Culture Crash: “I’ve Become So Numb, I Can’t Feel You There”: The Iconic Linkin Park Returns

Linkin Park is an iconic band. Their debut album, Hybrid Theory, was the 11th best-selling album of the 2000s, thanks in no small part to its innovative combination of sounds. Vocalist Chester Bennington brought the screams and hard rock sensibility, while co-vocalist Mike Shinoda gave the band a more a hip hop and rap sensibility with his vocals.

Over the course of almost 20 years, Linkin Park released seven studio albums and continued to amass one of the most devoted fanbases in music. // But tragically, in 2017, Bennington, the band’s primary vocalist, died by suicide and the Linkin Park experience came to a painful and necessary halt. For years, fans have openly speculated as to whether any type of reunion would ever be possible, and now in 2024.. It’s happening.

On September 5, Linkin Park reanimated itself by simultaneously welcoming a new co-vocalist in Emily Armstrong, performing an hour-long livestream concert, announcing a new album, and releasing a new single. That single “The Emptiness Machine” is an absolute banger, the album comes out in November, and Linkin Park is off to the races once again.

Some conversations have raged online about the band replacing Bennington, but let’s be very clear: Chester Bennington will never be replaced. His raw vocals, and the way he could so clearly convey pain and tenderness, was one of a kind. But Armstrong brings something new to the band, of course, and “The Emptiness Machine” rolled out this new incarnation perfectly. The song begins with Shinoda’s vocals, a familiar place to re-enter the Linkin Park experience, but then Armstrong takes over in the second verse. A female voice that brings new rage and new catharsis. Still, the song is instantly recognizable as trademark Linkin Park stuff. It has the hip hop-meets-rock sensibility fans crave, and it paves the way for a new album and a new era of the band that I could not be more excited to experience.

“The Emptiness Machine” is streaming now. Linkin Park’s 8th album “From Zero,” is set to release on November 15.