When Chester Bennington passed away in 2017, many believed it was the end of Linkin Park. Since Hybrid Theory in 2000, they had released 7 albums over 17 years, and it seemed like it’d stay that way. After a long grieving period, Mike Shinoda brought most of the original band back together, introduced us to some new stars, and gave From Zero. Thanks to all of Linkin Park, especially the new singer Emily Armstrong, they’ve created one of their best albums to date.
As Emily humorously points out in the intro, the album’s title references how all the songs were inspired by prior works, everything since the band was originally named Xero. From Hybrid Theory to One More Light, at least one song will remind you of your favorite album. Not including the aforementioned intro, there are 10 songs in From Zero, which some believe to be a little too short. While the length is fine to me, it would’ve been nice to get some more similar to Hybrid Theory and Meteora if it was longer, but I’m not complaining. While I preferred some songs over others, it makes sense as I preferred some of Linkin Park’s albums over each other (pun not intended). I personally don’t believe there was a weak link or a bad song, but I didn’t care as much for Casualty or Over Each Other. Still, I loved all the songs in From Zero, with some favorites being Two-Faced, Heavy is the Crown, and Cut the Bridge.
The band released The Emptiness Machine, Heavy is the Crown, Over Each Other, and Two-Faced as singles prior to the album’s release, and they all are splendid representations of what they did. The former worked phenomenally as the opener song, and the rest displayed the variety within the album. The final song, Good Things Go, was an emotional closer to the album that I don’t think could’ve been better fitted. A tiny little thing I enjoyed was how the very heavy IGYEIH led directly into Good Things Go, which itself has a chorus leading into the album’s intro if you loop it.
Overall, after such a long wait of patience and doubt, Mike, Emily, and everyone else revived Linkin Park better than anyone could’ve thought. Every song was a fantastic homage to what came before, and while it will never be the same without Chester, he would be proud of what they’ve done. I cannot wait to see what lies in store for them and will be playing From Zero on repeat for the next few weeks.
