May 12th, 2007

Release Date: May 15th, 2007

Genre(s): Alternative Rock

Runtime: 43 minutes, 23 seconds

Record Label: Warner Bros./Machine Shop Recordings

Myspace Page: Click Here

The eventual crawl to the top of the mountain is indeed a tiring task to take on for a lot of musicians. Some come prepared for the arduous trek before them -- sometimes taking years to reach the coveted apex and enjoy the many fruits of their labor. A few people in another group may die on the way there and never quite make it, while another select group takes the shortcut to the top and avoids the nasty mountain lions and snakes along the path. If they do manage to get to the top, no matter the methods, they might enjoy the view for awhile, but you can't stay up there forever. There's only one way to go at this juncture, and that's down.

Nu-Metal band Linkin Park is no stranger to success. Ever since appearing on the radar of mainstream radio in late 2000, they've gained momentum from every single they've released since. From "One Step Closer," "Papercut," "In The End," "Somewhere I Belong," to the emotional "Breaking The Habit" -- pretty much their entire library have gone on to become what many would consider to be classics. While some critics have never quite liked the unique flavor of the metal and rap fusion, the vast majority of the world (including myself) did. LP has sold over 15 million albums and has gathered quite the dedicated legion of fans along the years.

Hell, they even got so successful they had the opportunity to make the mash-up album, "Collision Course" (if you call like five tracks an album) with Jay-Z in 2004. After that, Mike Shinoda (the rapper) had enough time on his hands to do his own rap flavored side project with Ft. Minor called "The Rising Tied". Those were fine and dandy, but what I, and other Linkin Park fanatics, really wanted was another great, full length Linkin Park record.

Their latest, "Minutes To Midnight," has been delayed and delayed dating back to early 2006. When they finally announced the release date was going to be on my birthday (May 15th, 2007) I was estactic. So much so, I was planning on purchasing this. Yes, as in I actually exchange my money for the music -- something I have not done since I bought their first album. (which was when I had 56k, mind you).

After nearly a half decade of waiting, I have to say that Linkin Park has not only started to climb down the mountain, but every single one of them broke their ankles and began a turbulent freefall down the fucking thing the likes of which have not been since Homer Simpson tried to get on Bart's skateboard.

Part of what made Linkin Park stand out and appeal to such a wide demographic in the first place was the fact they had a rapper (Shinoda) and a DJ (Joseph "Mr." Hahn) in addition to having the standard elements of metal. To a degree, Limp Bizkit may have experimented with the formula at first, but DJ Lethal is no Mr. Hahn and Fred Durst couldn't make a decent rap verse if his life depended on it. Linkin Park certainly perfected it with their sound definitely at it's peak on "Hybrid Theory" with delicious tracks like the haunting ambiance of "Crawling" or the sonically gritty "With You" while it sort of mellowed out with "Meteora".. Still -- those two albums had the perfect balance of rock and rap to please just about everyone. The music Gods were smiling.

Fast forward to the present day and, honestly, I don't even know what the blueberry fuck is going on with this album. I read in various interviews conducted with Chester Bennington (lead vocalist) and Mike where they have said that MtM would be a different sound for the band. Here's what Chester had to say about it:

"We've always been known for mixing a lot of different genres of music and not pigeonholing ourselves in one particular sound, but by doing so, we've kind of pigeonholed ourselves into our sound.. It sounds strange, but there's a common thread that people are going to expect, and we're trying to pull that out of the new music." -- Source, MTV News

