"The flame does not know itself, it is consumed by its own unknown; in this unknown it is lost, destroyed"  - wrote the French philosopher Georges Bataille. This is how we face our mysterious inner world when we listen to the last album.  Linkin  Park "The Hunting  Party "  (2014) It seems that it is as contradictory as the human soul.

A mad scream breaks through the silence. Suddenly. "Keys to the kingdom"  as if it notifies us that a terrible war is coming, a war with ourselves. And this feeling is getting stronger and stronger. Emotions start to go off scale. "All for nothing"  (feat. Page Hamilton) goes into energetic "Guilty all the same"  (feat. Rakim). The guitar picks up its speed, you break off and run. You run nowhere, feeling how hard your heart is pounding. Chester Bennington's words throb with the fast beat of the music in my head:  "You are still guilty. Although you are so tired of being ashamed. You would be glad to point your finger at others, but they have nothing to blame ..."

The song sounds like the first peals of thunder from a clear sky and you seem to be standing alone in front of the formidable heavens: they are about to pour out their anger on you. You are expecting something terrible, which is what "The Summoning" warns you about. It contains a combination of electronic sounds and heavy guitar chords. What will lie ahead? - as if they are asking you.

And ahead - only madness, which reaches its peak. "War" , "Wastelands" , "Rebellon"  and "Mark the graves"  - these are the culminating songs of the album. In the punk sound of "War"  there is anger towards the whole world, but maybe it is righteous anger?  "War ..., black eternal light ..."  Listening to the song, it seems that everything is mixed up: and  heaven and hell. There is nothing - only ash from destruction. What is left for you to do? Dance on the wreckage of the world and your own life with the song "Wastelands". She gives birth to the last energy before the tragic end. It's like you are counting your last minutes and reflecting on what happened  and what is not destined to happen. "Until It`s gone", like a prophecy song about your destiny. But still, it is in your hands to change your life.  "You better fight until it's all gone."  -  summons the song.

"Rebellion" hits the nerves  (feat Daron Malakian). It reminds you of how weak you are, but you keep hitting the stone walls to find your way out. Single concentrate  all the energy of protest, destructive and uncontrollable. Rebellion, denying the existing order, in itself does not reflect anything, being an emptiness, a pitiful shadow from human actions.  "Uprising! Uprising! We fall into obscurity, we fall apart"  -  the song screams. It seems to evoke a sense of bondage to the circumstances of life. And it only intensifies in the single "Mark the graves". Guitar riffs, changing their rhythm and strength, plunge you into darkness.  "The blood will be washed away someday, but the wounds will never go away ..."

The madness subsides. Suddenly. With pity, a little breakdown, sounds like in the walls of a deserted room, the track "Drawbar"  (feat Tom Morello). There is sadness in it and at the same time some kind of hope. Maybe all the best is yet to come? And the gentle sounds of the piano remind us of this. They calm our weary souls. But what if all this just seems to us? Indeed, the song "Final Masquerade"  blows the last hopes in the wind. We probably will not meet the new dawn of our lives. "The light on the horizon was brighter yesterday. A shadow hung over us and the sky began to darken. You said it was forever, but suddenly everything disappeared. And this is our last masquerade ..."

It seems that there is no way out, and we are more and more immersed in ourselves together with "A line in the sand" . Violent hard rock guitars run nowhere with Chester's scream, then stop momentarily with Mike's voice to continue again. You accelerate your rhythm more and more. You take the last strongest breath of air before death and go nowhere.

"We wanted to go back to the roots, not the sound, but the very idea of hardcore, thrash metal and punk. We didn't just want to get all these guitar sounds or copy them. It was an attempt to return to that feeling of listening to old albums. , which we first heard as children " -  says Mike Shinoda.

"The Hunting Party"  - this is a difficult path of a person on which he suffers and is indignant, experiences joy and happiness. Music, in which the world is most deeply explored, the relationship of light and darkness in the human soul. Sometimes his life is on the verge of death and he has only two paths - to go forward to the end or fall into the abyss.

Text: Natalia Pushchinskaya 

Photo:  Author  Nestor9598  Logo del album de Linkin Park "The Hunting Party"

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