Nzoom.com
They've made a killing with their melodic angst-flavoured rapcore in recent years, and now Linkin Park are back with Meteora . Despite not wanting to admit it, Cameron Officer finds words like "epic", "ambitious" and "punchy" escaping his lips with a worryingly rapid frequency
In the past, whenever giving my opinion on multi-million selling rapcore outfit Linkin Park, I've always said "Not bad", before adding the disclaimer "...for a nu-metal band".
I found myself tapping the steering wheel to the beat of tracks from their debut Hybrid Theory , but was never inclined to actually pick up a copy of the album in record stores. I acknowledged their apparent skill in cementing a great hook or a punchy riff, but scoffed at the " I didn't ask to be born, did I! " angst of their pimply suburban aggression.
And it has to be said that in a way I was kind of, sort of, possibly-get-'round-to-it-if-I-get-a-chance looking forward to having a listen to their follow-up longplayer Meteora .
So having digested their new album, am I able to update my ambivalent attitude towards the backward cap wearing six-piece who have taken teen rock by the scruff of the low-riding pants and given it a stern talking to? Well, yes, I am. The adjective that comes to mind most often whilst listening to the 13 tightly woven tracks here is "epic". Which is kind of what the band is hoping for, by all accounts.
"Meteora" is named after a peculiar rock formation in Greece - a kind of mammoth outcrop of rock upon which ancient temples reside. Co-frontman Mike Shinoda (the one who does the rapping in between the melodically shouty bits provided by Chester Bennington) has stated that the band was inspired by the awesomeness of these rock formations - seeing them as daring, ambitious, epic... which is how they see themselves.
"Don't Stay" (first track proper following the rather surplus to requirements hammering/breaking glass-fx of "Foreword") seems like an odd choice of an opener for a band who would appear to relish huge sonic attention-grabbing starts - being slow in tempo and forgettable in nature. Things start looking up, however, when the driving beat and punchy multi-layered guitar chords of first single "Somewhere I Belong" kick in. Sure the lyrics are in the seemingly standard "I hate myself and I'm not too fussed on you either" vain of things, but you can't deny the power of the song and its inherent anthemic qualities.
This seems to be an album-long theme - great music, clichéd lyrics. Then again, in defense of these young serious-minded wordsmiths, I'm probably a little bit north of the target demographic.
But the music is all encompassing in its theatrical brutality. Tracks like "Easier To Run" and "Faint" are underpinned by melodic guitars, driving drums and the never-too-flashy scratching of DJ Joseph Hahn. "Breaking The Habit" features a killer woodwind sample, perhaps inadvertently lifting the mood and leaving the song somewhere between a spaghetti western theme tune and a old Kool Keith track.
Elsewhere things don't quite gel. The final four tracks on Meteora meander along; a bland instrumental like "Session" and the pomp rock of "Nobody's Listening" (featuring lyric patterns with a mysterious, indefinable Hall & Oates quality about them) aren't successful in pulling through the positives experienced in the first half of the album.
If you're a hardened Linkin Park fan then this'll be the best thing you've heard since... well, since Hybrid Theory topped sales charts around the world in 2001, probably. You'll also no doubt enjoy the enhanced CD too, with its rather interesting doco about the album's graffiti art motifs.
If, like me, you weren't completely sold on the band first time 'round, Meteora is still worth a visit to your friendly local record store's listening-post. It'll safely surprise you with its intensity, without leaving you strongly yearning to buy a skateboard and get some of those big wholly earrings that stretch your lobes to buggery