For years, the idea of a Linkin Park without Chester Bennington seemed unfathomable. When the singer with the titanic voice and breathtaking emotional range passed away in 2017 at the age of 41, the band had just released their seventh studio album, One More Light, two months earlier, and the sorrowful pop album became what amounted to a swan song for one of the best-selling rock acts of the 21st century. Years passed, early albums were reissued, cutting-room-floor tracks were scavenged — but for all intents and purposes, Linkin Park had finished.
And then in September 2024, they roared back with stunning vitality.
With new co-vocalist Emily Armstrong and drummer/co-producer Colin Brittain in the fold, guitarist Brad Delson, bassist Dave “Phoenix” Farrell, turntablist/producer Joseph Hahn and singer/rapper/producer/sonic architect Mike Shinoda revived their once-mighty band, with arena shows that included their many hit singles and hints at what a next era could become. While longtime supporters will likely (understandably) approach new album From Zero with hesitancy and a range of feelings, Linkin Park have proven time and again that they deserve to have their creative instincts trusted.
Throughout their run with Bennington, the band changed its sound from its rap-rock beginnings, explored new sonic ideas and often presented rewarding full-lengths that harnessed the boundaries of their aesthetic. Now with Armstrong’s voice front and center, Linkin Park use From Zero (a play on their pre-Linkin Park band, Xero) to press the restart button and let their artistry roam into new, often thrilling territory.
This was always the upside of bringing in a new vocalist that wasn’t simply a Bennington impersonator: Armstrong, formerly the singer of Dead Sara, can scream with towering fury and croon with fragile beauty in a way that recalls Bennington at times, but she brings different musical sensibilities and a singular point of view to the band’s palette, her wrath more pronounced and her melancholy finely drawn. Shinoda, who’s spent the past half-decade developing his voice as a solo artist and producer, sounds reinvigorated working in a band setting once again, and raps, sings and occasionally yells with an urgency that suggests that he understands how unique this new chance can be.
Fans of different eras of Linkin Park will find favorite moments on From Zero — A Thousand Suns supporters will adore the woozy “Overflow,” for instance, while Meteora diehards will wrap their arms around the breakneck speeds of “Heavy is the Crown” and “Two Faced.” Yet on the whole, From Zero imagines a new beginning for one of the biggest bands of the past few decades in a way that any fan can appreciate. Most of us never thought we’d be pressing play on a new Linkin Park album. In that sense, From Zero is a gift that sounds as special as it deserves to be.
While there may be no skippable tracks on the new album, here is a humble, preliminary opinion on the best songs on Linkin Park’s From Zero.
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From Zero (Intro)
Hate to rank the 22-second intro last — especially as you can hear Armstrong realize the double meaning of the album title in real time, an essential lightbulb clicking on.
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Cut the Bridge
As Linkin Park preps for a 2025 world tour and considers which From Zero songs to include in the set list, let’s hope we get to hear chants of “Cut it down, cut it down, down, cut it, cut it down!” sung in arena settings. “Cut the Bridge” makes for a muscular rocker that harkens back to Minutes to Midnight in the front half of the album, as the band relies on Brittain’s drum thwacks before pulling back and giving Armstrong room to emote before the chorus hits.
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Stained
With its soaring melodies and electro-shocked foundation, “Stained” gives listeners a reminder that Linkin Park singles have crossed over as pop hits on several occasions, from “In the End” to “Breaking the Habit” to “Burn It Down.” “Stained” stomps into views with halting verses, then clears out for Armstrong’s most gorgeous vocal take of the album — powerful in its decisiveness, far-reaching in its mixture of melismas and harsh undertones.
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Over Each Other
As the third song released from the album, “Over Each Other” presented Armstrong’s first solo vocal to the world — and in doing so, gave a glimpse of how Linkin Park’s next iteration could function with a fresh voice at the forefront. However, Armstrong’s crooned exasperation gets a big assist from the band’s other new member, as Brittain’s drumming pushes the pop-rock track forward beginning in the second verse after shuddering in the first minute, and gives “Over Each Other” arena-ready dimension.
