  
Linkin Park have just completed an outstanding
headline set at the Download Festival where they
played their breakthrough and most loved album
‘Hybrid Theory’ in its entirety for
the first time ever whilst also topping the set
off with a collection of songs from their most
recent album releases as well as fan favourites
and now the band have just released their sixth
studio album ‘The Hunting Party’ which
the band themselves are describing as a prequel
to ‘Hybrid Theory’.
‘The Hunting Party’ is the first album
in Linkin Park’s massive career to not have
been produced by Rick Rubin however it seems to
of paid off for the band not to work with Rick
Rubin as ‘The Hunting Party’ is easily
the most explosive and heaviest material the band
have released since their debut album ‘Hybrid
Theory’ whilst also staying true to the
synth driven experimental ways the band have gone
over the years.
The album opens with ‘Keys To The Kingdom’
which opens with crazy screaming of “Non
control! No surprise” over the sound of
some banging drums and frantic guitar riffs sounding
like something you would expect from a major blockbuster
movie and for the next 3minutes this explosive
sound graces the airwaves as Linkin Park clearly
make their mark and prove that they still have
it in them to create the heavy songs which first
put them on the map.
‘All For Nothing’ is fantastic from
start to finish with its heavy guitar riffs and
Mike Shinoda and Chester Bennington battling out
with their unique vocals which sounds fantastic
with Bennington laying down some solid clear vocals
with Shinoda coming in for the odd rap and backing
vocal shouts whilst Page Hamilton from Helmet
also lends his vocals to the chorus which adds
to the epic sound of the song.
‘Guilty All The Same’ was the first
single to be released from the album and it literally
blew me and thousands of Linkin Park fans away
as the song is a near 6minute running masterpiece
where Linkin Park solidly go all out instrumentally
for the first 1minute and 35seconds before Chester
Bennington comes in with mellow singing before
quickly building up to his more in your face shouting
vocals which constantly graced the airwaves through
the ‘Hybrid Theory’ days, towards
the end of the song hip-hop god Rakim comes in
for a well placed vocal attack whilst Mike Shinoda
and Brad Delson keep it real with their amazing
guitar riffs.
‘The Summoning’ is a short 1minute
long instrumental interlude; it starts off quite
mellow but by the end of it the band are ready
for action and that it when things get weird and
Linkin Park blast into the Bad Religion sounding
punk infused ‘War’ the song is short
and sweet running for just over 2minutes and see’s
Linkin Park go down a punk meets metal route full
of stunning solos and general instrumental goodness.
The likes of ‘Wasteland’, ‘Until
It’s Gone’, ‘Rebellion’,
‘Final Masquerade’ and the epic closer
‘A Line In The Sand’ are all awesome
tracks and having the likes of Page Hamilton,
Rakim, Daron Malakian and Tom Morello featuring
on the album is a good move however the Tom Morello
featured ‘Drawbar’ is such an soft
sounding instrumental track which no power chords
or solid solos in place yet it is moments like
this which prove that Linkin Park have done their
homework this time around and released an album
full of pleasant surprises.
In my eyes ‘Hybrid Theory’ and ‘Meteora’
were solid albums for Linkin Park but ever since
then I have found their albums hard to get into
as they started to go down the more serious experimental
soft rock route where there albums featured a
couple of solid songs yet the majority felt like
fillers and that is why I find ‘The Hunting
Party’ a pleasant surprise as it is easily
the second best album Linkin Park have ever released,
clearly they will never be able to top ‘Hybrid
Theory’ but I really hope that Linkin Park
continue further down this route in a few years
time when they start work on album number seven.
4.5/5
Review by Trigger
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