Everything back to zero - LINKIN PARK - “From Zero”

Wounds heal. Time passes. But the nostalgia of having discovered this band in 2000, in the most turbulent Nu Metal times, remains.

A primal force, an outcry from the youth of the time (and even a 22-year-old!) in the wake of the millennium change - completely different, metal-heavy music with one of the most charismatic singers of all time: This moment, this “big bang” manifested itself and to even try to change it was always repugnant to me.

Admittedly, I was very narrow-minded. LINKIN PARK without Chester - for whom I myself shed more than a tear and whose portrait still hangs on a wall for a reason - was an impossibility for me. It was a sacrilege. The inner turmoil of this character, the power in a rather slight body, whose voice was an elemental force in all its facets, the vulnerability and the sad past: Chester was a mirror of many adolescents and yet an anchor, a way out of the gloom - if you listen to songs like “Numb”, “In the End”, “One more Light” or “Lost”, which was only released four years ago, today, the vulnerability of this exceptional artist was actually obvious: the worst could still not be prevented in this way and so the band actually died for me in 2017 - along with Chester.

Now I have to get my act together - so when I heard a few months ago that LINKIN PARK were moving on and had installed the previously unknown Emily Armstrong as their singer (!), a lot of things went through my mind - much of it was neither friendly nor fair, after all, the world was just shaking my personal monument and Chester's legacy. That's the thing about being a fan - you're not always objective and I learned that lesson pretty quickly when the first track “The Emptiness Machine” was released: The track ignited from the first second and Mike's vocals alone were enough to make those tears (this time of happiness and positive surprise) well up. When Emily joined in, it was clear: this is still the band that blew my socks off in 2000. The vocals are - logically - different and the “female fronted” experiment absolutely worked, at least for this song, which ran on a continuous loop for the following weeks. This was also the moment when I felt ashamed of my earlier thoughts and changed my mind - which I rarely like to admit, but did so quite quickly here, as I realized that long-time companions were finally back.

Whether the 32 minutes, which begin with a short intro and are then followed by the early climax “The Emptiness Machine”, deserve to be called a “long player” remains to be seen. However, LINKIN PARK quickly manage “business as usual” with tracks such as “Heavy is the Crown”, the quieter “Over each other” or “Cut the Bridge”, all of which combine the advantages of the past with the sound of the modern era. Safety first, the “Hybrid Theory” and “Meteore” vibes inevitably come up - after years of abstinence, you feel right at home again in the tried and tested LP cosmos, and that's a good thing!

It's almost halfway through the album when Emily is really let off the chain in “Casualty” and the quieter and partly contemplative “Overflow” takes over, before “Two Faced” and “Stained” in particular come across as further album highlights in the second half and simply represent the tried and tested cross-section of LINKIN PARK songs over the decades. “IGYEIH” then starts quite ‘screamy’ again and then turns into the usual dialog between vocals and Mike's rap parts, while ‘Good Things go’ really is the program here and closes the LINKIN PARK comeback calmly and contemplatively. On this album, the band definitely show in all their well-known facets what might still be possible in the future. The good thing: You feel absolutely at home, time has somehow stood still on “From Zero”. The bad: Yes, the good does indeed go too fast and 32 minutes of LINKIN PARK are simply not enough after all this time!

I'm smiling right now as I stream “From Zero” and hold the album I ordered in my hands at the same time (regardless of the fact that the CD-only version is quite spartan). This band still deserves a memorial and just as the past can never return, LINKIN PARK at least have more than the right to continue shaping their future. The nostalgia is still there, the tears are still there - but the album manages to bridge the gap to almost 25 years ago and I'm ashamed of any bad thoughts I had about the reunion not so long ago. LINKIN PARK remain LINKIN PARK - but (of necessity) differently positioned and equipped for the challenges of the mid-2020s. And when your own eight-year-old is already trying to sing along to Emily's lyrics on “The Emptiness Machine” after a short time, the generational change with “From Zero” is more than just a success!

LINKIN PARK in 2024 is not a replacement for LINKIN PARK with Chester Bennington in 2017, nor is Emily Armstrong a direct replacement for him - and it was never meant to be: This is the band that Chester (from wherever he now looks down on this world) watches with a smile, knowing that his boys (now with Emily) are finally back doing what this band was founded to do. The legacy of Chester Bennington lives on unexpectedly strong in this band and remains as untouchable as ever, while the band has successfully started a new chapter in its history. You have to grant them that and after listening to the album at the latest, all doubts should be dispelled (albeit with moist eyes of sadness AND happiness), as they were for me. “From Zero” is less a synonym for the new start, but somehow reminds us of the old band name ‘Xero’ - and is perhaps a sign that one or two clocks have been set back to zero.

Conclusion: A successful comeback, contrary to expectations - even if it could have been more than just 32 minutes! Glad to have you back, LP!