Linkin Park returns with “From Zero”: what’s this new album like with Emily Armstrong?

Linkin Park has always been a band apart. Landed in the fall of 2000 at the bottom of the neo-metal wave initiated by Korn, Deftones and a few others, the album Hybrid Theory stood out from the crowd thanks to its super unifying choruses and the magical complicity of its two voices. On one side the nice rapper Mike Shinoda, on the other the furious singer Chester Bennington, capable of going from total hysteria to the purest melody in the blink of an eye. Marrying the positive thinking of one and the intimate torments of the second, hits like “Papercuts”, “In The End” or even “Crawling” make it the soundtrack of a generation, selling 32 million copies Since.

Three years later, Meteor reproduces substantially the same formula before its authors try new horizons, without ever achieving unanimity. In May 2017, their seventh opus entitled One More Light not surprising is its pop orientation, marked by the almost total absence of guitars. On July 20, when Linkin Park had just started a new tour, Chester Bennington was found hanged at his home in California. A drama that upset millions of fans and put an end to the group's career. Forever ? Well no.

A 32-minute masterclass

Seven years later, Linkin Park is back on the scene with From Zeroan album concocted in the greatest secrecy with Emily Armstrong, 38 years old, the ex-singer of Dead Sara, an alternative group which never broke through on a large scale despite the support of a certain Courtney Love. Drummer Rob Bourdon having left the case, he was replaced by a certain Colin Brittain. When this hybrid comeback was announced at the beginning of September, a handful of fans cried foul, believing that no one had the right to replace Chester Bennington. Others highlight the young woman's links with the Church of Scientology to disqualify her.

This Linkin Park 2.0 prefers to respond in music with “The Emptiness Machine”, an addictive first single which climbs to first place in the charts around the world in a few hours. A skillful conductor, Mike Shinoda did not look for a vocal double of his late accomplice. But a stamp that is both singular and complementary to his own. In the great history of rock, never has a major group replaced its singer with a female singer. Linkin Park did it… And it’s amazing as confirmed From Zeroa true masterclass of 32 minutes flat.

From the triumphant “Heavy is The Crown” to the irresistible “Two Faced”, from the poignant “Over Each Other” to the majestic “Good Thing Go” via the soaring “Overflow”, Linkin Park delivers a sort of best of its discography and makes the most of its different components, the abrasive guitars of Brad Delson are notably back, all transcended by a monumental production. But the X factor is clearly Emily Armstrong.

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Aware or not of the responsibility incumbent on her, the singer delivers a breathtaking performance from start to finish, whether she belches death metal style on the monstrous “Casualty” or gives herself on edge on the a cappella break of the fabulous “Stained “. With this enormous record, Linkin Park invents a radiant future, capable of bringing together the nostalgic and the new generation in the same bloc. After a first triumphant stopover in France at Paris La Défense Arena at the beginning of November, the resurrection will continue at the Stade de France on July 11.