Universal Chat Thread

[ShiraNoMai]

No I've definitely seen it before, it definitely wasn't his first time face revealing lol Here's a clip of his cool model though

[Moonface]

Yeah as Shira said it wasn't a face reveal. Thinking of it now though, it's weird that nobody really cares whether the player is on screen in some way for YouTube videos but when it comes to a live stream suddenly not having a camera can be a huge detriment, yet what really matters is a) watching someone play live and b) getting to interact with them live which just requires their voice. Then again I am a content creator consumer n00b so I'm probably very naive about the actual views of most people consuming that stuff on various platforms.


Now I go back to suffering with a pile of homework that's all gotta be done for tomorrow.

[Moonface]

For anyone interested, Linkin Park are performing on Twitch right now with their new lead singer. I only just tuned in so can't comment yet but thought others here would wanna know this is happening!

[ShiraNoMai]

Yeah you can catch it on pretty much any social streaming service. They're doing a private show for like, the diehard fanclub, with a mixed set spanning their whole catalogue. We've just jumped in to the Thousand Suns songs so we're waiting to properly judge, but so far I really like her voice. She's got like, a Janis Joplin kind of grit but Stevie Nicks kind of clean harmonies.

[Moonface]

Yeah hearing her doing One Step Closer right now I can't fault her, but I do think the band themselves are playing the song considerably softer than I've ever heard it before live. It usually has a much stompier feel to it and more impact. Maybe it's just the audio mixing being iffy, which I get the feeling is happening because the amount of times they've stopped singing to let the crowd do the lines instead has resulted in pure silence on the stream, but I doubt the crowd is at fault at all because otherwise why keep doing it? It makes more sense for it to be the mics not picking it up well on the stream which the band isn't going to be aware of.

Now for the one definitely bad thing, that new logo. Nothing was wrong with the existing LP logo but apparently someone looked at it and went "Ya know what that needs, a shit live tracing in Illustrator to make it look blobby". Ick...

[Karo]

Linkin Park is back? Or did they never leave I really haven't stayed up to date on their music which is quite surprising cause I do enjoy them!

[Moonface]

Linkin Park is back? Or did they never leave I really haven't stayed up to date on their music which is quite surprising cause I do enjoy them!

They didn't leave so to say, but when Chester passed seven years ago they did a few tribute shows in his memory with other bands I think, and then unreleased tracks from when Chester was still alive were put out over time. I don't think anything actually new was produced until this new singer was brought on board though.

Also it's good to see you popping in again! How you been?

[Mr EliteL]

LP is back with a new singer? Hmm I'll check it out briefly.
OK, I listened to a new song The Emptiness Machine and it was pretty fine actually, however listened to her singing Numb from the livestream and...didn't like it, however Bleed It Out was tolerable but not as good as Emptiness Machine. If I continue to enjoy the brand new songs then I'll be a bit more interested, I tend to not really get into new singers with old songs anyway. I'm like this with my favourite band as well in Kamelot, I avoid Karevik with Khan's songs but really enjoy Karevik's work in the songs he's part of originally, plus Karevik is well in contention as my second favourite vocalist anyway. Although don't get me wrong, I think it's a good thing for new singers to tackle the known songs beforehand to get fans into them as well.

Also checked out another unreleased song with Chester in as I think I only heard Lost before, Fighting Myself and that was good, just the music video used AI garbage so I immediately scrolled it out of view.

[Moonface]

I haven't actually ever checked out any of Chester's songs that were released posthumously. If I bother to it'll probably only be the ones from their first three albums because I don't like anything LP did after Minutes to Midnight.

There's also a lot of criticism about the new singer because she's a Scientologist and attended court in support of a rapist, plus doesn't think mental health issues are a real thing. Seems weird the band chose her since Chester was a sexual abuse victim and struggled with mental health.

[Mr EliteL]

I believe Lost, Fighting Myself and a few more were from those early years as they appear in the Meteora 20th Anniversary on their own disc along with demos of songs from Meteora. Fighting Myself sounds similar to By Myself with a touch of I think Hit The Floor. Not sure about any other songs but yeah I'm only interested in the early years too.

Didn't know that about her just wanted to hear what she sounded like, that is pretty weird they chose her with that background. Who knows though what could happen if she's here to stay or not. I know she has another band reading about her too, but I know many vocalists get involved in multiple projects. I might not end up following LP anyway, I stopped following another band when their vocalist left, actually there's a few bands like that but I still listen to the old music.

[Moonface]

I think the only band I've listened to where I didn't notice the vocalist had changed was Killswitch Engage when they went from Jesse Leach to Howard Jones (and just found out while writing this that when Jones left that Leach actually came back as the lead vocalist). When I first heard anything from Killswitch it was songs performed by Jones, and so I thought he was always their lead singer until I saw the music video for My Last Serenade, which features Leach instead. I had heard the song before I saw its video so until then I had thought that song (and any others I heard on Kerrang Radio) were all sung by Jones. I'm sure there's an audible difference between the two of them but I could never detect it.

[ShiraNoMai]

HIGH and MIGHTY COLOR (of the 3rd Bleach Opening fame) had lost their main vocalist (due to choosing a different lifestyle after marriage) and when they found a replacement, they made one album and quit all together practically a few months after that. The usual "musical differences" and "future opportunities" excuse.

It's hard when you're replacing what's essentially an irreplaceable sound. It's why I found it interesting that Linkin Park chose to not replace Chester but to replace a vocalist. Lots of bands have struggled to continue or replace when key members leave (for whatever reason) and usually disband.

[Maniakkid25]

I'm a little surprised they didn't go the route of No Devotion. Uh, if you don't know the story, Content Warning: this one gets rather dark.

What happened with No Devotion

So, the instrumentalists of No Devotion used to be part of the band LostProphets. And that sudden horror you feel is your memories suddenly unlocking about Ian Watkins. See, Ian Watkins is currently serving a 30-year sentence in prison for, among other things, sexually assaulting minors and having THAT kind of pornography. Yeah, needless to say, LostProphets was disbanded shortly after this came to light. No Devotion is basically the same band, but with a new singer, to try and distance themselves from that past.

My point is that given how much Chester was to the identity and sound of the band, I'm surprised they didn't decide to rename themselves. There's a lot of baggage that can come with a specific band name, and I honestly think sometimes a band would be better off renaming themselves after losing a key member.

[ShiraNoMai]

Hard agree. I think if you wanted to keep the name baggage, you do something where you change featured frontmen and added them to the name during their tenure, which I think is what Queen did for a while before Adam Lambert was formally chosen.

[Moonface]

I suspect they kept the Linkin Park name for recognizability and because they weren't intending to change their sound nor did they necessarily want to cut themselves off from performing any of their existing library on tours and such. In the case of No Devotion, they wouldn't want to touch the Lost Prophets songs with a ten foot pole and I don't blame them. Thinking of bands who had to cut themselves off from songs they performed due to the actions of someone associated with the song, Whatever by Our Lady Peace comes to my mind because they refuse to play that song now ever since the Chris Benoit double-murder suicide and that case is one of the most disappointing for me because the band as a whole had to abandon the song for the actions of someone who isn't even part of the band but is just strongly associated with that particular song.