Album Review: From Zero
Updated: Feb 23, 2025
From Zero: Linkin Park has debuted their newest album, their first since 2017, and their first since the passing of beloved lead vocalist Chester Bennington. In September 2024, after a mystery countdown, the band announced during a live performance that Emily Armstrong would be taking the spot as their lead vocalist. Also announced was this album which dropped November 15th.
For those hoping for a return to form, this is not that, disappointingly. Given the insinuation of the title, a reference to the band's first unreleased EP Xero, I was hoping for more. While some tracks scratch some of the itch that has been left behind in Bennington’s absence, I feel a majority of the album is a miss. Putting tracks like Heavy Is the Crown and The Emptiness Machine out as singles makes sense as they feel the closest to what I expect from a Linkin Park album.
And really that is the issue I find myself struggling with. Can I really review this album on its own merits without the shadow of the previous works in my mind? If I take the album by itself, it’s a mishmash of modern rock and watered down nu-metal with a hint of punk sprinkled in. Nothing really stands out as amazing or something I would find myself listening to if it didn’t have the Linkin Park name attached. But this album does not exist in a vacuum. There is nearly 25 years of Linkin Park tracks to compare and contrast this one too and if they wanted to avoid the onslaught of “not as good as Hybrid Theory” critiques, I genuinely think it would have been the better move to retire the Linkin Park name and start fresh from zero, as it were.
This album feels caught in the middle (Ironic after listening to the track Two Faced) of competing styles and trying to fit a new lead singer in the middle of it, ignoring all the other controversy that comes along with her, makes the album feel disjointed and like it has little to no purpose in the modern rock and metal scene. All that being said I will highlight some of the tracks I found enjoyable despite not rising to my expectations. Stained is a lively, upbeat track that has a nice sounding percussion sound. I’m not sure where it falls genre wise even among the Linkin Park discography, but I still enjoy listening to it and find myself coming back to it while writing this review. Good Things Go, being the last track on the album and listening through the whole thing the first time made me hope it would be a slower and emotional song akin to My December or Shadow of the Day, to really showcase Armstrongs vocals in a way we hadn’t seen yet. While I got the emotional part right, we'll have to wait for a live performance of these songs to see her full range. The track has themes of self-loathing and reflection, with some religious undertones. Mike Shinoda’s verses really are at their best here. Him and Armstrong appear to have good chemistry on this track, and it comes through in the final product. It almost plays like a classic duet. Two Faced is the closest thing I think the album has to offer to a "classic" Linkin Park sound, and it does scratch the itch that the rest of the album does not. I just wish the rest of the offering was in line with it. While I will claim, Heavy is the Crown and Two Faced are the best on the album, and I will continue to play them on air during Cat Core (Every Saturday 12-2!) I am not sure if I will be adding any of them to my daily rotation of playlists.
I keep coming back to the feeling of nothing here reaching any level of my admittedly high expectations, even when I remove the Linkin Park name. All in all, I am left disappointed more than anything. There is nothing wrong with the music itself and if you find yourself as a new or old listener enjoying this album then do not let anyone take it from you. For me this album just falls short across the board, but I hope that the band continues to put out new music just with either a more distinct style to separate themselves from the past or fully engross themselves in their legacy.
Me parece útil disponer de información sobre los números que más salen, especialmente cuando se muestran datos de varios sorteos. Así es posible comparar frecuencias y observar cambios históricos sin convertir las estadísticas en predicciones.
The criticism of Linkin Park’s From Zero was interesting, especially the point that the album seems to revisit some familiar elements of the band’s earlier sound without always reaching the same emotional impact, because that kind of comparison is almost unavoidable when a group has such a recognisable history. I found the discussion of the newer material particularly thought-provoking since returning to an established sound can work differently for longtime listeners than it does for someone discovering the band through this album; even SPSS Statistics Assignment Help can involve looking at familiar methods in a new context, although obviously music and statistics are worlds apart. What stood out to me was the tension between nostalgia and wanting something fresh, because an…
Taking over a role associated with Chester Bennington Among Us was an enormous challenge. Bennington’s vocals were deeply connected to Linkin Park’s identity, and fans understandably had strong emotions about the transition.
I really enjoyed your honest take on From Zero – Disappoints — it’s refreshing to read a review that isn’t afraid to dig into both the highs and lows of an album. You’ve captured how expectations can shape our listening experience, especially when an artist has shown so much promise in the past. The way you break down specific tracks and what worked (or didn’t) keeps the review engaging from start to finish. For students or music fans trying to write their own critiques and essays on albums like this, services like Native Assignment Help UK can be a useful resource to structure arguments and support their analysis with clear examples. Thanks for sharing such a thoughtful and well‑written review!
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