Linkin Park Live put this on Twitter. Interesting to see how Chester's voice is different, for example during the "shut up" part of One Step Closer. Also led me to this: In the intro "London...what's up London?" is amusing, sounds like Chester?
Basically every musical tribute the band has ever gotten over the past six months has been a cover of either been "In The End", "Crawling" or "Numb".
Let's be real, he's not. He's fucking incredible. But if I'm coming to a show I still wanna hear One Step Closer, Faint, Given Up and so on. And those just wouldn't work. And in the studio, it'd be a reduction of LP to one particular voice and style. Hybrid Theory has always meant blending sounds and influences, but it manifested itself best in the duality of Mike and Chester's voices and deliveries. That's an element I expect Linkin Park to keep. We can never have Chester again. We can never have his presence, his warmth, his voice. But we can have the next best thing, whoever it may be. STP knew they couldn't have Scott anymore, so they took Chester. People bitched and complained, but in the end it was a right decision on their part. Chester loved music, he joined STP to hold their legacy, and he'd want someone to hold his. Mike is unbelievable. I can't wait to hear whatever he's doing, under his own name, Fort Minor, or movie soundtracks or whatever. He's the core of the bands sound and I expect possible future LP music to kick ass just as much as before. But as far as vocals go, Linkin Park just needs one more. So bring on the next best thing. And people will bitch and complain. But we'll be here supporting. Cheers.
One thing they can do is get multiple singers not a full fledged one and tour with them alternating between styles of singers that would be cool
This is more than fine and I can get down with this. In terms of them having a full-time singer dedicated to the band, eh, that's gonna be harder for someone to sell me on. But then again, it probably would be exhausting to call up some guests every show to sing "One Step Closer" or "A Place For My Head." Idk.
How would that pay off for those people? "Oh yeah, I'm the lead singer of Linkin Park... on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays".
I would definitely like Linkin Park to keep the vocal dynamic between multiple singers (Mike being one of them, of course), but honestly I wouldn't be too keen on a new addition to the band. Maybe I'm conservative on this because I'm so used to the band being a unit of these 6, now sadly 5, people, who have hardly argued and had an exceptional chemistry all these years. Due to that, I think they could keep going in this set-up, with other members joining in on the singing. We heard Brad on "Until It Breaks" and Phoenix live on "Little Things;" they can do it! And certainly they can also bring collaborators in on their records, paying homage to what Chester and Mike built while constructing something new (I do not expect the band to stop evolving). That would be my ideal scenario, but I'll be there along the way no matter what they decide to do. EDIT: As to performing Chester's material live, I wouldn't mind for them to recruit a tour member who could respectably pull it off. Maybe a tour at a time. That's really something they'll have to think over. EDIT 2: Makes me think of Alice in Chains. William DuVall wonderfully replaces Layne Staley both live and in the studio (though arguably Jerry is the one who replaced Layne in the studio), while adding his own new quality both to old and new material. If Linkin Park could pull an Alice in Chains, I would be a happy man.
Honestly, it’s just a weird and complex situation. They will have try and think of many ideas before coming to something that feels right. This kind of loss hits you of nowhere.
So just spitballing here, say they get... M Shadows from A7X, Oli from BMTH and idk, Jeremy from ADTR. Whoever. And one does the European Tour, one the NA, and one does Asia, Australia and so on. At every tour you'd have over half the audience complaining about how they'd want someone else of the three instead of the one perfroming. Linkin Park would still be a band without a lead singer, and again... who the hell benefits from this? Linkin Park needs one (1) new lead singer.