Linkin Park is facing a New gap.
The California-based rock band announced that they have reunited for a new tour and with new music seven years after the death of their longtime frontman Chester Bennington – and brought rocker Emily Armstrong into the group as co-singer.
Armstrong and new drummer Colin Brittain made their debut during Linkin Park’s livestream on Thursday, showcasing the band’s new single “The Emptiness Machine” along with returning members Mike Shinoda, Brad Delson, Dave “Phoenix” Farrell and Joe Hahn.
“This is a very special day for us,” Shinoda told the crowd of exclusive fan club members. “In the role of Chester Bennington, this afternoon belongs to each and every one of you.”
Linkin Park asked Armstrong – also the lead singer of the rock band Dead Sara – if he would like to join the legendary group in September 2023.
Armstrong said she cleared things up with her Dead Sara bandmates, who encouraged her to jump at the opportunity, before she accepted the gig.
“I started panicking: ‘Is this real?’ For at least three days, I don’t remember ever touching the ground,” Armstrong told Billboard. “And then when I came down, everything was different – I knew my life was going to be different, in the best way. I came back to a dreamland.”
Brittain replaces founding member Rob Bourdon, who “decided to quit” because he wanted to put distance between himself and his former bandmates.
According to a press release from the band, Shinoda, Delson, Farrell and Hahn began quietly meeting again in recent years. Instead of “trying to restart the band,” they met with “various friends and colleagues to accompany them in the studio; among the guests they discovered a special bond with Armstrong and Brittain.”
Armstrong said that as a child she “moshed” and “skated” to Linkin Park’s 2000 album “Hybrid Theory,” and that the music even inspired her to want to become a singer.
The rap-rock band announced that their latest album, From Zero, is set for release on November 15, and is bringing fans one step closer to what’s to come with a limited world tour that begins September 11 and stops in Los Angeles, New York, Hamburg (Germany), London, Seoul (South Korea) and Bogota (Colombia).
The new album title is particularly dear to the founding members, as they initially called their band Xero, but renamed it Linkin Park after Bennington joined as frontman.
The announcement marks the first time the Grammy-winning group has released new music since Bennington committed suicide at his Los Angeles home two months after the debut of Linkin Park’s last album, “One More Light.”
Armstrong said she worked hard to “carry on the emotion” that Bennington brought to the band.
“You have to combine the technical part with the emotion. It’s Chester’s voice and it’s mine, but I want it to still feel the way I feel when I hear the song because that’s what the fans love. There’s a passion in it that I hope I can live out,” Armstrong said.
Many fans online have welcomed the band’s return with Armstrong on stage.
“With her gravelly voice, I think she’s a great choice for her. I’m glad she’s been getting such positive reactions so far. I hope she only gets better as she gets more comfortable in the band,” wrote one Linkin Park fan on Reddit.
“She is by no means Chester and no one ever will be, but I am very open to this change and I think she will fill his spot just fine,” wrote another fan.
“She needs some guidance to realize when less is more,” commented another fan on the social media platform.
But some other fans are not so enthusiastic.
“This just isn’t right. It seems desperate and she doesn’t fit Chester’s role,” wrote one fan.
“Not great at all. Not great at all. And call it something other than Linkin Park,” wrote another.
