Fueled by the talents of their new lead vocalist Emily Armstrong, Linkin Park make a remarkable record out of their comeback attempt, ‘From Zero.’

Stream: ‘From Zero’ – Linkin Park

Ever since 2017, until just now, Linkin Park had been in the same state that Nirvana had entered in 1994 – indefinitely dormant, distraught by the suicide of their talented-yet-troubled frontman, and unable (or perhaps unwilling) to conceive a way forward without him.

Unlike Nirvana, however, the surviving members of Linkin Park have ultimately found a way to revive their act under its original name. The solution, it turned out, was to bring aboard their fellow Los Angeles native Emily Armstrong as the new co-lead vocalist and have her alternate between vocal harmonizing and hollering in a way that evokes dearly departed Chester Bennington’s signature style.

From Zero - Linkin Park — From Zero – Linkin Park

In addition, Colin Brittain has been added as the new drummer, a role previously filled by Rob Bourdon, who declined to rejoin the group this time around. Linkin Park has been testing this formula out with a handful of international concerts this past fall and seem to have determined that they’re ready to go, having just now followed up with the release of their eighth studio album and first in seven years, From Zero.

They waste no time validating their decision to reform. “The Emptiness Machine,” the album’s first song after a 22-second intro, has quickly become the band’s most successful single in 15-odd years.

It chronicles the fight against false promises and turning emotionally vapid that Linkin Park previously documented in hit songs such as “Numb” – “I let you cut me open, just to watch me bleed, gave up who I am for who you wanted me to be,” Armstrong sings.

This album opener represents an early chance for Linkin Park to make a favorable first impression of this new experiment of theirs, and they convincingly nail it.

As the album proceeds, Armstrong continues to shows what she’s made of, whether it be via straight-up singing, putting “her screaming pants on” (as the rest of the band jokes right before she very much dons said attire on the song “Casualty”), or finding the common ground between both vocal approaches on tracks like “Heavy Is the Crown.”

For the other members of the band, this song’s lyrical theme is fitting, given that they’ve had to handle the pressures of fame throughout the past 25 years. Armstrong convincingly demonstrates how well she identifies with such pressure, given her status as a relatively obscure singer now being tasked with helping one of the biggest rock bands ever to reestablish themselves after many years away. The result is a true album standout, one of many tracks here that would have been worthy of inclusion on some of the band’s most successful records, Meteora and Hybrid Theory among them.

What was long one of Linkin Park’s most compelling qualities was just how well the band’s two lead vocalists, singer Bennington and rapper Mike Shinoda, managed to serve as artistic foils of one another. Replace Bennington’s name with Armstrong’s and the same statement largely applies to From Zero. Although he’s approaching 50 now, pretty old by hip-hop standards, Shinoda continues to impress as an MC, largely by letting his emotional rawness run as freely as ever.

Understandably devastated by the loss of Bennington – he even based his 2018 debut solo album, Post Traumatic, on elaborating on just how rocked to the core he felt from his former co-frontman’s sudden departure – Shinoda further touches upon his enduring feelings of shock and unsteadiness on From Zero. “I’m in it over my head,” he sings on “Two Faced,” adding that he’s “hanging by a thread” and “beginning to realize that you put me over the edge.” On “Good Things Go,” he similarly explains how “this is just feelin’ like it’s not that serious, [starin’] at the ceiling, feeling delirious.”

Elsewhere on the album, he searches for all sorts of ways to deal with these various vulnerabilities, including by speaking out to his lost companion. “Last time, you told me it wasn’t true, and pointin’ every finger at things that you didn’t do,” Shinoda seemingly addresses Bennington on “Two Faced,” before concluding, “So that’s why I kept missin’ the clues and never realized that the one that did it was you.”

Shinoda continues to provide Linkin Park with valuable leadership and– especially crucial for this relaunch attempt – achieves an effective yin-and-yang when paired up with Armstrong across the album’s 11 tracks.

**One final factor to From Zero’s success is the masterful instrumental work by all of its supporting members.**

Lead guitarist Brad Delson, bassist Dave Farrell, and DJ Joe Hahn have all been with Linkin Park since the late 1990s, before they even broke into the mainstream. That quarter-century worth of chemistry still shines, the band’s recent hiatus notwithstanding. Add in the drumming of newly recruited Colin Brittain, and what emerges is a half hour of pure rock ‘n roll adrenaline, one that passes by in a sudden whirlwind.

Overall, Linkin Park may indeed be starting “from zero” in 2024, but their new iteration has speedily proven to be something special. In the end, that definitely does matter.

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