CD REVIEW! Linkin Park - Living Things

Four things stand out on Linkin Park's fifth CD, Living Things: earnestly rapped verses, swirling keyboards, soaring chorus, pummelling hardcore outro. Listening to the 12 track CD is like listening to their nu-metal roots, as heard on their Hybrid Theory and Meteora CDs. Some would argue that Chester Bennington, Mike Shinoda and the rest of the lads are stuck in old school nu-metal groove, but that is not always a bad thing. The album as a whole continues to expand their world-view writing like what listeners got with ‘A Thousand Suns,’ but it also adds more of the anger that was prevalent in their earliest work, ‘Hybrid Theory.’  A Thousand Suns marked an unlikely metamorphosis from blockbusting nu metal to left-field, electronic, political pop. Living Things is more personal than A Thousand Suns, with underlying themes of recovery from traumatic experiences. The exception, Burn It Down, delivers an antiwar sentiment via Depeche Mode-y electro-bounce - a brilliant track! Living Things is a very solid release and manages to keep our interest. Watch Burn It Down music video. Now let's hope the guys tour South Africa sometime....

Our Verdict: Living Things is trim and muscular, all pumping fists and bulging neck veins.

Other say: Five LPs in, they've traded turntable scratchesfor dub-step flourishes, but still lean on Bennington's harrowing hooks,including the one on "Burn It Down," one of their best singles yet.