A new chapter in the story of Linkin Park is among us. On Thursday, the band announced plans to embark on a headlining tour beginning kicking off Sept. 11 at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles, marking their first run of live performances since the death of frontman Chester Bennington in 2017. Moving forward on the road without him also brings in the addition of a new co-vocalist, for which Mike Shinoda, Brad Delson and Dave Farrell have selected Emily Armstrong of Dead Sara. Colin Brittain, songwriter and producer for G Flip, was also announced as the band’s new drummer.
Linkin Park also shared their first new music in seven years, “The Emptiness Machine,” which premiered alongside a livestream performance to announce their new album, From Zero, slated for release on Nov. 15.
The group’s upcoming From Zero World Tour will include stops in Los Angeles, New York, Hamburg, London, Seoul, and Bogota. LP Underground fan club pre-sales start Sept. 6 and general on-sales Sept. 7.
Linkin Park first began teasing the announcement last week. On Instagram, the official band account shared a video of a countdown that starts at 100 hours and begins ticking away. They followed it up with another countdown, this one starting at zero seconds, increasing to 9, and immediately jumping back down to 5 before the video completely distorts. “It’s only a matter of time…” the caption read, along with a link to their website.
The site’s landing page hosted a message of its own: “Be part of something. Tune in.” The next teaser used the same statement in its caption, this time with an accompanying image that seemed to feature the logo Linkin Park began using in 2007.
The last live performance from Linkin Park was a tribute concert for Bennington in October 2017. It was hosted just over three months after the musician died by suicide. “I was onstage for almost the whole thing, singing most of the time,” Shinoda told Rolling Stone in 2018. “I had to compartmentalize and be out of my body for some of it in order to get through the whole thing. But I really loved how it came out. The longest show we did before was 90 minutes, and this was over three hours. I know it helped a lot of people who didn’t have any kind of memorial and it provided closure for some people.”
Even around that time, the band was thinking about how to move forward. “[Chester] had such a specific tone and range – an incredible range. He could sing almost any style you wanted him to. That led to conversations about what to do next,” Shinoda said. “It became obvious that you can’t just hire some schmuck to get up there and sing with us, ’cause they won’t be able to hit half the stuff.”
From Zero World Tour
Sept. 11 – Los Angeles, CA @ Kia Forum
Sept. 16 – New York, NY @ Barclays Center
Sept. 22 – Hamburg, Germany @ Barclays Arena
Sept. 24 – London, UK @ The O2
Sept. 28 – Seoul, South Korea @ Inspire Arena
Nov. 11 – Bogota, Colombia @ Coliseo Medplus
From Zero Track List
1. “From Zero (Intro)”
2. “The Emptiness Machine”
3. “Cut The Bridge”
4. “Heavy Is The Crown”
5. “Over Each Other”
6. “Casualty”
7. “Overflow”
8. “Two Faced”
9. “Stained”
10. “IGYEIH”
11. “Good Things Go”