The Linkin Park Situation

   In 2017, the music world was shaken with the terrible news that Chester Bennington, lead vocalist and frontman of Linkin Park, had committed suicide. Linkin Park broke up, and for the following years they sporadically dropped unreleased songs and anniversary releases and stuff.

   Jump to fairly recently, and they announced they're coming back. They've already released a single, announced an album and tour dates, and are already performing. Mike Shinoda, the guy who did co-lead vocals with Chester Bennington, is still doing co-lead vocals, but now they've also got this new singer, Emily Armstrong, who apparently also sings for a band called Dead Sara. 

   And she's controversial. For two reasons. The first thing is that she supported Danny Masterson when he was first on trial for his rape charges. Armstrong was apparently one of the people who showed up in his defense. However, she has addressed this, and said that she soon realized she shouldn't have done that, and that she absolutely does not condone violence against women in any way.

   The other thing is that she allegedly has ties to scientology, which is a big no-no given some of the things that "church" is known for. However, maybe I haven't researched enough, but it looks like all the evidence there is that she's a scientologist is that she attended one of their galas. But you can see that the evidence that she's a scientologist is flimsy at best, and I've also seen people say that even if she was brought up in the "church", she might be refraining from speaking out against them because she's afraid of what they'd do to her. Cults can be scary. 

   A lot of people are upset in general about the idea of them replacing Chester Bennington. I've seen a lot of people on social media say that they shouldn't have come back at all, found someone else, or should've changed their band name if they were gonna come back. Chester Bennington's son is very angry about them getting Emily Armstrong, but Bennington's widow seems to approve of her.

   But here's how I feel: Linkin Park was always more than Chester Bennington. I understand the deep love and respect the fans have for him, but a lot of people need to understand that there was always more to Linkin Park than just him. A band is not just the lead singer - it's the whole band. The other band members are just as much Linkin Park as Chester Bennington was, and they have just as much of a right to the band as he did. And, I know this is gonna sound bad, so I wanna clear up that I absolutely do not mean to make any light of suicide - but Chester did willingly leave the band. I think that the other members absolutely have every right to continue on with Linkin Park without him. Again, all due respect. I feel like Chester anyway would want them to go on. I know I'm not that big of a Linkin Park fan, but from what I know about Chester and from what I've seen fans say about him, I feel like he'd be okay with this reunion.

   So, to clear it up: I'm good with Linkin Park being back. I think it's fine that they found someone else and are making new music again. And the reasons people have for not liking Emily Armstrong are flimsy at best. And she's clearly very talented and has an amazing voice, one that sounds different enough from Chester's to not just be copying him but similar enough that she can sing what he did. I'm excited to hear more of the new stuff and I may even get tickets if they announce a Denver date. I even think keeping Linkin Park alive is not disrespecting Chester, but keeping his legacy alive.