The Summoning's intended purpose doesn't work. At all. Especially since THP is supposed to be a relentless thrashing rock album. We don't need a break to collect ourselves. GATS should have segued straight into the feedback and War started. The Summoning jars with that all. It's just about as pointless as Empty Spaces. Especially with the baseball clip. It could've worked at least decently if the resampled power chords had led straight to War. But instead this random clip that makes absolutely no sense interrupts the album flow. I like the instrumental for The Summoning. It's alright. However, its placement (and length) is just one of those things that makes you question Linkin Park's decision-making. Had it been something more akin to Drawbar, a full-fledged instrumental, it would have been a great fit in my opinion.
I think it was put in the album to give it a sense of spontaneity. They probably want to get away from the very rehearsed, and strict feel of the albums before. Also probably thrown in to keep the album from being overly dark and serious.
I disagree with that. Sure, Empty Spaces shouldn't have been separated as its own track, but the track/idea itself fits in thematically with the album. It could have been tacked onto BITS or WTCFM, but the track isn't "pointless" when listening to the album as a whole. The Summoning doesn't mesh thematically, and it actually clashes pretty strongly with the initial run of songs on THP.
Wow I thought The Summoning was pretty much liked over here, I feel lonely. Somehow, I feel like THP would have been like... a big rush of 40 minutes in which the listener could not rest himself without this track. Although, this instrumental could have had a little more depth (in its role of interlude as well).
I missed Guilty All The Same, since for some reason I'm no longer getting email notifications of replies to this topic, but oh well. GATS has an amazing intro and outro (I love the guitar + drums), and I relatively enjoy the verses and chroruses. I love Rakim's verse and I was always disappointed when it ends, back when I listened to LP a lot more. The Summoning sounds cool IMO. It could do without the baseball clip but I can't think of any other way for War to be introduced after GATS. I was thinking the the song would be cool with the beating sound in some of the A Thousand Suns interludes (the first 2 songs, and Jordana Del Mertulo (whatever the fuck it's called). I agree it's a bit pointless, but many interludes are like this and they could also be considered pointless.
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Yeah this track does nothing at all for me. If I listen to Powerless, a lot of times I'll start by playing Tinfoil, because I enjoy that interlude, it's nice. If I ever chose to listen to War, I never play The Summoning. In fact, I always skip the song whenever it comes up. It's just so uninteresting.
Why not? We've had great interludes in the past, no reason to not point out that this one is far less great than others. I personally like the soundscape of it and everything, but I hate the baseball sample it drops into. I also am not a fan of the interlude between All for Nothing and GATS, but since that's already there, I guess I don't really care about this one as much. I would prefer no "4th-wall-breaking" of any kind, and Mike talking to Rob/Brad, and a random sample about baseball change the aesthetic a lot to me. I can appreciate that kind of thing to an extent, and I think it was well-executed here, but I prefer the more "cinematic" style of Drawbar - FM or Tinfoil - Powerless, or all of ATS. Considering how brutal the end of GATS is, I think the idea of a break between the two songs was a good idea.