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IGYEIH
On first listen, “IGYEIH” (“I Give You Everything I Have”) beguiles with springy rap-rock energy, with Shinoda’s jabbing bars, Armstrong’s scorching declarations, some of Farrell’s most satisfying bass riffs and a galloping breakdown. Repeat plays, however, reveal “IGYEIH” as one of the new album’s strongest lyrical showcases: Armstrong seethes against “a devil with a god complex,” hopes her tattoos will remind her of treachery, and then snaps with the simple, effective “From now on, I don’t need you!”
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Overflow
Immediately following the pounding “Casualty” on the track list with the pensive, cerebral “Overflow” demonstrates the breadth of Linkin Park’s appeal, able to expertly oscillate between the blunt and beautiful across their entire discography. “We’re going down, we’re going down,” Shinoda and Armstrong murmur in unison, and Delson delivers a wiry solo to close things out, but “Overflow” flourishes in the middle of From Zero primarily on atmosphere, with the band leaning into the moodiness one song after kicking up dust.
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Casualty
If the words “justice for The Hunting Party” have ever escaped your lips, then “Casualty” is the new Linkin Park song for you. Like the band’s heaviest album, “Casualty” nimbly balances face-ripping thrash vocals (with Shinoda getting to bellow as Armstrong puts on her “screamy pants”) with slick punk production, and never lets up its wild-eyed ferocity from the opening shrieks. Armstrong delivers the performance of an absolute star, but hearing Shinoda stretch his voice to this degree is especially satisfying for longtime fans.
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Two Faced
“Two Faced” includes two not-so-subtle callbacks to Linkin Park’s debut single, “One Step Closer” — “Beginning to realize that you put me over the edge,” Shinoda raps in the opening verse, and Armstrong screams “Stop yelling at me!” with the same abandon as Benningston’s “Shut up when I’m talking to you!” — and fittingly, the track exists in the same nu metal universe as Hybrid Theory, right down to Hahn’s unbridled scratching. Yet Armstrong gives “Two Faced” a different texture, with the chorus ending on something akin to a cheerleader chant and the final hook spat out with tremors of singular anger.
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The Emptiness Machine
Any longtime Linkin Park fan understands why “The Emptiness Machine” has become one of the biggest rock hits of the year: the lead single boasts the same razor-sharp rock songwriting, oversized hooks and blasts of personality that help the band conquer the world at the turn of the century. “The Emptiness Machine” helped Linkin Park return with a massive chorus that was ripe for rock radio, but the song succeeds — and remains so replay-ready — because of its details, from the way the refrain revs up in its second iteration to the intensity of Shinoda and Armstrong’s interplay on the bridge. It’s a classic Linkin Park single, and regardless of the year, that’s something the rock world always wants.
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Heavy is the Crown
“This is what you asked fooooooooor,” Armstrong roars on “Heavy is the Crown,” and to that we say: yes, it sure as hell is. The rap-rock pummel of songs like “Faint” and “Bleed It Out” gets translated to a new lineup, and Armstrong is more than game to bounce off Shinoda’s slippery rhymes and shred her voice in order to provide the listener with some head-slamming release. “Heavy is the Crown” excels due to the subtle desperation in the vocal performances: “Today’s gonna be the day you notice / ‘Cause I’m tired of explainin’ what the joke is,” Shinoda sings, his exhaustion perfectly teeing up Armstrong’s rage.
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Good Things Go
Maybe it’s just a coincidence that the final song on From Zero is the most fully realized crystallization of Linkin Park’s new formula, or maybe “Good Things Go” was purposefully placed at the conclusion to nod toward the future of the band’s studio output. Either way, the album that precedes “Good Things Go” leads up to the sweeping instrumentation, lockstep harmonies, quiet guitar work that bubbles toward the forefront and percussion that builds into a march. Shinoda raps on the bridge like a man possessed, and Armstrong’s voice brims with grace before landing on the thesis: “Thank you for always standing by me even though / Sometimes bad things take the place where good things go.” Linkin Park has persisted in spite of impossible circumstances, and “Good Things Go” proudly hoists up their creative spirit and newfound identity for the world to embrace.
