Release Date: Nov 15, 2024
Genre(s): Pop/Rock
Record label: Warner Records
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Compact and intense, the band’s first album since the death of Chester Bennington is a powerful tribute to their legacy Oasis may have sold out stadiums, but for many music fans there's an even bigger comeback this year: Linkin Park have returned, breaking a seven-year hiatus which followed the 2017 suicide of co-frontman Chester Bennington. Their comeback single The Emptiness Machine entered the UK singles chart at Number 4 in September – quite impressive for a nu-metal band whose lead singer died seven years ago, and even more impressive in a Top 5 that has spent most of the year as the domain of pop acts too young to remember the 2000 release of Linkin Park's debut album. From Zero opens with the chart-topping The Emptiness Machine, which leans more into alternative rock than their signature nu-metal.
Back in the 2010's a compelling but controversial movement arose within film criticism circles called 'vulgar auteurism'. It sought to reappraise popular but critically-maligned filmmakers like Michael Bay and Roland Emmerich by finding praise-worthy elements in their gaudy, maximalist but distinct aesthetics. For those that don't 'get' Linkin Park, this approach offers a way into their world.
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