If there was one album that split Linkin Park fans it was their previous album release ‘A Thousand Suns’ which saw the band go down a more electronic route. But what fans they lost from their previous album they will surely make up for with their latest release ‘Living Things’.

Opening track ‘Lost In The Echo’ starts with an electronic bass beat leading into a heavy guitar tone, with co-frontman Mike’s emceeing and Chester’s soaring melodic vocals tinged with abit of screaming it’s a great start to the album.

Any fans of their previous album ‘Meteora’ will be smiling with joy (including myself) at hearing Chester doing what he does best, screaming. Tracks like ‘Lies Greed Misery’, ‘Victimized’ and ‘Lost In The Echo’ all have scattered bits of screaming running through them and all sound great.

With criticisms of the previous album having no guitars on it at all the band have brought them back and nearly every song has an underlying guitar sound flowing through it. ‘In My Remains’ and ‘I’ll Be Gone’ are both guitar driven songs with the not too prominent atmospheric electronics in the background it allows Chester’s vocals to do its work. Of course he sounds great on both songs and shows just how great he can be when he gets into his stride.

Other songs on the album like ‘Burn It Down’, ‘Until It Breaks’ and ‘Skin To Bone’ are very different from the rocky feel present on the other songs. All three songs have a prominent dance/electronic beat feel to them with Mike and Chester’s mixture of vocals at the forefront of the songs all the elements fuse together perfectly.

There are slow songs on the album as well ‘Roads Untraveled’ a piano led song, lyrically touching upon the subject of love lost it’s a nice slow break in the album. ‘Powerless’, another piano led song with electronic beats and more emotional led lyrics fittingly finishes the album off perfectly.

Overall ‘Living Things’ is a perfect mix of the bands previous albums, it has the vocal styles from ‘Meteroa’, the rocky guitar tone from ‘Minutes To Midnight’ and the electronic sounds from ‘A Thousand Suns’. The band doesn’t push the boundaries too far musically but have made an album to please and interest current fans and will hopefully impress old and new fans as well.

4.5/5

‘Living Things’ by Linkin Park is out now on Warner Brothers Records.

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Words by Aaron Wilson.