Linkin Park - Mike Shinoda, Brad Delson, Phoenix, Joe Hahn, alongside new members Emily Armstrong (of critically acclaimed band Dead Sara) as co-vocalist and Colin Brittain (songwriter/producer for G Flip, Illenium, One OK Rock) as drummer - share their first album in seven Years!
Perfect comeback for the band. The tracks explore sounds from the bands whole discography, and manages to have a little bit for everyone. This is not to say it doesn't try anything different though. Tracks like Overflow and the stunning finale Good Things Go demonstrate the band still has modern sensibilities. Emily is an incredible talent and puts her range on full display.
Breaking away from Rick Rubin, with whom they had a three-album association, Brad Delson and Mike Shinoda co-produce this time around and retreat from the moody electronica that characterized many of those records. Instead, The Hunting Party is designed as a return to rock, evoking the group's earliest records. Reconnecting with the past is a standard move for a heavy band 15 years into its career, but The Hunting Party is effectively aggressive, partially due to how far into the ether Linkin Park strayed on Living Things and, especially, A Thousand Suns. Written and recorded over the course of a year, The Hunting Party nevertheless packs a visceral punch.
'New Divide' is a single written by Linkin Park for Michael Bay's film Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. The song serves as the film's theme, and was released as a digital download single on May 18th 2009. Mike Shinoda stated in March "We've been working on a new song in the past couple of weeks that has been a lot of fun. The backdrop for the song is built on layered, heavy synths and a sharp performance by Rob Bourdon [the band's drummer]". On April 24th, Shinoda revealed that they were working with film score composer Hans Zimmer, writing various interpretations of 'New Divide' to serve as thematic elements for the film. 'New Divide' debuted at No.6 on the Billboard Hot 100. At the time of writing the song has entered the UK Singles Chart at No.20
Rock in Rio dubs itself the world’s biggest music festival, but with its first incarnation in the USA, that seemed less literal than figurative during its first weekend, devoted to rock music. 82,000 fans rung the turnstiles over two days to see the likes of Metallica, Maná, No Doubt, Linkin Park, and many more.