Artist: Linkin Park
Title: The Hunting Party
Genre: Hard Rock / Rap-Rock / Alternative Metal
Release Date: 13th June 2014
Label: Warner Brothers Records
Album Review
Harder, louder, faster: LINKIN PARK is back again – with a heavier sound than ever before. Call it punk rock, hard and heavy or almost even gothic rock: The guys around Mike Shinoda are coming back with a vengeance. It is the sixth studio album of the Californian rock band, has seen its German release on June 13, 2014 and is available as a CD as well as a DVD edition.
With ‘The Hunting Party’, LINKIN PARK leave behind the predominantly electronic and rap sound of their previous five albums and are now coming up with hard and heavy, aggressive guitar and drum-laden rock. Influences of punk rock and even death metal can be found as well. Because of this shift in direction it can be difficult to recognize their music as typically LINKIN PARK, and admirers of their earlier music could possibly have hard times relating to ‘The Hunting Party’. Merely the rap parts and some harmony and melody structures testify to their previous albums.
The album starts off with impulsive, mind-blowing rock tunes, pulling you straight into the rhythm, making you want to head-bang along, especially in mosh pit situations. For a change, slower ballads loosen up the intensive weight of the hard rock tracks and provide for balance. Same with two instrumental interludes, of which the first one, ‘The Summoning’, draws a picture of a disturbing sound landscape of chaotic random noises, leaving an unsettling after taste. The other one, ‘Drawbar’, appears more peaceful and contemplative, with precise and clear e-guitar and piano sounds, inviting to take a deep relaxing breath.
In general, there are no gaps between each of the tracks, which reminds of the structure of a concept album telling a story and describing a certain development from the beginning to the end. The emotional range of the tracks runs from pure desperation and regret as in ‘Until It´s Gone’, over absolute destruction, rage and anger expressed in the mood and the lyrics of ‘War’ to feelings of powerlessness and the restoration of honour in ‘A Line In The Sand’. On the whole, the lyrics in the songs of LINKIN PARK mostly describe topics like the search for justice and balance in interpersonal relationships, finding the right way to cope with hard and frustrating experiences of denouncement and defence, leading to a quest for meaning in general.
The instrumental parts are, compared to the vocals, very strongly in the foreground and are too loud altogether, while the vocals appear very weak and hardly present. Even the typical screaming vocals of Shinoda are drowned out by the heaviness of the instruments. Only in the slower tracks - beautiful rock ballads with clear melody lines - the vocals are loud and present enough.
To sum up, LINKIN PARK have delivered another album with powerful and intoxicating sounds which has the potential to reach a wide audience of admirers of hard and heavy rock. They have slightly deviated from their previous musical path with their music being more rock-laden, but whether this should be assessed as inspiring or disturbing is purely a matter of taste and the willingness to open up oneself to new musical ideas.
Tracklist
01. Keys To The Kingdom
02. All For Nothing (Feat. Page Hamilton)
03. Guilty All The Same (Feat. Rakim)
04. The Summoning
05. War
06. Wastelands
07. Until It´s Gone
08. Rebellion (Feat. Daron Malakian)
09. Mark The Graves
10. Drawbar (Feat. Tom Morello)
11. Final Masquerade
12. A Line In The Sand
Line-up
Mike Shinoda – vocals, guitar, keyboards
Chester Bennington – vocals
Rob Bourdon – drums, percussion
Brad Delson – guitar
David Farrell – bass
Joseph Hahn – turntables, samples
Website
www.linkinpark.com / www.linkinpark.de / https://www.facebook.com/linkinPark
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 9
Sound: 7
Total: 8 / 10
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