Linkin Park is back with From Zero
It's a banger!
I previously wrote about how I was totally taken by surprise by the announcement of a new Linkin Park album back in early September. After just over two months of waiting and binging on Linkin Park’s back catalog, the new album, From Zero, arrived on Friday November 151.
I first heard it the week before at a listening party at Bull Moose music and liked what I heard. On Wednesday they released another single, Two Faced, which kept the streak of great singles going strong. Also on Wednesday I ordered the digital Expanded Edition (only $5!), which has three extra live tracks for The Emptiness Machine, Heavy is the Crown and Over Each Other2. Plus it comes with a PDF that is essentially what would be the CD booklet with lyrics and photos. The songs are all provided as FLAC files, but I just use Apple Music which is more than good enough for me.
I’ve now listened to the album at least six times so can offer some thoughts. Overall, I absolutely love it! It sounds like Linkin Park, but the songs have a nice variety to them with heavy stuff, soft stuff and screaming stuff. My only complaint is that From Zero is rather short at 32 minutes, but the expanded edition helps with that a little.
Here’s my track-by-track breakdowns.
The first track is called From Zero (Intro) and starts with a cool, brief orchestral sound. Then it switches to a female voice, probably Emily3, saying “From Zero? As in from nothing?”. Then there’s a pause and she says “Oh wait, your fir” and it’s cut off. It sure sounds like she was about to say “your first band name was Xero!”. This intro is cool and short enough that I just let it play through when looping the album.
The Emptiness Machine introduced the new album and Linken Park 2.0 to everyone back in September and it is still my favorite track. It’s an amazingly catchy hard rock song and perfectly introduces Emily as the singer. It has now become my most-played song of 2024.
Cut the Bridge starts with a driving snare beat that continues through the song and is a rap/rock song. I really like this one.
Heavy is the Crown is the theme song for League of Legends Worlds 2024 and is an amazing rap/rock song in the style of Faint from Meteoria. The chorus is catching, but Emily’s 15 second scream in “this is what you asked for” steals the show. I also really like the animated video. Be sure to also listen to the version from the soundtrack for Arcane, the Netflix show. It has a totally different vibe.
Over Each Other was the third single and is a showcase for Emily. This is the only song where Mike also does not sing or rap. It also feels least like a Linkin Park song, but it is great nonetheless. I love the big bass drums at the end of each line of the chorus. This song hits hard.
I remember Casualty being aggressive from the listening party and it most definitely is. The chorus are screamed by Emily and are aggressive as hunch. Even Mike’s rap parts are much more aggressive than he’s ever done. This song is going to be a big stress-reliever. It’s only a matter of time!
Overflow is the strangest song and also my least favorite. It is rather mellow, moody and ethereal. It sounds pretty amazing with headphones and Emily’s singing is sublime, but it hasn’t fully clicked with me just yet. It’s not bad, but something had to be my least favorite. I do really like the guitar outro. At the end of the song is a short snippet of what sounds like someone flipping over a cassette, perhaps to indicate that this would be the last song of side one on a cassette.
Two Faced starts with rapping and then has a stunningly catchy chorus. The video for this is also a lot of fun. A great rock/rap song. The “stop yelling at me” screams with Joe’s scratching is epic.
Stained is a big softer, but again showcases Emily’s vocals. This may not be a big rock song, but it has an amazing groove and I absolutely love it.
IGYEIH is the acronym of I Gave You Everything I Have. This song starts sort of calm, but it really is angry, aggressive and wonderfully Linkin Park.
Good Things Go is a ballad sung by both Mike and Emily and it hits hard. It’s a bit sad and touching — I love it.
This track ends with an orchestral sound that matches the one in the first track, making this album infinitely loopable. It’s a great trick.
As I said above, the album is short and over before you know it. This is not really a problem because the songs are dense and lend themselves well to repeat listens.
Overall, I love it! There are no skips for me and this will be on repeat for some time and will surely become my most-listened album of 2024. I can’t possible rate the songs just yet, other than to say that The Emptiness Machine is first and Overflow is last (something had to be). There’s no need for me to rate the songs as I’ll be listening to this album as a whole from now on, anyway.
Reading others views on Reddit and watching YouTube reaction videos, I find it surprising how the songs hit differently for everyone. It seems like we all have our own favorites, different from everyone else. You don’t often see that.
I also think it’s important to talk about the overall marketing for From Zero, which I think was a masterclass. The single release order was just perfect. The short tour before the release helped build the hype as they introduced new songs live. The early listening parties were genius. Plus, with the album drop they’ve released videos for all the songs, which they refer to as visualizers, but are better than typical visualizers or lyric videos from other bands. The 2025 world tour looks impressive4.
The limited livestream of the São Paulo show in Brazil on release day was also genius and after it ended, there was a title screen announcing it would be “in theaters” in 2025. Impressive!
Just in time, because I really needed it to help heal my psyche.
There were rumors that some got the full download on Wednesday when they ordered, but that seems to have been a system glitch as I had to wait until Friday to get the download link.
It has since been confirmed by Mike Shinoda on the Amazon “track-by-track” interview that it is one of his kids.
Poor Australia, though.