora days very much. They are boring, repetitive, bland, and cliche.