Last night the Agoura Hills-based alternative rockers, Linkin Park, took to the stage of Jimmy Kimmel Live for a performance of their songs, "Until It's Gone," "Wastelands," and "Guilty All The Same," off of their brand new album, The Hunting Party.
Linkin Park “Until It's Gone” On Jimmy Kimmel Live 6.19.2014
Linkin Park “Wastelands” On Jimmy Kimmel Live 6.19.2014
Linkin Park “Guilty All The Same” On Jimmy Kimmel Live 6.19.2014
The band opened their late-night performance with "Until It's Gone," an alternative rock track with hard rock influences and an angelic bridge that features an arpeggiating synth line. The majority of the song utilizes Chester Bennington's clean vocals, but his trademark screams were brought out in the second minute of the song, and featured heavily in the second track they performed.
"Wastelands" contains many similar musical properties to the ones the group first displayed on their debut album, Hybrid Theory, from 2000. Fusing hard rock elements such as thrashing drums and Bennington's melodic singing with Mike Shinoda's hip hop style of vocal delivery, and the use of samples, Linkin Park sounds as if they are recalling the early days of the millenium, as well as paying homage to younger versions of themselves.
Retaining the trademark musical associations we've come to expect from Linkin Park at this point in their career, "Guilty All The Same" feels like a natural maturation of the sound they presented on "Wastelands." The instrumentation remains identical, and the intertwinement of singing and rapping from the band's dual vocalists remains intact, but the composition of the song feels distinctly different. The track opens with a brief drum solo that segues into a dark guitar melody. Even with the pandemoniac sounds and loud volumes, the song displays a sense of experienced musicianship and a knowledge of compositional craft that wasn't as apparent in their earlier work.
Decked out in nothing more than a white tank top with jeans and tattoos sprawled across each shoulder, Bennington delivered a raw performance with jarring body movements and powerful vocal shrieks and howls. Shinoda's dancing was more reserved, but his vocal performance was no less intense as he rapped over the musical interludes with a guitar in hand as well as occasionally stepping in behind the keyboards.
The group delivered a high octane performance that culminated in a raucous applause from Kimmel's live audience. All of the tracks the group performed come off of the the band's sixth studio album, The Hunting Party, released earlier this week by Warner Bros. Records.
You can purchase Linkin Park's new LP, "The Hunting Party," on iTunes, as well as in various formats and packages on their official website.
