Sell me on Hating Linkin Park

[Your Paragon of Virtue 0]

If I were to start sporadically cooking and eating nu metal bands, I'd start with Linkin Park. That Chester kid is soft and tender, with no metallic aftertaste. We've all called him whiny because, well, he's whiny.

 

"Don't Turn your back on me,

I won't be ignored."

 

A dapper little chorus with the delivery of a marginally post pubescent Billy Corgan mixed with a random middle child.

 

Aside from being the antithesis of everything they're supposedly about, musically speaking, they're WAY overplayed, and INCREDIBLY overproduced. I'll explain that first part.

 

They're generally hailed as some sort of blend between rap and metal, right? With emotional lyrics that everyone can relate to...I guess. How well do they play metal? For brevity's sake, I'll just say "Not well." I'm no rap scholar, but Mike Shimoda sounds awkward and forced. The beats do nothing for me, either. As for the oh so touching lyrics, they're as vague as "rock" music. Nothing personal, just a plethora of emotional buckshot, as dull as lead, flying innacurately at the listening public. Horrible, terrible, awful band.

Quick question, just to play devil's advocate; you seem to knock on their lyrics, as well as Saliva. But when have any of the guys from Slayer or any other *real* metal bands ever said something deep and profound? That's lost on me.

[LaParkaYourCar 0]

I'd say that Iron Maiden says something profound in just about every song. They have actual story telling and metephors in their songs.

 

Old School Metallica was great about songs you could either take literal or metephorical. Songs that you could just look at as the surface meaning or apply to something else. A few songs on the load albums still had that, but everything on St. Anger is just trying too hard.

 

The problem with most of today's music is that the lyrics have no deeper meaning. Most of them are the same thing that everyone is saying. Some of them are the same damn lyrics. Must every song nowdays be about how confused they are about life and who they are?

[The Czech Republic 0]

Mike Shimoda should just stick to reffing.

[Your Paragon of Virtue 0]

I'd say that Iron Maiden says something profound in just about every song. They have actual story telling and metephors in their songs.

 

Old School Metallica was great about songs you could either take literal or metephorical. Songs that you could just look at as the surface meaning or apply to something else. A few songs on the load albums still had that, but everything on St. Anger is just trying too hard.

 

The problem with most of today's music is that the lyrics have no deeper meaning. Most of them are the same thing that everyone is saying. Some of them are the same damn lyrics. Must every song nowdays be about how confused they are about life and who they are?

I meant like the Death Metal stuff (forgive me if I'm getting the wrong category here). Stuff like Cannibal Corpse and Slayer. I think most of Iron Maiden and Metallica's stuff is pretty cliched, but I don't want to get into that argument here, so I won't.

[Cartman 0]

I am with Paragon on this one. At least with Bands like Saliva, LP, and Limp Bizkit I can UNDERSTAND the lyrics...unlike countless other bands you guys love so much.

 

So what's everyone think about 3rd Strike?

[Red Baron 0]

if you want better examples, grunge bands had deep and powerful lyrics. It just got over played, like hair bands did in the 80's.

[Guest Dave O'Neill, Journalist]

So, am I the only one who likes Linkin Park????

 

There last two singles have been great

[Jack_Bauer 0]

Linkin Park are pretty damn good if you ask me.

 

Most ( not every ) songs seem to have the same formula but it's a formula I like, and to be honest, that's all that matters.

[Red Baron 0]

Faint was pretty damn catchy tune IMO.

[Guest Doyo]

I meant like the Death Metal stuff (forgive me if I'm getting the wrong category here). Stuff like Cannibal Corpse and Slayer.

Slayer aren't really death metal. Below are an example of Slayer's lyrics. Not that they are that

deep or profound, but a lot more so than Linkin Park. This song is about Josef Mengele and

his evil experiments he committed at Auschwitz in Nazi Germany, while Linking Park's songs

are about Chester being mad at his mom or something.

