Monday, June 23, 2014
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I haven’t written much here in a long time. Why? A lack of balance with professional and
personal life. Not between those two
adversaries, but between my heart and those two unexpected partners in my
demise.
These days, I think a lot and don’t post it here. It’s too dark. It’s too revealing. It’s too damning. Being in a place like this is
disturbingly painful, uniquely humbling, and incredibly inspiring. Enough about that.
This foray into this overdone, over-assimilated network of socially anti-social connection is not about my demise but about my reconnection with 14 years ago with Hybrid Theory.
This foray into this overdone, over-assimilated network of socially anti-social connection is not about my demise but about my reconnection with 14 years ago with Hybrid Theory.
This is New Music Monday; in a dark format. The newest Linkin Park record, “The Hunting
Party” is everything I needed to hear for validation of my
feelings that everyone else has dismissed due to some irrationality in their
own warped perspective. One could argue
that I shouldn’t be listening to this considering where I’m at in terms of
mental mindspace. But music finds me
when I need it when everyone else bailed.
“The Hunting Party” is not pretty, happy, or polished. This is the hammer smashed on your hand,
it’s the needles piercing your most delicate skin; it’s the drill boring
between your bloodshot eyeballs. It’s
the best Linkin Park record to date, in my opinion. It’s
what my lost generation gets; dark and lost no matter the fake successes posted
to Facebook or superficial beauty of postage stamp neighborhoods, luxury cars
and kitten videos on YouTube.
This album ratchets up the level of thrash to just below
that of ‘I think I broke my neck from head banging and my ears won’t stop hemorrhaging.’ “The Hunting Party,” is not only the hardest
and heaviest thing they’ve ever released but it’s also their first album to
pack a drum and guitar firepower assault that would actually appeal to a head
banger and give them a headache. The record is an amazing concoction of punk,
thrash, and hard rock.
Lyrically, the group rails against everything from the man,
to the government, and to failed relationships.
Sometimes it’s just railing to be railing. Why all the anger? Well, Mike Shinoda was clear that he wasn’t
hearing anything in music that was scratching his itch for darkness and how he
was feeling. This record is self-produced,
reinvigorated and ready for a fight. My
perspective on this album does not necessarily align with what music pundits
might pontificate about this release.
Check out Revolver, they will like its depth and darkness. While Rolling Stone says it
needs more electronica and synthesizers for rock radio. This ain’t a rock radio album. Period.
“Guilty All the Same” is the first release from the
album. It’s a hard rocker with the
legendary hip hop artist, Rakim, making a cameo. It’s a great barometer of the hammering
nature of the album. The second release
is “Until It’s Gone” which is sonically like previous tunes like “Numb” with
the orchestration and synth work. These succinctly
summarize a great record. But the meat
is represented in tracks like “Rebellion,” “Final Masquerade,” and “A Line in
the Sand.”
These are the epic songs on the album which at your heart
and rip your ears. While “Final
Masquerade” is very mellow in comparison to its counterparts, it's the song
which awkwardly orbits some strangely familiar feelings.
What I do believe is that the heaviness represents so many
people just like me. We don’t need to be
martyrs like we used to be. But we feel
something is not ‘right’ in our lives.
Our relationships are crumbling before our very eyes, our children are
growing up and away, our jobs grind us into pulp and dump us in the corporate
landfill, we kill each other over whose God is more heavenly, and our government cheats us and destroys our fragile world under
the guise of technology. It feels over
to us. And we are over it. The masquerade is over and Linkin Park
sonically described it in an incredible adept and poignant categorization of
life and emotion.
If you like pop country and the likes of family friendly pop
nonsense radio music, I wouldn't recommend this album to you. If you want something that will push further
into the darkness only to make you feel less isolated and hopeless while making
your ears hurt and your skull implode, this is it.
Watch the "Guilty All the Same" video here
Watch the "Until It's Gone" video here
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