Linkin Park makes a ferocious return with ‘From Zero,’ new singer

Linkin Park knows a successful return isn’t a given.
While many fans will be ecstatic the rock band has returned with a new album and tour, others will shun them eternally, viewing this version as an affront to the memory of singer Chester Bennington, who died in 2017.
“From Zero,” Linkin Park’s eighth album, which dropped Nov. 15, is the first since Bennington’s death, as well as the christening of Emily Armstrong, the former Dead Sara singer who now trades mighty vocal wallops with Mike Shinoda, who co-founded the band in 1996.
While Linkin Park’s signature nu metal/electro-rock sound remains intact, it’s a hefty assignment for guitarist Brad Delson, bassist Dave Farrell, DJ/video director Joe Hahn and new drummer Colin Brittain. (Original drummer Rob Bourdon left the band after Bennington’s death.)
Armstrong is a naturally feral vocalist, heaving her voice across these 11 tracks with head-snapping velocity. Her guttural roars somehow overpower even the monster guitar riffs powering “Casualty,” while her repeated stanza “From now on, I don’t need you” in “IGYEIH” is repeated with the fury of someone who is secure in her decision.
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The “From Zero” singles that have populated rock stations since September – slow-burn rocker “The Emptiness Machine,” the twitchy “Heavy is the Crown” and melodic “Over Each Other” – meld heavy staccato beats, razor-like guitar and electronic flourishes in faithful Linkin Park fashion.
Though the band – which made its debut with Armstrong live in September and will embark on a 50-plus date world tour starting Jan. 31 in Mexico City – will always be diminished with the loss of Bennington, their altered chemistry with the addition of Armstrong has to be applauded for a willingness to hit restart.
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Of these vigorous songs, the standout is the final track, “Good Things Go.” Armstrong and Shinoda trade vocals and even harmonize prettily, but then Armstrong peels off with her own commentary: “Sometimes bad things take the place where good things go.”
It’s a true duet, with Shinoda delving into the exhaustion of trying to escape oneself (“Maybe I’m just too eager/maybe I lost the plot … (expletive) all your empathy” he raps on the bridge) as the song grinds forward. Armstrong responds with measured neediness, singing in a tone that showcases her vocal restraint, “only you can save me from my lack of self-control.”
It’s a fitting closer to an album that will evoke a gamut of emotions in fans, ducking into the darkness, peeking out for some light and existing somewhere in the in between.