 

ANGEL OF DEATH

 

Auschwitz, The Meaning Of Pain

The Why That I Want You To Die

Slow Death, Immense Decay

Showers That Cleanse You Of Your Life

Forced In

Like Cattle

You Run

Stripped Of

Your Lifes Worth

Human Mice, For The Angel Of Death

Four Hundred Thousand More To Die

Angel Of Death

Monarch To The Kingdom Of The Dead

Sadistic, Surgeon Of Demise

Sadist Of The Noblest Blood

 

Destroying, Without Mercy

To Benefit The Aryan Race

 

Surgery, With No Anesthesia

Feel The Knife Pierce You Intensely

Inferior, No Use To Mankind

Strapped Down Screaming Out To Die

Angel Of Death

Monarch To The Kingdom Of The Dead

Infamous Butcher,

Angel Of Death

 

Pumped With Fluid, Inside Your Brain

Pressure In Your Skull Begins Pushing

Through Your Eyes

Burning Flesh, Drips Away

Test Of Heat Burns Your Skin,

Your Mind Starts To Boil

Frigid Cold, Cracks Your Limbs

How Long Can You Last

In This Frozen Water Burial

Sewn Together, Joining Heads

Just A Matter Of Time

'Til You Rip Yourselves Apart

Millions Laid Out In Their

Crowded Tombs

Sickening Ways To Achieve

The Holocaust

Seas Of Blood, Bury Life

Smell Your Death As It Burns

Deep Inside Of You

Abacinate, Eyes That Bleed

Praying For The End Of

Your Wide Awake Nightmare

Wings Of Pain, Reach Out For You

His Face Of Death Staring Down,

Your Blood Running Cold

Injecting Cells, Dying Eyes

Feeding On The Screams Of

The Mutants He's Creating

Pathetic Harmless Victims

Left To Die

Rancid Angel Of Death

Flying Free

[Guest Choken One]

So Slayer gives A history lesson as well as being awesome.

[DrainYou42 0]

 

I Won't Be Ignored

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

Oh yes you will.

 

Good brutal death lyrics, courtesy of Dying Fetus, now with more nihilism:

 

In Times Of War

 

Don’t look back nothing’s left but the blood red text on the planet earth’s epitaph

"here they lie, the human race, they fucked themselves, and laid earth waste "

blind to the fact that the bomb was coming down, their sanity was sold for a beggar’s handout

what they got is what they made, and the final act of this tragedy ends with pain

so drunk with power, they sit laughing at ground zero

one more drink, push a button, and let the fuckers go

its a drama, its a game, and lastly its a joke

what's left for ones, who never had a chance to know

that the powers inside are driven with the lust to fight

so they hand us their lies, and say its gonna be alright

but the truth to it is, they tax us just to kill ourselves

and our very own bombs will blow-us -all-to -hell

reckless, our neglect multiplies, the children of a Cold War left behind

come and see the doctor, Strangelove is here

no other superpower = nothing to fear

who needs a fucking treaty, when we got guns

fuck the little countries, lets have some fun

thinking back to where we came from

we can see how far we’ve come

but the price of our inventions

burns us like the heat on the surface of the sun

who can know what foul intentions

start inside the human mind

for only the proud human being

could conjure up a plan to obliterate his kind

the flash of light was quick to blind me

much like the lies they told me before

so naïve we thought it was all over

but history returns with another world war

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

I am with Paragon on this one. At least with Bands like Saliva, LP, and Limp Bizkit I can UNDERSTAND the lyrics...unlike countless other bands you guys love so much.

Brutal death wouldn't be what it is without growling vocals. It's the only suitable thing that goes with the music. The bonus cd on the new Morbid Angel album illustrates this pretty well. They put a bunch of riffs, and incomplete songs, etc, just to show what their thought process was, and it just doesn't work without the vocals. Traditional singing would completely amputate all of brutal death's appendages. There's no way to have these blistering riffs and drum fills with someone just going la-dee-da over it. The only band I can think of to successfully be heavy as a motherfucker, and still easy to listen to would be Acid Bath, but they're not a death band by any stretch of the term.

 

Also, I always grin when I see someone make a blanket statement about death vocals, like it's all the same guy or something. Different singers use different amounts of clarity, for example, With stuff like Nile and Mortician, it's the deep brutal gurgling type growls..guys like Chris Barnes have more of a harsh barking type sound, Nasum's similar to that, only way easier to pick out, then there's bands like Converge that are sick-heavy, only scream. There's variation, and almost none of it is melodic because it's not supposed to be melodic. It's distorted for a reason.

