Here's BTH, arguably quite an angsty song but written with lyrics that are actually smart about being angsty: "Memories consume Like opening the wound I'm picking me apart again You all assume I'm safe here in my room Unless I try to start again" Or even better Nobody's Listening, an angst ridden song, has verses like this: "Yo, peep the style and the kids checking for it The number one question is how could you ignore it We drop right back in the cut over basement tracks With raps that got you backing this up like Rewind that we're just rolling with the rhythm Rise from the ashes of stylistic division With these non-stop lyrics of life living Not to be forgotten but still unforgiven But in the meantime there are those who wanna talk this and that So I suppose that it gets to a point where feelings gotta get hurt And get dirty with the people spreading the dirt " In fact that first verse to Nobody's Listening is lyrically better than all of mike's on THP. And that is me picking lyrics from Meteora, argubaly one of the weakest LP albums lyrically. ATS is not a concept record. It's the closest LP got to a concept record but it's not a concept record (at least not lyrically since that's what we're talking about, musically it really is a one long 45 minute song). By pick and chosing the words that and sentences that suit your agenda? No that's not how to analyse anything. Sure you can use quotes to support your statement but when right after the given quote your statement is contradicted in the very next line it's an awful way to analyse anything. Oh no I said "say" instead of "see". It doesn't really change the underlying awfulness and in your face angst of the lyrics. Let's leave aside the fact that the chorus to KTTK was improvised on the spot by Chester and thus a deeper analysis of what's really hidden behind the lyrics is pointless as there likely isn't much. But let's look at your analysis. If LP never said you they wanted to wage a war at the radiostations (lol) you'd never make that connection. Like ever. I agree that the start of the chorus is about losing control and throwing away an opportunity (which is pretty damn obvious) but it then goes into "I’m my own casualty I fuck up everything I see Fighting in futility" now tell that doesn't sound like self-pity angsty stuff. I mean look at it, don't try to over analyse it. "I'm my own casualty"- pretty typical self pity, "i fuck up everything I see" more self pity, "fighting in futility" -and this will never change, i.e. more self pity. I mean it's an awesome chorus and chester screams it well but let's not pretend it is lyrically inspired, or even good.
Much better than "let me break this fucker down for ya/I really don't know ya". I'm not saying it's a masterpiece, just that it's better than THP rap coming from Mike.
So after a full week of listening non-stop to The Hunting Party below is my final score for each song and for the album overall: Keys to the Kingdom - 10/10 All For Nothing - 7/10 Guilty All The Same - 9/10 The Summoning - 7/10 War - 8/10 Wastelands - 7/10 Until It's Gone - 8.5/10 Rebellion - 9/10 Mark The Graves - 10/10 Drawbar - 9/10 Final Masquerade - 9/10 A Line In The Sand - 10/10 Linkin Park - The Hunting Party Overall Score: 8.5/10 Linkin Park Favourite Album Order: 1. Hybrid Theory - 10/10 2. A Thousand Suns - 9/10 3. The Hunting Party - 8.5/10 4. Minutes to Midnight - 8/10 5. Living Things - 7.5/10 6. Meteora - 7/10
i have to say that i agree with Mario. its very easy to take any lyric and say "oh, its about this or that" and the fact that LP lyrics are usually angsty makes it really easy to relate it with rebellion against someone or something KTTK chorus wasnt even writen down, and you are trying to find a deep meaning in it, really? i could say that its about anal sex and it would make sense, but i'm pretty sure its not about it. most of the War/anarchy/rebellion related lyrics are in the rap. mikes tough guy rap is always about some nemesis/enemy/hater/oppressor. it doesnt have to be about war, even the "i'm not your soldier/i'm a general" line is not necessarely about war it can be about ANY kind of relationship. also its pretty much impossible to get a conceptual war related meaning out of UIG, MTG and FM. i remember when LT came out, some people saying that it was about the band bad relationship with Warner. or that ATS is illuminati... stop overanalysing things. you can interpret the songs the way you want, but besides War and Rebellion, the album has nothing to do with war/anarchy... you can say that it is about it, and use some lines like "this is war with no weapons"(example) to support your idea, but when you read the whole lyrics it makes no sense at all. MTM had 3 songs about politics, if you try hard enough you can turn the whole album into an anti-war/corruption concept album. and then LP has actually 3 concept albums related to war. all we have to do now is find out which one is the prequel or the sequel
I can listen to it all the time. It's definitly not my favourite album. Most albums that I like got bored after max. 2 weeks. There is different, I like only few songs, but I can listen to the whole album as long as I want and it dosen't get bored. Other album that I can listen all time is ATS, and it's not my fav, nor I'm ATS fanboy. I don't know why it is like this... It's just addictive.
