So, Linkin Park dropped a new single recently called The Emptiness Machine and apparently decided to fill Chester’s shoes with a new singer–Emily Armstrong–who’s all about versatile metal and melody, just like Chester was. My first reaction? “Uh, are we really doing this? Isn’t this just a Linkin Park cover band at this point?” Felt a little weird, like some tribute act. But a pretty good one. But then I remembered AC/DC swapped out their singer, and yeah, the new guy kinda-sorta sounds like the old one… a little alike anyways? Definitely some differences. But everyone was still headbanging just fine.
I mean, this new singer can sing—I’ll give her that. But here’s the kicker: the song is catchy and got stuck in my head… but with Chester’s voice instead of hers. Like, why is my brain doing this remix? Maybe because the track feels like something straight out of Meteora? Either way, I’ve never had this happen where I’m mentally replacing a vocalist like it’s some kind of glitch in the Matrix. Anyone else dealing with this?
Anyway, I’m keeping an open mind because, hey, it’s still good music from one of my all-time favorite bands. It’ll never be the same, but I’m down to see where they go with it. That said, I really hope the upcoming album has more originality in song styles because this vibe is tripping me out a little. But I mean, all the other members have put 20+ years of their life into building this band, they were a huge part of the brilliance of those records, so they have every right to keep building on it. I’m not with the people saying they need to just “make a new band, new name and all.” I’ll be down to listen either way.
