I'm not sure whether it was more of a case of Gilmore being in the right place at the right time when the band blew up, rather then him being a genius producer. I mean what has he done since then to suggest he'd be a good choice at this point? He did a good job no doubt, but the band themselves were responsible for their success, they had everything needed to ride that nu-metal wave and imo any competent producer would likely have achieved similar success with HT.
If it'll be like Post Traumatic then I won't listen to anything else but that for the rest of the year from the day of its release.
Didn't Linkin Park HATE to work with him. Don drove them crazy and he is the one to blame for Mike's mediocre flow and watered down lyrics on Hybrid Theory and Meteora. Mike had an insane flow and great lyrics on the Hybrid Theory EP. It's a shame he is rarely rapping like that today, he was a great rapper. He is still good, but not this good anymore. And Linkin Park is not done yet, Chester was very important, but so are the other members. If they need a producer for their next album, they should work with Rick Rubin as the producer again, as he was slightly responsible for Linkin Park's experimental sound. I completely agree that Linkin Park was always a Pop act, despite their sometimes heavy and experimental sound. But by that logic, many legendary bands would be considered Pop acts depending in which year they were popular. So... The Beatles, Queen, AC/DC, Guns N' Roses and Nirvana = Pop I hope i didn't anger any Nirvana fans right now, it wasn't my intention. Grunge was very popular back then and so was Nirvana.
Without that shift in rapping style, "Hybrid Theory" probably wouldn't have done anywhere near as well as it did. The lyrics becoming more pointed and concise (some would say blunt) made them more memorable, and helped the album gain its mass appeal.
No, they didn’t hate working with Don Gilmore. He was suitable for the band at that time because they had a clear idea of their sound and style. Don just took their concept and tried to turn that into more professional and sophisticated productions. I really don’t believe he was some kind of tyrant that tried to project an image or sound onto the band, like a lot of people think. The band was perfectly capable of thinking for and asserting themselves. That sound at the time was what they wanted. Once they got tired of that style of writing and producing, they went with Rick Rubin, who is almost the opposite of Don Gilmore when it comes to songwriting.
This x1000. All Don really did was add polish and professionalism to a sound the band already had years before they worked with Don. Even Meteora was a conscious decision by the band to recreate the first album and 'prove' that it wasn't a fluke. It wasn't Dictator Don saying 'YOU MUST SOUND LIKE THIS OR ELSE.' Don gets too much hate sometimes. I'll even admit that in the past I was part of that hate. But honestly? The dude is great at what he does.
"I remember saying that to our producer, Don Gilmore, 'This isn't going to work, I can't do this live.' Don was really good at this kind of stuff, he goes, 'Sounds like your problem, not mine.'" https://issuu.com/one_nation/docs/onn_boysofsummer_singlepage_-no_vid It's a Chester quote from page 12. This isn't the only time Chester mentions this incident, the other was in a video interview. It's much clearer in the live video (I wish I could find it, maybe I'll look again) that Chester isn't exactly fond of this memory. The fact that Don would be so flippant with a singer who is trying to communicate to him that he can't breathe correctly the way they're recording doesn't bode well for the guy. Edit: Here's another source of Chester v Don Gilmore http://teamrock.com/feature/2016-10-24/the-100-greatest-albums-of-the-21st-century-part-4 If the concept for One Step Closer literally came from working with Don Gilmore... Edit II: "Hey boys before we get started, just wanted to let you know I think your songs are shit" cool cool. http://www.tom-bryant.com/linkin-park-kerrang--tom-bryant.html Edit III: Now I'm just compiling what I find into this post because it's interesting to go back and re-read. https://fault-magazine.com/2017/04/fault-magazine-meet-linkin-park/ Edit IV: http://www.linkinparkru.com/index.php?m=info&t=articles_en_9
I'll second what Tony said. Never heard half of these stories before, but upon reading them...yeah I'll admit now that Don is a p.o.s.
I take it there is misunderstanding on both sides and not the full story. And this is not meant to challenge the argument or anything. We just never got the band and producer together to look back on those two albums. I think then we’d see how it was making those.
Mike's lyrics on Hybrid Theory EP, while technically impressive, were meh. Rhyming a bunch of multisyllabic words is cool if you're just starting to rap, but Mike is a far more well-rounded emcee on the actual album. There is still nice rhyme structure on Hybrid Theory, but it's much more simple vocabulary, which imo, is more impressive than "lyrical miracle spiritual" type shit. Even Meteora, contrary to popular belief, has some nice rhyming on a few songs (Nobody's Listening comes to mind)
I agree. I used to think the demo tracks for Hybrid Theory (In The End in particular) were sooooo much better due to the big metaphors and the rougher vocal takes. Now they just sound amateur. Meteora has some great flow and rhythm but it took the dumbing down of Hybrid Theory to the god-fucking-awful extreme.
Taking a guess on the direction of the band's genre is like shooting a target in the dark. My best guess is that Mike will keep his electronic sound towards his own work and let the linkin park sound be different than everything they have done in the past. Obviously they won't do heavy rock songs without Chester. I really hope Brad can do some singing on the music just like he does on Until it Breaks. That song is a good example of what the band can do without Chester. In my opinion, the band should really utilize group vocals to fill the void of lead singing from Chester. There are lots of ideas they could choose but i just hope they take their time and understand its going to be a long process.
i wouldnt say that. I guess they could do some heavy songs again, if they want to. Best example imo for a song which could have also worked without Chester is Rebellion. Mark The Graves maybe could work too. Just my 2 cents. But in the end of the day, the band choose themselve, in which direction they go.