By MIKE CHAIKEN EDITIONS EDITOR The opening moments of Linkin Park’s latest album, “The Hunting Party” leaves no doubt that the veteran act was setting out to do a different kind of record. With the harsh scream and abrasive guitars, you do a double take. Is this really Linkin Park or did you download the wrong group? After a couple of albums that weren’t out of place on a pop radio station playlist, the tracks on the new album place the band squarely back in the realm of metal. The redirection also was made clear in the now-cancelled tour in which Linkin Park reached out to Rise Against and Of Mice and Men, two bands with a definitely harder edge, to open for the headliners. Prior to the tour’s cancellation due to his own leg injury, Linkin Park’s lead singer Chester Pennington held a teleconference with the press. And in that call, he spoke about the new album and the harder edged sound within. Chester said, “I remember sitting in Mike’s (multi-instrumentalist/ vocalist Mike Shinoda) studio and all the songs were pretty pop-heavy… We were, like, all kind of, like, leading towards… making more pop-heavy stuff because it’s fun and […]
By MIKE CHAIKEN EDITIONS EDITOR The opening moments of Linkin Park’s latest album, “The Hunting Party” leaves no doubt that the veteran act was setting out to do a different kind of record. With the harsh scream and abrasive guitars, you do a double take. Is this really Linkin Park or did you download the wrong group? After a couple of albums that weren’t out of place on a pop radio station playlist, the tracks on the new album place the band squarely back in the realm of metal. The redirection also was made clear in the now-cancelled tour in which Linkin Park reached out to Rise Against and Of Mice and Men, two bands with a definitely harder edge, to open for the headliners. Prior to the tour’s cancellation due to his own leg injury, Linkin Park’s lead singer Chester Pennington held a teleconference with the press. And in that call, he spoke about the new album and the harder edged sound within. Chester said, “I remember sitting in Mike’s (multi-instrumentalist/ vocalist Mike Shinoda) studio and all the songs were pretty pop-heavy… We were, like, all kind of, like, leading towards… making more pop-heavy stuff because it’s fun and […]