My reaction to this album has been one of surprise and satisfaction. I really wasn't expecting songs like KTTK and War, as those two really threw me for a loop the first time. I am very pleased with the direction and sound of the album. I'm glad that LP decided to go the heavy/aggressive route after three albums of mostly mellow ballads (though there were a few exceptions on each album). As much as I like the mellow and melodic sound of LP, it was time to turn up the intensity and power, and THP most certainly delivered with that. I honestly cannot say at this point what my favorite LP album is, as all their albums have such great songs on them. I could probably say that if I were to rank them, THP would at least be in the top 3.
I don''t know it seems much more personal than that. To me it's the LP trademark betrayal lyric but kinda more grown up (at least Mike parts. Chesters are kinda reverting back to angst). Which I find cool, cause in the past we would be damn sure to hear the word "promises" somewhere in there. Also I've listened to Meteora, MTM, ATS, LT and THP in the past 2 days and I have to say each and everyone one of the previous albums puts THP to shame. Whereas with the previous albums I'd have an inclination to skip maybe 1 or 2 songs, on THP there really are only 3 songs I want to listen to.
I can listen to it all the time'my friends werent that enthusistaic about it "still to much for radio. Meteora remains the best album they did." the other one replied. "Linkin Park, is dead."
Well after about 4 listens to the album so far, Unfortunately I have to say that this is the worst album Linkin Park has ever released. It's the only effort by them I would say is "bad", and is definitely the most disappointing. To be honest, the only songs that I think are great are Until It's Gone, A Line in the Sand, and War. The rest are mostly decent to mediocre, a couple are kind of good. The only song which I consider terrible by Linkin Park (Wastelands) is on this album too (Hands Held High comes close, but at least that had that nice "Amen" section towards the end, so it's slightly tolerable)... The heaviness of most tracks just seems forced, directionless and is generally boring. It gets stale fairly quickly. Some of the songs are a chore to sit through. Did Mr. Hahn sleep through the entire album creation process? Why was Morello pointlessly slapped onto an instrumental in which he barely did anything?
I guess this would be the most appropriate place to post a full review...? I feel like the News threads about the leak/iTunes stream are kind of dated at this point. Time for one of my ridiculously in-depth album reviews! Took me a while to get around to doing this. I open my review of The Hunting Party with a question: Why is new music from Linkin Park always met with a mix of overwhelmingly positive ad overwhelmingly negative reactions from fans? More so with this album than any other I can remember, I look around the fanbase and see people who seem to either be salivating over new Linkin Park music to the point that Mike Shinoda could fart into a cassette recorder and people would love it, or people who seem to be determined to write everything the band does off as "not Hybrid Theory, therefore it's garbage." I know the band has said the "love/hate" reaction is what they're hoping for every time they release new music, but I'm not sure this is exactly what they had in mind...if you can't justify why you rated a song a 0/10 or a 10/10, I shudder to think of what your decision-making process is like when it comes doing things like voting for the next President. a little objectivity will go a long way towards improving the quality of your life as a whole, people. Anyway, enough life advice, and on to the review! 01. Keys to the Kingdom On my first listen through the album, I honestly didn't know what to think of this song. It grew on me quickly after a few listens, but it's still not one of my favorites on the album. I think what hurts this song most is having it as the opener. Having no build-up whatsoever before you have Chester blowing your eardrums out with a bunch of over-processed screaming is really hard on the ears, particularly through headphones. I feel like having some kind of build-up into the first song is one of those time-tested things that shouldn't be messed with. As it is, any moderately curious fan who picks up this album without knowing what they're getting themselves into is likely going to skip this song after hearing about 3 seconds of it. Getting into the rest of the song though, I love it once the guitars kick in. The riff gets a little repetitive, but it works. Rob kills it on this song...and basically every other track on the album. The dreamy-sounding harmonies that Mike comes in with to start the first verse are a brilliantly deceptive move, and I like how the instrumental section