No they have made a lot of mellow shit. Heavy is the way to go. They need to cut back on the electronic stuff its played out
I'd say it's still too early to tell what direction LP will go in next. The great thing about this band is that they're predictably unpredictable when it comes to a new sound and theme for an album. They have been diverse and fresh, both of these major reasons why I have stuck with the band. The release of THP may indeed inspire the band to keep writing heavier music to stick with their current vision. Who knows, in a year or two, the band's collective vision for music and the state of the music industry might do a 180 and entirely surprise us.
I definitely agree that sticking to what they found with The Hunting Party would be the most interesting case scenario moving forward. The band had made 3 mellow albums in a row prior to THP and at least Chester has agreed in interviews that they're easily capable of making a thousand Iridescents which bores him. Thank god for that. Moving forward they should keep the heavy sound while exploring new territory. Abandon the radio sounding singles and embrace their own passion. Give us an album of Blackout/When They Come For Me/The Catalyst/Until It Breaks/Mark The Graves levels of shock factor.
Hard rock is not the direction to go. It's gone through their system. I don't see Linkin Park making anything truly unique with another hard rock album in the near future.
Someone mentioned a few pages ago that they wanted Phoenix to contribute more, in the sense that not just bass, but also strings as well. I am freaking craving for an LP song, which is both heavy and has an epic strings layer on it, that combination when properly done is just so good. I am also totally in on the embracing the diversity of styles and structures ala Catalyst/Mark The Graves. I just wonder. We've seen Linkin Park play with styles in a way that they either do a full electronic song with little guitar (i.e Catalyst) or a guitar heavy track with a pinch of electronics. I think there has to be a point where they could BOTH be prominent, not necessarily overcrowding the song with loud layers but how about changing from one to another throughout the song, it would be interesting. Nevertheless, I love THP and I'm enjoying it very much right now.
I think that there's at least one post or tweet every album cycle or so where Phoenix mentions that he's brushing up on some cello for Linkin Park's recording sessions
It's been nearly two weeks since THP came out. Way too soon for me to tell, but after that I'd love to see them encounter other forms that they've never experienced and experimented before, musically. Even if it's different styles of rock, metal, and punk. Here are some of my suggestions. Sludge Metal (Down, Crowbar, Acid Bath, The Melvins) Noise Rock (Sonic Youth, The Jesus Lizard) Krautrock (Can, Faust)
The problem here is the fact most songs are still in VCVCBC structure (i.e. All For Nothing, Keys To The Kingdom, Wastelands...). If they were to step out of that structure on more songs, this would be more possible.
KTTK doesn't suffer from the structure syndrome because it's diverse enough to make up for it. AFN, "Wastelands", UIG, FM though... no.