Thank you, Linkin Park.

Beautifully written Louis.

These years were and are still hard. My little world shook to the core when we lost Chester. I grieved him, physically and emotionally. People texted me sending me condolences, despite him being someone I'd never met. He meant so much to me, I went to bed that dark day with the extreme sadness of knowing my dream was never going to come true. Never been to a show. Never got to see them in any capacity in all those years.

Just a mere month after his passing, I embarked on the most difficult journey of my life. I had to leave my country, not because I wanted to, not because I wished to or because I got the opportunity of a lifetime. It was because life got so difficult in Venezuela that I simply felt I had no other choice. I left everything behind. My family, friends, my career. I remember crying listening at one of the airports the first few lines of Sorry for Now "Watching the wings cut through the clouds, watching the raindrops blinking red and white, thinking of you back on the ground, there with a fire burning in your eyes, I only halfway apologized". This song hits me on a totally different angle.

I've struggled a lot these years, and Linkin Park's music was what helped me hold it together and I no longer had that. Post Traumatic was such a gift. Because not only I could channel the emotions that we as a community felt, but also because I was dealing with my own trauma of having to settle in a new place on my own. Trying to convince myself this was the right decision and constantly having the phrase "at least..." pulling a lot of weight.

Life just carried on, as bland and as uneventful, I was just coasting. Then the pandemic came, that was pretty bleak. I had the fortune of keeping myself in a job but not much more than that. Once we sort of came back to normalcy, in late 2022 I had bad news, mom was sick, had a cancerous tumor removed with a histerectomy and needed radiotherapy. We thought the worst was behind us and were looking for radiotherapy clinics and just like that a couple of months later she passed away on January 4th 2023, barely a few hours after her birthday. I could not attend her funeral, neither could my sister. Both trapped in different countries just trying to survive and broken as one can be, with the realization that that hug I gave her in September 2017 was the very last hug I'd give her.

So once again I had to pick up pieces, and return to whatever "normal" state there is nowadays. There is little path for growth when you feel this vibe that you're not welcome, and wherever I'd go it'd be the same and I hate every single politician around the world that feeds people the notion that someone like me is "less than". I got used to the monotony and the toxicity, and all of the sudden the fucking countdown man. When those guys came up on stage I almost felt guilty for feeling so happy, "why do I care so much?", "why am I so invested in this?", "why does this have such big power over my emotional state?", I do not know the answer to any of these questions but one thing I do know is that I deserve to feel joy for once man. I cannot thank these guys enough for putting a little bandaid on my heart and oh how I wish I had the opportunity to tell them this in person, though I know they've probably heard it hundreds of times.

And after having my dream crushed in 2017, if things go as planned I will finally have my opportunity to see them live for the first time on this new tour. If I had the money I'd go to several shows, I'm that desperate to "make up for time lost". I am so thankful for this resurgence and this new music, it trascends the mere concept of "we play to some instruments and you listen to some songs". It's about a deep connection, a cathartic outlet, an escape from whatever clusterfuck we may be in at a given moment. I just hope we get to make many more memories going forward.

I still stick to the message I tweeted Mike in 2017 that you can see on my signature. Could not be more grateful.

 

Thank you, Linkin Park

 

Life just wouldn't be the same without the LP toolbox

 

Beautiful.

 

Some really personal posts in this thread, thank you for sharing those.

(I didn't intend to write a long post myself, but it kind of riffed on its own, so here it is ^^')

You know, I was one of the people who were convinced LP would not come back. I just couldn't figure out how they would solve the equation. Through the last 7 years, I kept checking this place a couple of times a year. I didn't really expect anything specific. Maybe a new Mike track or an old demo surfacing at best. When the anniversary boxes dropped, I thought it would be the closest we'd ever get to what once was. I enjoyed it; it felt like a temporary trip down memory lane. Yet, there was a part of me that just wouldn't totally let go. I could never fully close the LP chapter. The flame was really dim, but it was there.

Little flashback. When I was around 14, sitting in one of my very first classes of English, a teacher asked us the question, "What music do you like?" and my response was, "I don't like music." The teacher answered back, "You're actually supposed to give a real answer, don't make fun of me!" But I was being serious. Up until that age, I had never connected with music. Little did I know. A couple of months later, I fell in love with the background songs of AMVs I was watching online. And then, one day, I noticed all those songs were from the same band, going by the name of "Linkin Park."