under the verses is very A Thousand Suns-like, but you also have the guitars chugging along in the background to remind you that something's different this time around. The little bursts of noise/static that interrupt the song at various points...yeah not sure what to think of those. Not a fan of cutting off a vocal in the middle of a word. I know Chester's chorus vocals were improvised, and I can appreciate keeping the lyrics he spontaneously came up with, but he really should have re-recorded them. His screaming on this song is the most strained I've ever heard him sound, and the voice cracks that occur on "casualty" and "futility" are just downright sad. Chester's been having vocal issues for years, but this is the first album where I think it even showed in the studio. A shame that one of the great voices in modern rock is starting to show so much wear. Mike's rap in the second verse is pretty cool...not sure where the "half-fried panko" line came from though, haha. I LOVE where this song goes after the second chorus. The breakdown with the mellow-sounding guitar that builds into the guitar solo, then things just EXPLODING after that is one of the coolest moments on this album. The only fault I find in the outro of this song is Brad's lead work when Chester comes back in. What the FUCK was Brad doing there, and even better, why on earth did they decide to leave it in the mix? Random chromatic run that doesn't fit in the context of the song whatsoever. He "finds" the right scale again after a couple bars, but it's still the most distracting thing ever. A modern guitar god, you are not, Brad Delson. The "hard rock version of Until It Breaks" description of this song I heard the day it leaked is still probably the most accurate summary I've seen of it. Very disjointed, a few things I don't like about it, but overall not a terrible song. Score: I'M NOT ALLOWED TO SAY CERTAIN THINGS. AUGHHHHHHHH...but there's nothing that says I'm not allowed to give this one a 7/10. 02. All For Nothing The discordant droning guitar at the start of this track is totally Page, haha. There's some really cool guitar stuff throughout this song. Great groove in the verses, Mike sounds really good on this track. Love the count-in to the choruses too. The chorus itself is the weak point of this one, though. Page sounds...not like Page at all. Leave it to Linkin Park to over-process a traditionally raw-sounding guest vocalist's voice on an album that generally has more raw production on the vocals! His vocals are so polished that they actually seem out of place on the track. Lyrically, it's not a very good chorus either. Cool gang vocals help redeem it somewhat, but I was pretty underwhelmed by this one. The high point on this track is the guitar solo, it's my favorite one on the album. Brad actually sounds like he put some thought into doing something melodic that still covered a lot of ground, I LOVE the quick little ascending pattern he does at the end of the solo. Best interlude on the album is after this track too, the "put the heavy shit here" commentary that goes into GATS is hilarious and brilliant. I also REALLY hope we get an official release of that waltz-y instrumental in the background at some point too, sounds interesting (Mike confirmed on Twitter that the background music there was an original composition). As for my final summary of this song, great piece of music with a tremendously disappointing chorus, and a guest spot that wasn't handled the right way (go listen to Unsung - THAT'S what Page Hamilton's voice should sound like). Score: 6.5/10 (I normally don't do half points, but I like this one better than Wastelands but less than KTTK, so I gave it a 6.5) 03. Guilty All the Same How weird is it for me to be saying that the first single on an album is actually where it starts getting good?! I still haven't grown tired of this song. Love the way the intro progresses, love the harmonized guitar melody, love the drumming, love how they incorporated a bunch of synth-y stuff into such a heavy song and made it work. Rakim's verse is a highlight too. Not a big fan of Brad's solo during the outro, but it's probably my second favorite one on the album. I can't find much fault with this one other than Chester's vocals again sounding pretty strained. Score: 9/10 04. The Summoning I've heard some theories that this song has samples of a bunch of other LP songs in it...I don't hear it. This is one of those tension-building things that sounds like it should be on a horror movie soundtrack. Comes across as being sort of filler-ish at only a minute long and not really going anywhere, but if they were trying to put something on this album that's creepy enough to make people physically uncomfortable, they accomplished it with this track. I feel like they could've potentially opened the album with this and War. Score: 7/10 05. War