Choose your "personal" Linkin Park.

I must admit that Linkin Park try to refresh and reinvent the vibes of the previous albums and, in my opinion they try to propose a kind of fusion among  Hybrid Theory, Meteora and A thousand Suns with the injection of mainstream melodical structures already present in Minutes to Midnight. In an interview in the -March 21, 2012 issue- of Kerrang! magazine, lead singer Chester Bennington told that the band has " incorporated a lot of guitar work with big choruses and the heavier electronic stuff to give it that really big wall of sound feeling without getting too metal". Fortunately and infortunately it is true. Fortunately because the album all in all corresponds to this description (apart the fact that i don't hear that "lot of guitar work" maybe because it is overwhelmed by the electronics); unfortunately because still it doesnt sound too metal, only at times a bit Nu-metal. Nu metal actually wasnt that bad phenomenon, on the contrary. I hoped there was more of it in this new album. I hoped there was more of Hybrid Theory in it, unfortunately it is still not the case.

Well, however the first part of this new and fifth album is quite strong.  Songs like the single Burn It Down and like Lies Greed Misery are awesome: the first one has a cosmic touch and with simple , uncomplicated yet unmistakable and memorable notes is able to create such  deep emotions, and in spite of the proficuous electronic wall,it sounds incredibly hard and rhythmed. The vocal interplay between Chester Bennington and Mike Shinoda is then perfect. The Medal of Honor-trailer song Lies Greed Misery is a bomb in its short  rough simplicity and anger: a continuous fist in your teeth with impending rage supported by intense electronic-like drumbeats. Nevermind if it's repetitive: the notes are the right ones.  Both songs include elements of Nu metal too in different quantity and way, both are great, both have an appealing industrial suburban halo. And the rest? Just scratch the electronic surface of the opener Lost In The Echo and you will find something of the old  Linkin Park, the composition is really good and so are the chorus and the screaming and the impelling rhythmus. In  My Remains is a very melodic march, which you will include in  your  soundlist for  gyms, for driving and for parties and for reading and meditating. I'll Be Gone is another melodic track (more or less in the same direction as In My Remains), a track which is even able to arise a feeling of suspence. 

Unfortunately the "second" part of the album is in my opinion  an opinable  patchwork of many inspirations that both belonged and didnt belong to the band. Castle Of Glass, another track tied with EA`s Medal Of Honour: Warfighter and featured in the game, is a nice but weak piece  mainstream-oriented and just a little bit folkish.  The short Victimized is very aggressive and totally punky,  it might be "influenced by punk rock bands such as Dirty Rotten Imbeciles", but it is, anyway, a ugly song. No matter how much  you want to exaltate it: it is and remains crap. It is  presented as the heaviest song ever written by the band but it is really ugly punk shit. The Dylan-inspired Roads Untraveled gets an interesting choice of instruments and sounds which all together let you dream of far exotic adventure, and yet it is boring in the long run . Skin To Bone and Until It Breaks are very rap/hip-hop-focussed and generally unbearable. The penultimate song is a beautiful short instrumental that eventually  flows into the  last song Powerless as  its intro. Powerless begins with a great impending atmosphere, one expects it becomes a force of nature, on the contrary the refrain results so outrageously weak and softy. Pity because the electronic strings are very interesting. I presume it is meant as emotional song, anyway it offers  no other than empty minutes. However it is the song performed  in a trailer for the upcoming "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter" movie.

What i like in "Living Things" is to perceive a fusion of some good elements of Linking Park: the old determination and originality of Hybrid Theory (with its  peaks in composition and typical scratch/bug sound) and the cosmic breath of A Thousand Suns.  Pity that i can perceive this fusion in a very few songs only, as already mentioned. It is not enough. Living Things is a step in the right direction but it is  still not enough. Really pity. Hybrid Theory was so fantastic that  shot  the band into a massive mainstream success. But the mainstream success happened (as for Metallica or Rammstein) because the band was so different, and so  far to mainstream. Although Linkin Park were and are so brilliant  indeed to create tracks that go under the skin acting even a global impact on a large audience, I have the impression that, after Meteora,  the band's "genius" is no longer free, Linkin Park are no longer the anthem of a generation, therefore they try a new way in order to reach  a diversified audience. It's happening again now, but to please everyone is impossible thing. I suggest to choose your personal Linkin Park , buying single tracks (at iTunes for example) instead of purchasing the whole album.

Suggestions: Lost In The Echo - In My Remains - Burnt it down - Lies Greed Misery - When I'll be gone - Tinfoil.

7/10

20.06.2012

written by  dalia di giacomo    www.facebook.com/dalia.digiacomo