Fast forward, music-listening became a huge part of my DNA. At some point, I also started to play the guitar. We can't go back in time, but I am fairly confident things would have been different had it not been for that big crush I had on that one band back then. Oh, and about that English course—I sucked at it in school. But one day, I figured the most extensive information online about Linkin Park was written in English. I registered on forums and started writing way more English, way more often. Eventually, my English became decent enough that I fell confident speaking it, and managed to catch a study program abroad, where I met a person that is still in my life today and has transformed it.

There is surely a lot of butterfly effect in all this, but what I'm trying to get across is how meaningful this band has been for me. When they started playing the show on 05/09, the amount of emotions I felt was something I didn't expect music to give me. But it goes beyond the music. It is about the connection shared through music. It is about the community, the anticipation and the speculation, the opinions, the laughs.

I am so happy that this band is back and kicking it again. That there is a future for it. That they're having so much fun right now. And the album is even damn good as well. I can't wait to see where it goes from here, what 2025 holds, and also, I can't freaking wait to get it kicking at the live shows.

So yes, definitely, thank you, Linkin Park.

 

I am not exaggerating when I say that Linkin Park helped me improve my english exponentially as an 11-year old onwards. Me and my elder sister already had that "worm" in us that would make us good at learning it so we kind of had an advantage anyway, but in my country you start taking english lessons in school at 7th grade unless you're in a rich kids' school. I would sit in my bedroom, LP booklet in hand reading, memorizing and working on my pronunciation. Of course at first I couldn't grasp the full meaning of things, but with them I could see and hear words and structures that I didn't get in class. I never, EVER had anything below a perfect score in english class. Of course, I would consume other content, other music, movies, series etc., but the 2nd best tool I had for learning english besides my great teacher was Linkin Park. That is crazy.

 

This is a post that needed to be written, and I hope everyone shares their personal experiences from the past 7 years.

Thank you, Linkin Park.

 

I feel sad for the timeline that didnt get a LP comeback. Poor people.

 

Beautiful words, Louis.

Well, these last 7 years were so hard without the band. LP was my first love. 13 year old me, who never really liked any kind of music, saw the video of Somewhere I Belong on MTV Brazil by accident and I was blown away. "WTF is this? It's so different. Two singers?" And there I was, not short after, buying Meteora, my first album ever. I still remember clear as day when I came back of the record store and put the album on my dvd player and lost my mind hearing LFY. I didn't even let the record go to Hit The Floor, I put it on repeat until I learned the words from memory.

It's insane how much LP shaped my life. My music taste, my friends, my clothes. I have a LP keychain, which I have proudly used for over 20 years now. I learned English by translating the lyrics and viewing interviews and LPTVs. I'm a graphic designer because I was highly inspired by that Meteora booklet and the art of the band over the years. I learned to play drums because of Rob. There's not a memory of my teenage years until adulthood that LP was not present in some kind of form.

And then July 2017 came, we lost Chester. I was numb for days, it was so sudden. What would happen with the band now? A question that no one had an answer to. Then Mike released Post Traumatic, and then came the daily Mike Twitch streams and that gave me a little hope that at least Mike would keep doing music solo. Over the years I couldn't hear LP songs anymore, it was just too sad. LP meant joy for me, I shouldn't feel sadness, so I've stopped listening to the band.

We reach the 20th anniversary of HT. We saw the band together again. Hope grows but fades again as the questions remain unanswered over time. Now it's the Meteora 20th anniversary and boy, what a treat it was to hear Lost and not feel sad. What I've felt was that nostalgia, that same feeling when I was a teenager, I was transported in time. It was incredible. I was enjoying listening to LP again, but only the new songs, the older ones had baggage attached to them.

Papercuts got me worried. Why a greatest hits? Why now, we just got Meteora 20th? Is this the end officially? Now I get it. To start the new chapter with Emily and Colin, they needed to close the one with Chester. That's what Papercuts is, his body of work, his legacy.

The last 3 months were the happiest of the last 7 years of my life. They fixed that piece of me that was missing. Today I only feel gratitude to the band for having the guts to give another try with a new formation. I can't believe we will got the chance to make memories with LP again.

Thank you, Derek, for keeping this site open in times of uncertainty. Thank you, Adam, Lorenzo, Ana, Jim, and everyone of the LP crew for the hard work. And as Mike well said, thank you to the band members, old and new. Love you all (you too, Alex).