The first thing that instantly popped into my head when listening to this track was Motorhead. This TOTALLY reminds me of a track like Ace of Spades. Chester supposedly "wrote this song in like 5 minutes," and I definitely get that vibe from it, but it works. The production values on this track are probably intentionally bad, which I can appreciate for a song of this nature. Love Chester's delivery on this track, it's not really a vocal style we've heard from him before and he pulled it off. I love how perfect the 8-count break after the first verse is, having that gap of silence there only to be interrupted with "WAAAAAAAAR!!!!!!!!" is brilliant. Brad's solo on this track is so WTF-inducing that I start laughing most of the time I hear it. It sounds like he's doing some cool stuff in there, definitely more complex than the solo at the end of GATS, but like GATS, the effects on the guitar solo are so over-the-top that they practically render the solo incomprehensible. I will most likely never be able to transcribe this solo without the multitracks for this song, so if Brad was trying to come up with something I'd never be able to tab, congratulations to him on succeeding. Overall, I love this song, I just wish the guitar solo was easier to make sense of. Score: 8/10 06. Wastelands This is by far the biggest "throwback track" to the Hybrid Theory/Meteora era that the band has done in recent years. The structure, the instrumentation, it all screams "throwing a bone to people like Joe_LP who have hated everything we've done for the last 7 years but still hang around LP fansites for some reason." ...Oops, did I say that out loud? LULZ. Anyway, there's still some cool "newer LP stuff" in this track too, I love the crazy synth in the bridge and the clanky-sounding drum samples. Mike's pretty good on this track too. Another weak chorus hurts this one though, and I don't know why, but I just find it to be one of the more forgettable tracks on the album. Maybe being so stylistically reminiscent of the band's nu metal days makes this song seem really phoned-in to me, like they didn't have to try very hard to write it. I'm already skipping this song on most of my listens to the album. Score: 6/10 07. Until It's Gone Musically, I love this song. Lyrically, this is one of the biggest steaming piles of crap the band has ever put out. Sorry, Cinderella did the whole "you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone" cliche better...and Cinderella was one of those laughably-bad '80s hair metal bands that people like to pretend never existed. Not to mention the same lyric was basically regurgitated by Mike when he did Where'd You Go back in 2005. Never heard a more unoriginal-sounding set of lyrics in my life. Knowing the story behind this song too, it really pisses me off that a better song was likely left off the album just so this one could get released (Hint: This song was NOT meant to be on The Hunting Party originally). They should've just canned the vocals and released the instrumental as an LPU track. I could jam to this all day if it was an instrumental but I'm practically embarrassed to play this song when anybody's around because the lyrics are THAT bad. Score: 5/10 (taken as an average between a 10/10 for the instrumental, and a 0/10 for the lyrics) 08. Rebellion Daron Malakian brings us back to the good shit here. Lyrically, this is probably the best song on the album. Very thought-provoking, I didn't initially interpret it as straight-up sarcasm like Mike said during the Twitter listening party, more of just a commentary on people with a sense of entitlement that feel "oppressed" over stupid shit. I can't say enough about Daron's contribution to this song, though. Great riffs, nothing EXTREMELY complicated, but he made an absolute monster of a track with these guys. Mike's singing on this track is my favorite singing I've heard him do, and Chester brings it as well. Chester sounds a little weird on the bridge, his screams are a lot higher-pitched than normal and he doesn't really sustain them like you'd expect (particularly on "we lost," he cuts that one off practically instantly). I'm on the fence as to whether or not Daron should have done some vocals on this track too, I think he would've sounded good on this song but his voice is also definitely an acquired taste. This song is definitely in my top 3 on the album. Score: 9/10 09. Mark the Graves This song is a trip. It covers more ground thematically than any other song Linkin Park has ever done. Love how distorted the bass is, and how it's cranked way up in the mix for a change! This song's really deceptive with its chord changes too, nice to hear something this unpredictable from LP. There's some awesome guitar and drum work on this song, I also love Mike's little whispered count-in during one of the breaks in the intro, nice touch to leave in the