I guess we shouldn't get our hopes up for a making of for OML? Since LT it's kind of been replaced by short clips/LPTV episodes. I still rewatch the making of "Meteora", "Minutes to Midnight", and "Meeting of A Thousand Suns" every once and a while, they're fun to watch. I'm at least glad we get the short behind the scenes clips instead of nothing, but I'd love to see another full length making of. I guess when you add all the clips up from THP and OML it's not all that different though.
These are the catchiest melodies they've ever written. Some songs needed to grow on me but chorus was constantly replayed in my head even though I didn't quite like the song.
Although they've already been doing catchy melodies (In the End, One Step Closer, What I've Done, etc), I think the addition of external songwriters and producers helped in that process.
In the End is, for me, the catchiest one among these you've mentioned. These new ones are catchier than One Step Closer and What I've Done, there are definitely sth in them and even Heavy has grown on me. It's definitely not their best work but now it's good.
Random trivia: "Heavy" already has more plays than all THP songs in Spotify. That guitar riff and chorus is catchy af compared to most metal releases during that era. It's one of the reasons why they're popular in my opinion.
Sell-outs I see, but I completely hate that chorus. the only thing that really catch me in OSC was the SHUT UP part Because you know
Hmm. I haven't liked any of Linkin Park's music that they've put out after Minutes To Midnight, but I would never say that the band doesn't work hard at what they do. Like Chester said in his comment, he doesn't care if you don't like the sound, he's fine with that, but don't say that the band doesn't work hard on it. I get that. But at the same time, when you're a Grammy winning band who have sold close to 80 million albums, you are going to be judged for what you put out, whether it be harshly or not. Every big band or artist receives comments like that, go on any huge band or artist's social media and read the comments. I don't think he should have posted that, but who am I to say what he should and shouldn't do. Just my two cents.
Regarding In the End and HT, I like the song very much and even had it as a ringtone. But my personal favourites off HT are Pushing me Away and With you. I don't know what the guy said that made Chester reply like that but maybe he just got tired of people bashing new songs and saying they're very impersonal and sth made to sell. No matter what I think of new songs I believe they work hard and seem very proud of OML.
I didn't realize you could highlight and see the play count in Spotify, some of THP is criminally underplayed lol. But yeah, Heavy has been their #1 for a while, I'm happy to see it. They really crafted an awesome single.
THe thing is imo, that with LP this "critism" reach extrem levels. Not that only their "fans" are going insane with their critics, even people who normally dont care make fun about the jumping between sounds (and especially now with the extreme pop sound direction) by LP. People act like they did some bad crime or something. I mean, social media comments in general are pretty close minded most of the time. But some things just cross the line. And Chester has the right to react to such thing (i agree with you that he should take it cool though).
I was bored so I checked for all the albums. The number in the brackets is the number of streams in millions. Songs with more Spotify plays than Heavy (~31.5 Million Plays) Hybrid Theory: Papercut (56.4), One Step Closer (63.2), Crawling (50.5), In The End (223.7) Reanimation: None (Most played: Enth E Nd (6.1), Pts.OF.Athrty (5.6)) Meteora: Somewhere I Belong (46.8), Faint (72.7), Breaking The Habit (54.1), Numb (191.3) Collision Course: Numb/Encore (168.0) Minutes to Midnight: Leave Out All The Rest (34.4), Bleed It Out (81.2), What I've Done (99.0) New Divide: New Divide (63.5) A Thousand Suns: None (Most played: Waiting For The End (23.7), The Catalyst (23.3)) Living Things: Lost In The Echo (34.2), Burn It Down (103.1), Castle Of Glass (73.0) Recharged: None (Most played: A Light That Never Comes (27.8), Castle Of Glass - M. Shinoda Remix (4.9)) The Hunting Party: None (Most played: Final Masquerade (26.5), Guilty All The Same (16.7)) Notes: Heavy is the band's 17th most streamed track to date. Heavy has been streamed more than any song off two previous studio albums: The Hunting Party (2014) and A Thousand Suns (2010). If Heavy were to double its stream count in the coming months (to ~64 million streams), it could just about pull into 9th place. If it were to triple its stream count, it would be in 6th place. Even if it were to multiply its play count seven-fold though, it would still (barely) fall behind In The End. That being said, in 18 days when Minutes to Midnight turns 10 years old, Heavy will become the 5th most streamed Linkin Park track of the last decade (4th if it can overtake Lost In The Echo in that time). Also: A Light That Never Comes has far more streams than I expected.
THE INJUSTICE I'm surprised LOATR has more plays than SOTD, I thought SOTD was considerably more popular. It's too bad people discovering LP from Heavy are probably just checking out the other top 10 songs and hearing One Step Closer, Papercut, etc. in place of other newer tracks they'd more likely enjoy like LOATR/WFTE etc. Also, Heavy is almost Kiiara's top track, besides Gold, which obliterates all of LP's play counts with 370 million.. I wonder how many listens we'd get them if the entire LPA dedicated a night to just leaving their Spotify playing through LP's discography lol
THP wasn't very successful and didn't reach many people. Heavy is very popular and accessible so many people heard it. Older generation who still remembers HT and stopped listening to the band after that, or maybe heard sth, is angry because they considered this new song very different from the original sound. I read many comments mostly on facebook and many of them are from people just like that. I mean, you don't have to consider Heavy a masterpiece, and it certainly isn't, but the band's each album is different and many people are stuck in the past. I can't say that I listen to these three songs every day but there is something appealing in them.