 

This time last year, I had finally accepted that Linkin Park was never coming back. I believed that "Already Over" was Mike's way of telling us it was the end; that he wanted to push forward but the rest of the band did not. Little did we know they were making From Zero simultaneously.

The last seven years for me have been a rollercoaster of personal devastation and euphoria. There's been very little status quo. I'm either the happiest and most fulfilled I've ever felt or sinking to deep, dark rock bottom. Just before the September announcement, I was heading into another depression but the excitement for the return of this band has been a beacon of light. Listening to The Emptiness Machine was like rediscovering a long lost piece of my soul. The void that's been missing since July 20, 2017 has been filled.

I'm not one to wear my emotions on my sleeve but I'm not scared to admit I will probably have tears in my eyes seeing them play next summer.

 

We miss you, Chester <3 Your legacy is one that will last for decades and maybe centuries.
Thank you Rob, for being so fucking awesome. You were my favorite instrumentalist in the band so not having you back on took a bit to get used to. But we love you and appreciate you! I still keep slight hope out that you'll return and Collin will switch to guitars and other instruments.

Thank you to Mike, Joe, Dave, Brad for choosing to continue and to Emily and Collin for giving the band the new voice and talent they needed.
Words genuinely cannot express how great it feels to be back in this community and talking about the band and new music.

 

Frisson.

Frisson was what I felt in the car for the first time when I was a kid, on a nighttime trip. I couldn’t have been more than 10 years old. I had a taste for music already. My mother got me 3 CDs maybe a year before. Godsmack’s self titled album from 1998, Kid Rock’s “Devil Without a Cause”, and Limp Bizkit’s “Significant Other”. Someone I considered an older brother also had me and my little sister enjoying ICP and Twiztid, too.

None of that hit me like hearing Hybrid Theory for the first time ever, front to back, in that back seat. I was on the edge of my seat in a way I had never experienced. I was listening in a way I had never listened. And it felt like my entire body was experiencing a painless electrocution. My hair was on end! I immediately asked if I could borrow that CD when we got home. I was absolutely obsessed from that day forward.

Frisson doesn’t happen to me as often or as intensely anymore, but that day that I made my shift leader laugh because I wanted to take my break at exactly 4:58 because there was something I really wanted to catch? That supercharge I got addicted to as a kid hit me full force that day. My best friend and fellow LP fan, who called me on July 20th 2017 to shakily break the news about Chester because he didn’t want me to have to hear it from someone else, was now blowing up my messages right as Emily joined the stage for the second verse of “The Emptiness Machine.”

FRISSON. MISTY EYES, A RIDICULOUS GRIN, AND FRISSON.

So thankful to have such an authentically revived Linkin Park in my life again, the only way we knew would ever be acceptable for the band personally. This. Is. So. Awesome.

Thank you, LP.

 

These last seven years have been a whirlwind, with so much happening that it often felt overwhelming. The band helped me through a lot of tough times (as cringey as that might sound) during my teenage years, and there’s no other band I feel as connected to as I do with them.

For example, after Chester’s passing, a lot of people reached out to check if I was okay, and I think that shows just how important this band is to me.

When I joined this forum in 2014, I didn’t just meet random people online; it turned into real friendships, and I’m really grateful for that. So many hours "spent" here, so many posts and shoutbox messages. This place is definitely special to me, and I’m glad it survived, even when things were tough post-2017. There were days or weeks when the shoutbox was completely silent, which really sucked, but somehow, we pulled through. I hope we’re more active than ever now.

All of this happened because of Linkin Park, and for all of it, I just want to say thank you. Thank you for being such an important part of my life—now and forever.

 

With everything said and done, I did not expect their return to be this BIG. The label threw everything at this comeback and made me realise how big the band actually is (even after the long hiatus).

 

Hi all. I appreciate your personal stories.
Here’s mine, not somber, but sad.

Chester’s passing caught me on my holidays. We were having fun and then this came like train crushing a car. For me it was like losing a close friend, someone I kept dear. And I felt rather alone, as no one in my circle was into LP.
I was onboard with everything Mike did over these years. But I thought that the band was never going to come back.

and.

here we are.

From Zero. Thx LP. I love you all.

 

I miss experiencing Frisson, I used to but not for years now

 

Immense - well said Louis. Perfectly put. I hope, wholeheartedly, the band get to see this.