I don't even know where to begin, but I guess I'll start off with the fact that this album has a parental advisory label on it. That's not a big deal in today's music climate, but considering their past releases were clean this was already a bad sign. I always praised them for not needing to resort to cuss words to get their message across -- no matter how angst ridden it may be, so I don't know what made Chester want to start dropping the "F-Bomb" in "Given Up" -- it was totally uncalled for. Secondly, where the hell is Shinoda on this album?! He only raps for a few seconds on 1 or 2 tracks and has a solo track devoted to himself that features him singing instead of rhyming ("In Between"). While he's a good singer and that was a nice change of pace, Mike added A LOT to their past songs and it's a crying shame he's mostly an after thought on this album. Thirdly, like Mike, Mr. Hahn is barely noticed! I'm sure anyone can pick up on his contributions in previous songs like "Points of Authority," "Somewhere I Belong," "Lying From You," or any other random song you happen to pick out from their library, but on MtM his DJing is a lot less in your face and that's yet another damn shame 'cause homeboy can scratch.

So with the hip hop element surgically removed from the album, I bet you guessing it's extremely hard rock, right? Again, WRONG. I've never heard this many crappy soft songs from a supposed metal band since Limp Bizkit's 2003 release "Results May Vary" (and boy did they ever -- *In Living Color Mode* HAAAAAAAAATED IT!). What is it the kids call this today? "Emo"? If that's the correct term, then this is what the fuck this is.

"In Between," "Valentine's Day," "Shadow Of The Day," and "Leave Out All The Rest" sound like something that fell through the cracks of a Backstreet Boys recording session instead of something LP produced. It really sounds like awful mix of that and some wannabe version of Maroon 5. I have nothing against them doing slower songs, but folks, these sure as hell are not the same quality of "My December," "Pushing Me Away," or "Easier To Run". Not even in the same ballpark. In short, the majority of this album is lame as hell. I don't even want to know what Shinoda was smoking when he recorded "Hands Held High". It's easily the worst song I've heard from them EVER. The lyrics are okay, and I'm glad he's rapping (since it's a rarity on here) but the chorus makes you want to stab your ear drums with a used dildo. I'm not lying when I say it's simply "Amen, Amen, Amen". WTF?

Even with the constant let downs, there are a few shining moments on the album that almost make it worth it. The lead single "What I've Done" is a clever ploy to con you into thinking they still have the same sound if you hear it on the radio. It didn't exactly blow me away when I first heard it, but compared to the rest of the disc, it's great. The best track on here is "No More Sorrow" as it's the closest you're going to get to their trademark sound. It's a hard hitting, fast paced rock tune that actually makes you want to turn up the volume instead of reaching for the skip button on Winamp. Still, two truly great songs on a twelve track album (11 if you take out the intro) is simply not acceptable -- I don't even care if you're (were) my favorite band.

Seriously, if I'm a die-hard Linkin Park fan (I'm literally sitting under a poster of them as I write this) and I think this album is garbage, then I'm being as unbiased as humanly possible. "Minutes To Midnight" is a complete waste of not only 43 minutes, but nearly four years of making us wait for this release. Any self respecting LP fan should agree with me on this one. Just because I hate it doesn't make me any less of a fan than some idiot drinking the kool-aid.

The band said they had close to 100 demos to work with for this album, and I find it hard to believe that this is the best shit they had out of all of those. I heard "QWERTY", a leaked demo, on YouTube and thought that was great, so why wasn't that on here? I've listened to this album many times in the last few hours and can't make myself like it. This sucks, plain and simple. Not worth your money or your time. Download it if you don't believe me. As a rock album it's fine, but as a LP album it's the worst out of the bunch bar none. They changed their sound up just because the rock/rap thing isn't the flavor of the month anymore and they want to sell more units. *scoffs* I'll listen to Dashboard Confessional if I want to hear this kind of stuff, not Linkin Park.

You're better off playing the same old stuff from "Hybrid Theory", "Reanimation", and "Meteora" to remember them as they were and not what they have become. Rick Rubin, I hope you're happy -- you've chopped off the balls of Linkin Park.

Paq's Favorite Tracks:

1. No More Sorrow
2. What I've Done
3. Bleed It Out

Paq's Least Favorite Tracks:

1. Everything else is one big blur of crap.