Linkin Park. 1 triple platinum album and this one in the works since 2001. No wonder the expectations were huge.
From what Ive read at MouthShut....Linkin Park are severly over-rated. So here (finally) is an unbiased review from the point of a view of a real metal-head who’s heard almost every Alt-Rock and Nu-Metal band out there.
So here’s the blueprint: Start with a nice modern processed drumbeat for 16 beats, then come in with big, fizzing, power chords. Tune the guitars down a notch and allow your band-mate to rap in a fairly unimaginative fashion. This is all part of the plan. The slightly drab verse builds up and before you know it you’re hitting the kids with the huge angsty chorus, instruments thrashing wildly, vocals wailing(screaming at times). The lyrical content has to be about the pain you feel, about being misunderstood, about how you can’t change, or about how you want that girl you used to go out with to just, like, totally, you know....like go away. Maybe your mates can shout behind you a bit here, to give your anger more authenticity. This whole process should then be repeated, and followed by a bridge that’s a bit shouty. Then repeat chorus until only the most stupid of fans won’t be able to recite it back.
’Hit The Floor’ is the most ferocious track on the album, but follows the same rules. ’’Easier to Run’’, the track that proceeds it is the most sissy, but follows the same rules. Many of the choruses are great, but by about track eight you begin to realise this isn’t about songs, this is about mathematics, and if you’ve actually paid for the album with your own money, you’ve been well and truly had.
Linkin Park were one of the best selling bands in the world a few years back and probably realised with the huge growth of Nu-Metal that there has to be a scientific way of squeezing every last penny out the disenfranchised teenager market. On the CD there’s an enhanced package which includes a feature called ’’The Art of Meteora’’. Sure....Physics more like.