The hardest part of ending is starting again

Linkin Park is back!

I wasn’t paying attention. I had seen that in August Linkin Park had a countdown to something on their web site, but I didn’t pay much attention to it. I figured it was going to be another song from their vault.

However on September 5, they had a livestream concert that introduced a new song and a new singer: Emily Armstrong. I missed it all that day and didn’t even notice until the evening of Friday the 6th. What can I say, I was busy!

As I usually do at some point on Friday, I checked Apple Music for new rock releases. It was there that I saw that Linkin Park had something: a new song called The Emptiness Machine.

I was still wearing my hearing aids, which connect to my iPhone, so I hit play to give it a listen. These hearing aids don’t have the best fidelity for music, but they work OK, sort of like low-quality FM radio.

Still, I was blown away by the song. I then jumped over to the TV and fired up YouTube to watch the video. My wife yelled at me for blasting the song too loud.

This was shocking. There were tears. The Emptiness Machine tricks you by starting kind of slow with muted drums, piano and Mike Shinoda singing. It sounds a bit like some of his solo songs with a good beat and his casual singing style. It then builds to what appears to be a crescendo and then it drops down to just piano as Mike sings the chorus. When he finishes the chorus, everything kicks in with full drums, guitar and the works.

This trick works and it’s starting to feel like Linkin Park again. But then something different happens. A new voice enters, singing “Goin’ around like a revolver”. This voice is clearly female, crystal clear and sounds amazing. A great fit for the song. At this point, I had no idea who the singer was.

She sings the verse and then it gets to the chorus and her voice changes to a raspy, screamy voice that reminds you of Chester Bennington yet is also its own thing. I’ve read countless notes from people online saying that this part brought tears to their eyes and I’m no exception.

There’s a brief switch back to Mike singing after this before it goes back to this new singer. The song wraps up with another chorus and quickly ends. It’s a short song at just 3m10s, but that length is probably perfect because you instantly want to play it again.

I immediately hit the internet to find out who this new singer was. Her name is Emily Armstrong and she is also the singer for a band called Dead Sarah, which I had heard of but did not know any of their music.

In addition to being an amazing son, the YouTube video was fun, showing the band members doing other things besides music, but being called back to the band by the song. It’s well done with some cool digital effects.

To me the song itself is saying live your best life and ignore the haters. In particular it strikes me as commenting on the often vitriolic online comments you can get when sharing on social media. Don’t let them attack you, ignore them as they offer nothing of value.

After watching the video, I then I watched the livestream.

I absolutely love the way it opens with The Emptiness Machine. You can feel that the audience really had no idea what was going to happen. After Mike sings the first chorus, the camera follows Emily walking through the crowd to the stage where she sings for the first time. Goosebumps!

Linkin Park played a 45 minute set of some of their other songs and Emily did a wonderful job, although she was clearly overcome with emotions in several places.

There are also two other band changes. Long-time drummer Rob Bourdon has decided to leave the band and has been replaced with Colin Brittain. Also lead guitarist Brad Delson is still with the band but will no longer be touring with them.

All of this culminated with the announcement of a new album, From Zero, to be released on November 15th. There’s a lot of meaning in that title. The first name of the band was “Xero” so it seems they are calling back to that. And of course, in some ways they are starting from zero or starting from scratch with a new singer (and drummer).

The second single, Heavy is the Crown, was released on September 24 as part of a tie-in with Riot Games and League of Legends (after first debuting on September 22 at the live show in Hamburg, Germany). I’m old and not a gamer, so I’m not familiar with League of Legends and can’t really comment on it. The song debuted in an animated video that kicked off League of Legends World 2024 and I thought the video was pretty cool as it had the band members all animated as they were singing and playing. I’m sure the LoL folks were probably annoyed at Linkin Park perhaps overshadowing their game, though.

As far as the song goes, I thought it kicked ass. It starts with some weird video-gamey sounds before big guitars and drums drop in, followed by Mike’s rapping vocals.

The chorus is the super-anthemic “This is what you asked for, heavy is the crown”, which is sung my Emily is a gravelly, raspy voice.

The highlight of the song is the 15 second scream she does after the second chorus: “This is what you asked foooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooor!”

The song is even shorter than The Emptiness Machine at under 3 minutes and I do wish it were longer. The song has a very familiar feel to it, reminiscent of Faint from Meteora.

Although the album drops on November 15, the track listing already appears on Spotify and Apple Music. Based my research, the album appears to be a rather brief 35 minutes long or so.

These two new songs have spurred a Linkin Park revival in my music listening. I’ve basically been playing their discography non-stop since September 6. I’ve had The Emptiness Machine on constant repeat and I’ve yet to get enough. It is an earworm of the highest magnitude. My previous two most-played songs this year have been Panic Attack by Judas Priest and Phantoma by Unleash the Archers. After about a month, The Emptiness Machine is on track to pass them both very soon.