Song: “The Emptiness Machine”
Back from a seven-year hiatus, Linkin Park has a new lineup and popular new music
Like many bands facing the tragic loss of a charismatic lead singer — AC/DC, INXS, Alice in Chains, Stone Temple Pilots, Queen — Linkin Park has found a way to soldier on. In this case, they’re back seven years after the suicide of their lead singer Chester Bennington.
The band has reinvented itself in two ways — by changing its singers, and by modifying the key of classic songs to better suit these new voices.
Taking over the male lead is Mike Shinoda, one of the co-founders of the band. Linkin Park has also added a ripping female vocalist, Emily Armstrong from Dead Sara. (Drummer and co-founder Rob Bourdon left after Bennington’s death, and has been succeeded by Colin Brittain.)
The reinvented Linkin Park’s first single — “The Emptiness Machine” — was released in early August, and marks a strong comeback for the band, embracing familiar themes of alienation, exploitation, and disappointment, while leaving the precise sources of these feelings to the imagination.
The video today is from the band’s first performance together with the new lineup. They also performed it September 17th on The Tonight show with Jimmy Fallon, and are currently on tour.
The song made a strong chart debut around the world, including becoming the group’s highest ever charting in the UK.
The band’s new album, From Zero, is set to be released November 15th.
Enjoy!