[Your Paragon of Virtue 0]

I am with Paragon on this one. At least with Bands like Saliva, LP, and Limp Bizkit I can UNDERSTAND the lyrics...unlike countless other bands you guys love so much.

Brutal death wouldn't be what it is without growling vocals. It's the only suitable thing that goes with the music. The bonus cd on the new Morbid Angel album illustrates this pretty well. They put a bunch of riffs, and incomplete songs, etc, just to show what their thought process was, and it just doesn't work without the vocals. Traditional singing would completely amputate all of brutal death's appendages. There's no way to have these blistering riffs and drum fills with someone just going la-dee-da over it. The only band I can think of to successfully be heavy as a motherfucker, and still easy to listen to would be Acid Bath, but they're not a death band by any stretch of the term.

 

Also, I always grin when I see someone make a blanket statement about death vocals, like it's all the same guy or something. Different singers use different amounts of clarity, for example, With stuff like Nile and Mortician, it's the deep brutal gurgling type growls..guys like Chris Barnes have more of a harsh barking type sound, Nasum's similar to that, only way easier to pick out, then there's bands like Converge that are sick-heavy, only scream. There's variation, and almost none of it is melodic because it's not supposed to be melodic. It's distorted for a reason.

I wasn't talking about the way they sang, just the lyrics they use. Most of it seems to be just as tired as Linkin Park's and such.

 

I can't imagine a guy like James Labrie singing on a Slayer album. I really can't.

[SamoaRowe 0]

I have severly mixed feelings about Linkin Park. I like them for all their good qualites but I'm annoyed by all of their bad ones as well.

 

-Their songs DO follow a formula. Every time I'm about to hear a new Linkin Park song, I can pretty much sing along after the first verse because I know exactly how it's going to play out.

 

-Unique little tune opens, heavy guitars blast, Shinido raps with a bit of Chester in the background or vice-versa, Chester sings his ass off for chorus, then another short verse, then the chorus, then Chester screams for a bridge, and then the chorus one last time only with extra emphasis.

 

That's just about every Linkin Park song (or at least their singles).

[The Metal Maniac 0]

I think most of Iron Maiden and Metallica's stuff is pretty cliched

 

Yeah, but here's the important difference.

 

Linkin Park's stuff was cliched before they were born, by people with more musical talent, and more ACTUAL pain then any of them probably ever have.

 

Iron Maiden's stuff may be cliched, but that's because they made that cliche themselves.

[Your Paragon of Virtue 0]

I think most of Iron Maiden and Metallica's stuff is pretty cliched

 

Yeah, but here's the important difference.

 

Linkin Park's stuff was cliched before they were born, by people with more musical talent, and more ACTUAL pain then any of them probably ever have.

 

Iron Maiden's stuff may be cliched, but that's because they made that cliche themselves.

Probably. Don't get me wrong I'm not like defending LP or anything. If anything, I can't stand them.

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

I wasn't talking about the way they sang, just the lyrics they use. Most of it seems to be just as tired as Linkin Park's and such.

 

I can't imagine a guy like James Labrie singing on a Slayer album. I really can't.

Well, some of it is, of course. It's not like gore bands really have a statement, but that has the same appeal as horror movies, for the most part. Just something heavy that makes people go "ick." Finding material based on mythology, and historical atrocities isn't hard. Satan and drugs are both pretty plentiful, and anarchy and nihilism abound. One of the better examples of useful metal lyrics I can think of is Sepultura. Those guys covered all kinds of political topics, as well as just some abstract stuff, some history, and even some personal material.

 

The thing that makes Linkin Park's cliched crap more annoying than other cliched crap is COMPLETELY in the delivery. They have a bad case of Saliva in the respect that they can't really do anything individually good, or even really different, so it all comes out horrible and identical.

 

Labrie with Slayer, huh? It's even funnier when you put random brutal guys in with power metal bands..

 

Stratovarius meets....Steve Tucker of Morbid Angel.