mix. Another good song lyrically, and I still love hearing Mike and Chester singing in unison, there's something about havig their voices synced up like this that sounds perfect on certain songs, this being one of them. The chorus on this one is as simple lyrically as you can get, but it works PERFECTLY on this track, particularly with Chester and Mike both belting the words out the way they do here. Brad gets two solos on this one, and actually puts in some solid work. Love the little tapping thing at the end of the first solo. My biggest complaint with this song his how Brad's lead guitar work gets completely buried at the end of the song. Still, this is one of those tracks that makes a big statement about how talented these guys can be when they choose to do something challenging. Score: 9/10 10. Drawbar I fully agree that Tom Morello's talent gets kind of wasted on this track, all he plays is some arpeggiated E minor chords throughout the whole song. Still, the SOUND of the guitar part is totally him, it's got a trippy ring modulator effect on it or something, and it stands out from any of the other guitar parts on the album. The highlight of this track is actually Mike, though. This is easily the best piano stuff we've heard from Mike on an album. Rob's drums add a lot to this one too. Definitely sounds like an improvised jam, which is basically what it was, to my understanding. The way this song ends is the absolute highlight of the album, though. Having everything but the piano fade out for a brief period on an album that's so raw and in-your-face like this is just STUNNINGLY brilliant. And when that chord progression morphs into the chorus from Final Masquerade, it's one of the most beautiful moments in the entire Linkin Park catalog. The first time I listened to the album was the way I always do my first listens - with my headphones on in a completely dark room so I have no distractions. Having heard Final Masquerade prior to the full album leaking, when that chord progression suddenly emerged from the mix, it was such an unexpectedly touching moment that I actually got a little choked up. I'm not a guy who gets overcome emotionally by music a lot, but the Drawbar > Final Masquerade transition does it for me. The rest of Drawbar is kind of forgettable in comparison, but the ending more than makes up for it. Score: 8/10 11. Final Masquerade This sounds like one of those songs that should be an album closer, it's everything a Linkin Park ballad should be. Until It's Gone sounds even worse with this track on the same album! I'm very excited to see this as the next single, I know people will get sick of it and be bitching about how it needs to be dropped from the setlists in favor of some forgotten turd like Hit the Floor or whatever, but I can see this one being a highlight of the live show over the next few years. I've been pretty hard on Chester throughout this album, but he puts in one of the best vocal performances of his career on this track. This song just has that "something" about it that makes it stand out, like everything just came together perfectly on it. Rob's drumming is great without being overly flashy, the keyboards add a ton of color to the song without being too in-your-face like the synths on the last two albums were at times, the vocals are great, the guitars sound great...this is about as perfect of a song as I've heard from Linkin Park, and definitely the best ballad of their career. I really hope this one does well on the charts. Score: 10/10 12. A Line in the Sand So here we are, last song. And it's a monster. Mike's singing on this one gives me chills EVERY time I listen to it. And then when it gets heavy...oh man. The guitar comparisons to Victimized and Guilty All the Same are definitely warranted, but does that really matter when the song is this fucking good? Chester's rough vocals really suit the chorus on this and serve as a nice contrast to Mike's singing. Like Mark the Graves, the lyrics on the chorus are normally something I'd complain about, but they work so well in context with everything else in the song that I can't complain about them. I feel like Mike's rap part in the middle seems a little forced, like it didn't NEED to be there, but I think there's an intentional lyrical reference to Rebellion in it, and it really gives the song depth. The "I had never seen blood/you had sold me an ocean/and I was lost in the flood" part is one of those things that almost CAN'T be accidental. I also love the piano underneath the rap verse. About 2/3rds of the way through the song, there's a point where it sounds like it's over...and then it kicks into the heaviest fucking guitar riff Linkin Park has ever recorded. It's a thrash breakdown that sounds like it was pulled straight off an '80s Metallica album. Then we get one more chorus with modified lyrics, and an outro with