Linkin Park returned late at night on Tuesday (September 17) with the TV debut of their intense single 'The Emptiness Machine', marking their first Tonight show performance with new singer Emily Armstrong. The song from the band's upcoming first album in seven years, From scratch (Nov. 15), with singer/guitarist Mike Shinoda on the mic in a set that looked like an ice station on a frozen planet thanks to the moodily lit plastic surrounding them.
With new drummer Colin Brittain keeping a steady beat, Shinoda urgently crooned the song's pleading chorus, “I let you open me/ Just to see me bleed/ I gave up who I am for who you wanted me to be/ I don't know why I'm holding on what I will not receive/ I fall to the promise of the void machine.'
While the show exploded into a driving dual guitar, Armstrong took center stage and unleashed her screaming vocal assault as the stage flickered with colored effects. Trading vocals with Shinoda, Armstrong grabbed the mic with both hands, screaming the chorus amidst the strobe lights.
“The Emptiness Machine” debuts at No. 21 on this week's Hot 100 (dated September 21), marking the nu-metal band's highest Hot 100 song in 15 years. Their previous highest position on the chart was Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen soundtrack single “New Divide”, which reached No. 9 in 2009;
Shinoda also sat down with host Jimmy Fallon to discuss the “euphoric” feeling the band had after the rebooted lineup's debut performance at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles on Sept. 11, marking the start of their first tour since the death of singer Chester Bennington in 2017. “Being around for so many years and feeling, like, that genuine adrenaline, excitement and happiness was … there's nothing like it, man,” Shinoda said of the first date of a music arena six performances. -for what is expected to be a much bigger tour in 2025.
Shinoda also got to laugh it off with Fallon by creating an embarrassing LA comeback video in which the singer had a major malfunction while performing “Remember the Name” by his side band, Fort Minor. Immediately after Shinoda sang the line about “50% pain”, he ran to the microphone stand and covered his head.
He also talked about how it feels to be putting the band back together after the tragic loss of longtime friend and colleague Bennington.
“I think the important thing for us is that we never started out like, 'Let's bring the band back' or 'Let's find a singer,'” Shinoda said of the surprise announcement earlier this month that former Dead Sara singer Armstrong . will take her place on stage next to him for the new iteration of the band. “That was never our purpose or goal… It was almost like this new record… we wrote it, created the music while creating the new band. When we started the music, we didn't have a band and it just came together while the music was coming together.”
Watch Linkin Park on Tonight show below.
from our partners at https://www.billboard.com/music/rock/linkin-park-tonight-debut-new-singer-emily-armstrong-emptiness-machine-1235778383/
