October 2021 Feature Release – The Gateway Edition

So just like that we find that a new month is upon us which of course means that we’ll be nominating a brand new monthly feature release for each clan. This essentially means that we’re asking you to rate, review & discuss our chosen features for no other reason than because we enjoy the process & banter. We’re really looking forward to hearing your thoughts on our chosen releases so don’t be shy.

This month’s feature release for The Gateway has been nominated by Andi. It's 2014's sixth album "The Hunting Party" from popular Californian alternative rock/metal outfit Linkin Park.

https://metal.academy/releases/27888

Thanks Daniel for accept this feature release submission! Here's my review summary:

"WAR!!! DESTROYER!!!" That's what's been going in the first Linkin Park album without producer Rick Rubin and with their earlier metal sound since 2003's Meteora. These ultra-famous rap rockers from California decided to go rogue in a Star Destroyer-like spaceship to shoot missiles at ex-record labels and political rule-makers, equivalent to their rediscovery of savage loud guitars. The Hunting Party can be considered the Rogue One of their global-selling 2000 debut Hybrid Theory. While the electronic synths of their non-metal albums in between are still around, they've regained their earlier pummeling aggression. As the sound attacks, the lyrics defend, working as the band's sword and shield for the fight. Apparently, they were going to make another electronic album like Living Things, but when they decided to go to this furious metal direction, they ditched the electronics, which was the right decision for metalheads like myself. So what's with all this rage then? Rap metal can be cool (for metalheads who like rap), but this isn't 1999 anymore. As evolution goes on, do you wish to stop and apologize for making a few critics mad? NO!! It's your sound, and while they won't accept it, just go with it so you can please the rest! Fortunately, Linkin Park had done just that. They even had a little more freedom since they self-produced the album. It's not really the highest point, but heaps of copies have been sold, and there are very few lousy songs. Fortunately most songs are very decent with a few that mark some of the best from the band such as the ones with guests; "All for Nothing" with Helmet's Page Hamilton, the awesome "Guilty All the Same" with hip-hop legend Rakim, and "Rebellion" with System of a Down's Daron Malikian, all 3 great for fans of the respective band's guests. However, "Drawbar" with Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello was just a lame missed opportunity for that guest. Like I said, most of the songs are pretty great, but I think some of those could've been done better. The Linkin Park blood still remains within me years after my "real" metal interest took over. Sadly, their metal is gone, and so is Chester Bennington. RIP.....

3.5/5

Recommended songs: "Keys to the Kingdom", "Guilty All the Same", "War", "Rebellion", "Final Masquerade", "A Line in the Sand"

For fans of: Helmet, Rage Against the Machine, System of a Down

My review turned out to be less about the music of The Hunting Party and more so its significance when it comes to "nostalgia farming". So let me say this in the post-notes: The Hunting Party is a more than solid alternative metal album with some catchy melodies and sticky grooves, Chester Bennington has some great crunch in his vocals, and the rap vocals do not feel forced, cringy or dated. That being said, I wish that I liked this album more given how influential Linkin Park were in my adolescence. 

7/10

I unexpectedly really enjoyed our last Linkin Park feature release in 2003's "Meteora" album so I went into "The Hunting Party" with some optimism but that proved to be overly hopeful as I struggled to connect with a lot of this material. Don't get me wrong, this is by no means a horrible record. It simply spends a little too much of it's run time traversing areas of the musical spectrum that I'm not particularly comfortable with.

I guess you can technically classify this as a metal record as five of the twelve tracks included utilize metal tools however they present them in a fashion that will likely appeal more to a pop audience than a metal one & occasionally even hint at trance metal through the use of cheesy synthesizers. The rap sections were a challenge for me on "Meteora" but here I found them a little harder to deal with as they're generally smothered in commercial pop production techniques that often leave me feeling pretty cringy. Bennington's vocal skills aren't highlighted as well here either & there's an up-beat punky component to some of the song-writing that hints more at pop punk than it does at hardcore punk.

On the positive side though, Linkin Park have always known how to right a catchy hook & you'll find a few of those here. The instrumental post-rock collaboration with Rage Against The Machine's Tom Morello "Drawbar" is sheer genius & I really enjoy the more mature alternative rock stylings of "Mark The Graves" & the building interlude "The Summoning". Energetic alternative metal opener "Keys To The Kingdom" is also pretty good & leaves me wishing that Linkin Park wouldn't resort to poppy commercialism as often as they do here. I'd lay off the synths altogether too.

So overall, you can see from my score that this isn't be any means an awful record. It just doesn't even attempt to tick any of the boxes I crave from my metal music.

For fans of Evanescence, Breaking Benjamin & Red.

3/5

I think that Linkin Park got the short end of the stick on this one, since it seems like most people were pretty done with this style of barely Alt-Metal with some rap influences tossed in there by the mid-2010's. All in all this album was very mediocre for me, but it wasn't bad at all. Although I grew up within the right timeframe to have Linkin Park be a major influence, I steered clear from that side of Rock/Metal, so coming into this album with zero nostalgia was kind of refreshing. Most of the songs sound perfectly at home on hard rock radio, but there were some riffs and moments that were genuinely interesting. Some moments fell flat, but overall this is an extremely inoffensive album with a few decent songs and a few misses. I can't help but think this one is over-hated just due to Linkin Park's overall style becoming cool to hate as the metal landscape evolved past the Nu and Alternative Metal of the late 90's and early 2000's. 

3/5