The Hunting Party: 2017 Opinion Poll (please read instructions)

The last time I visited LPA consistently was during The Hunting Party album cycle and the months that followed. From what I remember, the album had been generally well received. Even many of the A Thousand Suns wing of the fanbase seemed to find things they really liked about the album (the second half/final stretch of songs was a common one).

Cut to this new album cycle, I come back to LPA after a ~2 year hiatus, and I'm surprised to see that the general consensus on The Hunting Party seems much more negative. So I decided to make a poll/questionaire to see if this is true.

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Within the poll, there are going to be different sets of questions. Each set is marked with a different symbol.

• = How do you feel about The Hunting Party?
• & Where do you rank The Hunting Party among Linkin Park's albums?
• % How has your opinion on The Hunting Party changed since its release?

2. Please only give one answer per section/symbol.

Feel free to post more thoughts below. I'm genuinely curious.

 

= I still love THP. (nah you didn't see that coming )
& 3th
% a little bit (mostly because the vocals)

 

My judgement on THP really depends on the context, really.

As a Linkin Park album, I still think it ranks among their best, and technically/instrumentally speaking, I'd actually call it their best. Plus, the rawness and the punk attitude contrast nicely with the rest of their discography.

But, in the wider context of music in general, there's so much more "better" stuff out there when it comes to metal/hard rock, that I don't feel the need to listen to the record so often anymore. If I want great technical metal, "THP" is definitely not the first thing that comes to mind.

On the opposite, if I feel like listening to some catchy alternative music, yet still rockish, LP might be one of the first thing that comes to mind. Sort of funny

 

It is definitely a great album. It's got some lower points, but it's also got some amazing songs. My favorite ones are the more experimental ones. I love how they experiment with punk on "War".

"Mark The Graves" is my second-favorite song that Linkin Park has ever put out, only falling behind "Blackout". It seems to have a shoegazing sound to it. It's noisy but it's also beautiful.

 

I was never a huge fan of THP. I have a lot of respect for what the band accomplished with that album and I enjoy certain songs quite a bit (GATS, Wastelands, FM). That being said, THP hasn't had much replay-value for me. It's the least memorable LP album for my tastes.

 

One of the best records imo. I like it pretty much exactly the same as I did in 2014. Instrumentally, it was such a vast improvement and there was some great highlights. Rakim's verse, ALITS, Mike's rhyme pattern on Wastelands, Rebellion's lyrics, etc. I'd say the first two songs are bangers, GATS to War was the worst part and the only song I don't like after War is Mark The Graves. So 7 songs I like, 3 I don't. Overall, a solid record for me.

 

I think the second half has some of the best songs LP have ever written. Rebellion -> A Line In The Sand is just a fantastic run of songs. If the rest of the album had been more akin to those tracks, I think it'd be the best Linkin Park album. However, the front half is disjointed, bland, and cringe-worthy at spots. There are a few great moments scattered in there (KTTK's bridge, AFN's solo, and Rakim's verse), but the majority of it is just uninteresting to me. The Summoning is useless, War is a shitty attempt at punk that definitely feels like it was written in 5 minutes, Wastelands feels ripped right off of Meteora, Chester sounds like he's dying on KTTK, etc.

So, I love 50% of the album and haven't listened to the other 50% in 2 years, and I don't feel like I'm missing much. I'm also thrilled they're not doing this sound again for the next album.

 

It's still far from my favorite Linkin Park stuff, which is similar to my first impressions. I appreciate a lot of things about it, though. It's obviously their best record when it comes to playing their instruments. Rob is awesome and Brad has stepped up his game a lot. What I probably enjoy most is the album's rawness - we had never heard unpolished Linkin Park and it fitted the music well.

My problem with the record is that I don't think Linkin Park's strength is heavy music. I'm not saying they can't write a good heavy song - they've done it many times before and there are good examples of it on THP itself. But they are much better at writing not-that-heavy alternative/electronic catchier rock, pop or whatever their other stuff is. I'd listen to ATS or MTM many times I'm in the mood for such music, but I'd rarely play THP when I'm in the mood for something heavier. I only listen to it when I specifically want to listen to Linkin Park, and even then I often skip it.

