Mike Shinoda (left) and Emily Armstrong of Linkin Park perform on Thursday, Sept 5, 2024, in Los Angeles. Armstrong is the band's new co-singer and Colin Brittain is on drums. Photo: AP
Linkin Park is back.
The influential rap-rock band announced Thursday that it's reunited, seven years after the 2017 death of frontman Chester Bennington, and plans to tour and release a studio album this fall.
The group's new singer is Emily Armstrong, previously known as a member of the Los Angeles-based rock band Dead Sara; Linkin Park also has a new drummer in Colin Brittain, who replaces the band's Rob Bourdon.
The group's remaining members are rapper and producer Mike Shinoda, guitarist Brad Delson, DJ Joe Hahn and one-named bassist Phoenix, all of whom founded the band in Agoura Hills in 1996.
Linkin Park will release a new 11-track album, From Zero, on Nov 15, its first since 2017's One More Light, which came out just two months before Bennington died by suicide at his home in Palos Verdes Estates. The LP's lead single, The Emptiness Machine, dropped Thursday.
In a statement, the four surviving founders — who called their band Xero before Bennington joined and they renamed it Linkin Park — said they'd started hanging out in recent years in an attempt to "reconnect with the creativity and camaraderie" of their earliest days.
The title of From Zero, Shinoda said, "refers to both this humble beginning and the journey we're currently undertaking. Sonically and emotionally, it is about past, present and future — embracing our signature sound, but new and full of life. It was made with a deep appreciation for our new and longtime bandmates, our friends, our family and our fans.
"We are proud of what Linkin Park has become over the years," he added, "and excited about the journey ahead."
Next week, Linkin Park will kick off a series of six concerts in cities around the world with a show at Inglewood's Kia Forum on Sept 11; the other stops on the band's itinerary are New York; Hamburg, Germany; London; Seoul, South Korea; and Bogota, Colombia.
In 2017, Linkin Park's members paid tribute to Bennington with a show at the Hollywood Bowl in which they performed with members of Blink-182, No Doubt, Korn, Avenged Sevenfold, Bring Me the Horizon and System of a Down, among other acts. – Los Angeles Times/Tribune News Service