fantastic drumming, Chester giving it everything he's got, and Brad going off on a maniacal two-hand tapping lead part. I'm pretty sure it's the most emotionally aggressive moment in the Linkin Park catalog. Mike's reprise of the intro at the end is the perfect way to end it. The first time I listened to this album, my reaction after hearing this last song was to just get up and pace around my apartment for a few minutes because I literally had to catch my breath and try to process everything I'd just heard. I honestly didn't think that Linkin Park was capable of a song like this. It still blows me away every time I hear it. This song is such a profound statement by the band that if they were to break up tomorrow, I'd be perfectly content with this being the last song on their last album. I don't know how they'll ever top this one...but damn am I excited to hear them try. Score: 10/10 (I'd literally give this one 11/10 if I could but I have to draw the line SOMEWHERE) Overall, this album really impressed me. It gets off to a little bit of a rocky start, and there's one forgettable song and one absolute turd of a song in the middle of it, but the rest of the album makes up for those moments. I'm incredibly impressed with Rob's playing on this record, not so much with Brad but I hope he uses it as a stepping stone to do even greater things in the future, and I'm getting kind of concerned for Chester's voice but he still puts in good performances most of the time on this record. I listened to all 6 Linkin Park studio albums in a row today, and WOW does Living Things ever stand out as a weak point when it's bookended by A Thousand Suns and The Hunting Party. THP is almost the yin to ATS's yang, they're definitely cousins in terms of progressiveness, one is just very synth and beat-driven while the other is guitar and drum-driven. Living Things sounds like the kind of album that would've come out 6 or 7 years ago to me, not one that's only 2 years old...jeez, how did the band do this big of a turnaround in 2 years?! I know they won't continue in this direction in the future, but I hope they keep pushing themselves creatively like they did on this album, rather than doing a "comfort zone" album like Living Things again. Top 3: A Line in the Sand, Final Masquerade, Rebellion Bottom 3: Until It's Gone, Wastelands, All For Nothing Rather than give the album as a whole a rating, here's my new ranking of the 6 albums: Hybrid Theory > The Hunting Party > A Thousand Suns > Minutes to Midnight > Living Things > Meteora.
After a lot of time hearing it, it has become my favorite album. The hunting Party>A Thousand Suns>Living Things>Minutes to Midnight>Meteora>Hybrid Theory
Holy shit Astat, you saved me from writing a review because I agree with every single fucking word you wrote.
I really didn't expect to say this, but "The Hunting Party" is the best record since "Hybrid Theory" to me. When i take of the nostalgia-factor, it's probably even equal with it - at the current state. The reason why i am saying this is, because i hadn't so much fun with a LP record since ages (or their debut to be exact). It's fresh, different (again) and it is still Linkin Park. I heard it several times now and i'm not getting tired of it and that's a very good sign. Also i can hear it from beginning to end. This record has something what i've missed - time and again - on "A Thousand Suns": Arrangements. "War" is such a good example. The solo just feels so right here. It pushes the song straight forward. Brad isn't a guitar master, but i don't expect that on a Linkin Park record. But what i see or hear is, that he had fun and that is much more important. At the same time, i wanna say, that a guitar is not a must have for a good arrangement - just to be clear. Hybrid Theory might sound more "chubbier" and more "perfect" in a certain manner, but since THP is different, it is automatically more experimental and is expandable in some ways. But i just like this. I don't wanna talk much more, just wanna say couple more words: Mike's Rap on "All For Nothing" is one of his best since a pretty long time to me, it has also a very catchy refrain. "GATS" sounds even better in the album-context. I also really like "Mark The Graves", it has such a lovely melody, especially in the refrain, is fresh and makes so much fun to listen to. Also it might have the best arrangement of the whole record. The same applies (more the melody part) to "Final Masquerade". My Highlights at the moment: All For Nothing War Mark The Graves A Line In The Sand Little note in the end: For all, who can understand german: A more detailed review by me -> http://www.amazon.de/gp/cdp/member-reviews/?ie=UTF8&ref_=ya_your_reviews&sort_by=MostRecentReview
Panko is Japanese-style breadcrumb. "Half-Anglo/Half-fried panko" is a play on words signifying that Mike Shinoda is half-Japanese half-white.