It's not a horrible album, but its pros don't make up for its cons. A lot of the tracks feel pretty standard and not experimental at all and even though playing more technical parts might've felt new and interesting at first, it's not something unheard of outside of Linkin Park and it's not enough to make me want to come back to the record. I'm never like "yeah, it's not my favorite album, but they actually play some more difficult stuff, so I'm going to listen to it". Maybe if it was a little more experimental, I would've enjoyed it more. Maybe they would've proved me wrong and showed me their aggressive music could be as solid as their mellower stuff, but that's not what happened.

After all, I'm happy they released THP. I always wanted to hear a similar style from them and I'm glad I got to. Maybe if they had made a second attempt, they could have done better. Seems like they took another direction with LP7, though, so we'll never know.

 

Everything's been said already, but I must add that The Hunting Party is with ATS the album I can replay a thousand times without feeling lile an ounce of boredom. I feel like THP and its atmosphere are growing on me everyday.

 

This is exactly how i feel

 

Living Things and THP are lesser albums than the first four, but LT at least had some catchy songs and some decent lyrics... half the songs on THP are about nothing, and the whole thing is heavy for the sake of being heavy. Least favorite album (for now).

 

The album is horribly mixed.... least favorite album.

 

It's a good album, and it has some of the best songs of the band's career, but it doesn't have much replay value, which is something that Living Things has over it.

 

Overall my liking of the album hasn't changed that much, but how much I like each track definitely has. I think GATS is one of their best songs ever, whereas UIG, Wastelands, and MTG are pretty boring to me these days. When the album first came out, I had a hard time choosing favorites and least favorites.

 

Until It's Gone, FM and Rebellion where the reasons I loved the album when it first came out. The rest of the songs I felt like something was missing. Tons of guitars and drums but no great melodies at all, Chester's voice felt weak too.

That's ok cause 3 years later I'm like gimme all the heavy shit! I listen to songs like War and ALITS more now then before.

 

The Hunting Party was my honest dream Linkin Park record. I remember years ago imagining epic rock odysseys featuring Chester screaming over colossal guitar solos, and yet somehow A Line In The Sand/Guilty All The Same/Mark The Graves/Keys To The Kingdom all still surpassed my wildest expectations.

I'll admit the album has several flaws: The Summoning is pointless, All For Nothing fails to do anything worthwhile, and Wastelands feels redundant at this point in their career. However, the rest of the album is stellar hard rock with an edge that had truly been missing from "mainstream" rock bands for quite some time.

Had the band released The Hunting Party as a more concise EP with the following tracklist, it would be unquestionably my favourite release:

1. Guilty All The Same
2. Rebellion
3. Keys To The Kingdom
4. Mark The Graves
5. Drawbar
6. A Line In The Sand

For now, the album ranks alongside A Thousand Suns as Linkin Park's best IMO.

 

What a tasty playlist. Now combine it with one of the LPU14 art and THP trully shines through that carnivorous, visceral spirit it was advertised for. Less filler, more killer.

 

THP is really a spiritual successor to ATS in terms of ambition and improvement. LT isn't a bad record by any means either. LT had lyrics that are just as good as ATS, nice melodies and interesting rhyme patterns but LT lacked evolution and soul imo. It was just LP making a record for the sake of making one. THP was the band pretty much doing the unexpected and I'm thankful for it. It proved a lot to detractors:

1. The band can still make heavy music if they want.
2. They can make heavy music that isn't nu metal.
3. More technical instrumentation
4. They can make a (mostly) non mainstream marketed record.

So it's one of the best in their discography imo. A milestone for the band to me.

 

I like the album better than others, from Rebellion to the end +Guilty All the Same are bangers for me. Funny though, I tacked on the acoustic version of Final Masquerade to the end of the album and that's the best thing about it.