I was curious about the idea of a 'concept album' and after checking out the entire album through myspace, it seemed odd, but quite coherent and mature-sounding, with sounds i would never have expected from the band. It sometimes borders on prog and eclectic rock.
Is it just me or is the widely-bashed new Linkin Park album is actually more interesting and creative than their previous albums? The main reason is the added complexity and variety, but also the coherence between the tracks as it seems the band was taking a few notes from 'the wall'. Sometimes, the influences are a bit obvious (Radiohead on 'burning in the sky') but I'll let it slide.
The album begins with strong electronic ambience and wordless vocals, segueing into a strange (female?) vocoder, then voice clips with an industrial heavy sound, then the Radiohead-like chill groove of "burning in the sky" with quite restrained and melodic singing for the band. "Robot Boy" being another melodic tune with a synth solo.
In between the ballads is my favorite "When they come for me", mixing tribal drumming, Nine-inch-nails dissonance, very good rapping, driving oriental wordless vocals on choruses,a very melodic break bringing it all together with a synthesizer in the background, then finishing with an oriental sound. Probably the closest they ever got to a full prog song.
After Robot Boy, you have a strange interlude referencing to the album's climax "Catalyst", then an eclectic "Waiting for the End" with a tribal-like percussion that I'm not sure what to think of it. "Fallout" is even stranger, mixing optimistic electro-pop with screaming Hybrid-Theory chester vocals with a rap style. In other words, two opposite extremes put together. "Wretches and Kings" is my next favorite: a very raw industrial-rap song with an angry activist speech and amazing dissonant riffs on its second half.
In between effective interludes is the most commercial-sounding song, very melodic, but too much build for the radio. I'm surprised that it didn't end up being the single, instead, them choosing the dissonant "wretches" and the eletro-prog "Catalyst", the latter working as a climax with harmony vocals in its latter half.
Album intro
"Catalyst"
Edited by Zitro - September 25 2010 at 08:37
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Linkin Park on a prog direction? (short review)
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