For me, Primo was the only highlight. The UIB demos weren't particularly that interesting to me. Holding Company was cool tho.
HAVE YOU ALL...... .......bought Meteora again at the stores lately. I’m assuming y’all american and last time we checked RIAA we were 3mil short of the Diamond breh. I bought Meteora in every form possible, but I’m european. Don’t count nowhere. Get on this brehs
I just started listening to LP again, after a long hiatus. Due to what happened with the band, I wasn't even sure I could go back, and enjoy the songs in the same way. It turns out that the music is truly timeless, and still holds up so well. I plan to go through all of their albums, and have begun with HT20. What an incredible value - over four hours of content from that era!
You ever think Shinoda’s soul shatters when he sees these “are ya gonna work with Eminem?” comments and then reads “Who the fuck is Rakim? Mike, you’re better than this rap crap! You should just do the verse by yourself!”
Seems to just be the standard for CDs these days. Why waste more money on packaging a dying format? Sucks but that's just how it is. Unless you're Japan.
Sometimes, he's smiling, other times, he's laughing, so which is it?? He just can't seem to make up his mind
For anyone who cares, Jason Lipshutz' AMA on r/linkinpark about his big LP book will start in 7 hours from time of writing - if you have anything you'd like to ask him, send your questions in before then. EDIT: questions and responses collected here.
Didn't know where to write it, I suppose this thread goes. So, recently, KTTK live made me want to revisit THP - it's been 10 years after all! Nowadays, it's a bit of a frustrating record to me. I feel that, if they'd kept the composition quality and pace of KTTK and GATS, and maybe Rebellion too, it'd be on par with their best work. Unfortunately, I think the rest of the record suffers from multiple issues, among which poor choruses (AFN, Wastelands, UIG, MTG, FInal Masquerade), anonymous tracks (Summoning, War), mismatch tracks (UIG), potato drowned vocals (ALITS), and overall questionable mixing. Still, I feel this album probably gets more shit than it deserves. I always thought part of it was simply due to it not being a "pretty produced" record, like much of the rest of their discography. Instrumentally, it's often navigating between decent and strong, and for a straightforward rock album, it is rather varied, alternating between sub-genders like hardcore punk, trash metal, SOAD alternative metal, and alternative rock ballads.
Interesting! I've also been giving THP some more time, and I have come to appreciate it more actually. I used to regard it as their worst because of the production and disjointedness with the "carnivores visceral rock" theme. After recent listens though, I've softened on it a little bit. I guess I'll share my thoughts too! I think ALITS, UIG, and Wastelands are so-so. Final Masquerade doesn't really belong either, but at least it's a decent song. Drawbar is good for what it is, but a truly massive disappointment for a Morello feature, let's be real. However, Mark the Graves and Guilty All the Same are awesome, and among of my favorites by the band. GATS goes so hard and the Rakim feature is the highlight guest appearance on the album. He kills it with his verse over those thick power chords. I find Mark the Graves nails the prog angle way better than ALITS, and I have no issue with the chorus lyrics. They're simple and do their job and personally I don't mind that. I think Brad's best solo is on that song too. I also really like Rebellion, Keys to the Kingdom, and All for Nothing (I again have no issue with the lyrics for this one, it's too much of a banger). War is good, not my favorite, but I like it for the most part. So it's a mixed bag for me but overall it lands on the more positive end of things. I have bigger problems with Living Things these days, in spite of my nostalgia for that album cycle.
GERMAN CHARTS UPDATE: THE EMPTINESS MACHINE is #1 for the 4th week in a row. HEAVY IS THE CROWN climbs from #25 to #4.
Oh yeah, that part with Rakim is one of those moments where the band really captured the essence and the aggression of the 80's and 90's hiphop/rock/metal that inspired the album. It' sounds raw and gritty in the best way.
I had completely forgotten we had Xero demos like "Fiends" and the Mark Wakefield version of "Pictureboard". It's fun to play those right after the Rhinestone and Esaul Xero versions from HT 20. Fiends is pretty dope for what it was, and it makes me wish we had more of those "studio quality" Xero demos. For example, we know Xero versions of Carousel and Slip exist, along with another unknown track "Pointilism". But I suppose that anything that was left out HT 20 will never see the light of the day, unfortunately.