The Hunting Party, Linkin Park's 6th studio album, was released on the second Tuesday of June one year ago. This album brought back their heavy sounds while still expanding on their music. How do you feel about The Hunting Party one year later? For me personally the album was great but got boring shortly. However, I will say the highs on this album are the best the band has ever done. To me the last 5 songs of the album are where it is at. Rebellion, Mark the Graves, and Final Masquerade are pobably my three favorite Linkin Park songs ever and are for sure in the top 5. Alongside that, every one of those songs highlights something different the band does well. While I don't like ALITS as much as I used to, I still think it is the perfect ender for an album. I also feel that Drawbar is one of their best instrumentals and just captures my mood at almost anytime I listen to it. It's one of those songs that you find a new emotion everytime you listen to it. Overall I think the album could use some work and I hope to see the band continue the heavy route but expand on the second half of the album where the songs are more experimental. I would love more songs like Mark the Graves with no real structure or an abnormal structure. Almost like a heavy version of ATS.
Despite its flaws, "The Hunting Party" is one of my favourite studio albums by Linkin Park. I still don't know if I'd rate it above or below "A Thousand Suns".
I just listened to The Hunting Party in full for the first time in a few months last week, and the album STILL delivers moments of pure bliss that equaled or even exceeded my first experience. The final minute and a half of Keys To The Kingdom The incredibly satisfying intro for Guilty All The Same War's face-melting solo The groovy riff to Wastelands The equally earnest and pandemic Rebellion Mark The Graves' unorthodox structure Final Masquerade's stunning melody Mike's haunting words & the divine climax of A Line In The Sand Perhaps most importantly, I've learned to appreciate The Hunting Party most as an instrumentally-driven album. Linkin Park has always relied on Chester and Mike's vocals to lead their records, but this album is the first time where the entire band makes an equal or greater contribution. I'm proud and incredibly satisfied to say that The Hunting Party is the dream Linkin Park album I've been imagining for the last ten years.
It's my favorite Linkin Park album. I remember the day Guilty All The Same was released. I was playing Battlefield 3, and I checked the LPA and saw 'New Song'. When I heard the intro of it for the first time my mouth just hung open. I couldn't believe that LP had made something so epic and, well, epic. The Hunting Party album cycle was the first full cycle I'd been a fan of LP for, and I couldn't have been happier. I got to see them live for the first time last September. That was a dream come true. All in all, 'The Hunting Party Era' was very healthy and exciting for both the band and the fans, and I hope that LP finds that same energy on their next album.
Well, it's basically the only LP album I've been listening to this past year. Which has been a great year for me on many level, so I'm probably very subjective and associating THP with other great memories. But yeah, there are a few flaws , but overall, it's just a damn good listen from beginning to the end. Love the rock spirit, the raw feel, the cohesiveness, the drums, and the 90's vibe. To this day, the change of direction between Living Things and this record still shocks me.
I love it when an LP album blows my mind, when I hear something and think "wow, I never thought they could do that, I love it". On ATS, for example, they went down a more electronic route, meaning that the majority of the songs sounded like nothing they had done before. By doing a heavy album however, there's inevitably going to be parts that sound similar to the heavy songs they've done before. THP, therefore, switches between that feeling of familiarity and extending into new territory. In this way, I actually think the album is quite similar to LT. On LT, the album was split between songs that harked back to their earlier work (LITE, BID, IBG), and songs that explored new territory (CoG, STB, UIB). However, even the ones that were similar to their first few albums had very prominent differences that made it clear that they could never fit on HT or Meteora, such as synths and Mike's singing. THP does the same. While a lot of the songs are similar to their earlier albums (AFN, War, Wastelands, UIG, FM), they feature distinct differences that make them unique to THP, in this case, mainly solos, more complex riffs and more complex drumming. Meanwhile the other half of the album pushes out into new territory, mainly in song structure/length and use of solos. Because of this, I'd rate it equal to LT, it neither albums blew my mind the whole way through like ATS, but both albums had moments that stayed in familiar territory and moments that explored new territory. Obviously exploring new ground isn't the only measure of how much I like an album, far, far from it, but I think the quality of the songs themselves are about equal on each LP album, there are only a handful of songs I don't like, so the best way I can personally compare my enjoyment of the albums is by how unique the albums felt to me.
Just love it, not as much as ATS but it's in the second spot no doubt. Mark the Graves is definitely my favorite but overall I like all the songs, I don't find a single boring song in this album unlike LT. As for the future... idk what the hell I want but I'm pretty sure I'll be enjoying it.
Been listening to it consistently since its release, I don't think a week has gone by I haven't listened to at least some of it. Even Until it's Gone has grown on me now.
10 tracks of AWESOME followed by 2 tracks of oh god why. My second favorite LP album. GATS is my all time favorite song. So yeah.
I really only listen to Mark the Graves until the end, if at all. The first 2/3 of the album have lost a lot of their appeal, except the ones I already didn't like, in which I have not listened to them often enough for my opinion to lower any lower than it already is.
I think it's a great album, but it could have been better. I don't think it's even in the same league as A Thousand Suns (and neither is any other LP album). I do fucking love Keys, GATS, Rebellion, and FM though. Out of all current mainstream bands, Linkin Park has the most diverse sound (or at least has the most potential to be diverse). They can be hard rock, hip hop, alternative, soft rock/alternative, electronic, pop, and any combination of these genres. A Thousand Suns is their best record because it embraces all of these sides to Linkin Park and the band was able to mesh it all into a very cohesive album. I really hope that they try to do it again at least one more time.
The only song I've listened to in the last six or seven months has been "Guilty All the Same." That song might be the most unique on the entirety of the album. And sadly, the coolest part of the song is still Rakim's verse.