Expect the unexpected, a trite saying but often true nonetheless. My first introduction to Linkin Park was a surprise concert with my best friend in Boston, which I almost did not go to because of overwhelming schoolwork. We drove through the pelting snow of February 2011 from Stonehill, and while the journey was precarious and frustrating, the concert was well worth the struggle. Linkin Park’s music style is a medley of alternative rock, rap rock, and alternative metal, and though the mix may seem odd at first, it works. Chester Bennington’s eerie yet beautiful vocals along with Mike Shinoda’s surprisingly tasteful rap encompass Linkin Park’s new album, Living Things, and its haunting tales of loss and suffering. Living Things is in my opinion Linkin Park’s most phenomenal work to date. Let’s start with the album cover: what you see are shards of human flesh breaking of a body and disintegrating into the surrounding air. This image is computer-generated and taken from a 3D scan of Chester’s, the lead singer, head. Given the title and theme for the album, the raw emotions created from living things, this artwork gives the album a personal spin, a connection not defrayed by distance. The members of Linkin Park make such a connection to their audience in their album, as if the emotions and vulnerabilities spoken in the lyrics slide next to those felt by listeners and for an instant combine with enough connectivity to make your spine tingle.
By Shalen Lowell, Class of 2014
Image credit: http://www.billboard.com/