- Linkin Park names Emily Armstrong as new lead singer
- Armstrong shares vocal duties with Mike Shinoda on new album and tour
- Band returns with new lineup after Chester Bennington's 2017 passing
US rock band Linkin Park has revealed significant changes to their lineup, announcing Emily Armstrong as their new lead singer and Colin Brittain as their new drummer. This marks a new chapter for the band following the tragic death of their former lead vocalist, Chester Bennington, in 2017.
Armstrong, who is best known as the lead singer of alt-rock band Dead Sara, will join returning members Mike Shinoda, Brad Delson, Phoenix, and Joe Hahn for the band’s upcoming projects. She will share vocal duties with Shinoda. Brittain, formerly of Papa Roach and All Time Low, will replace Rob Bourdon as the band’s drummer.
The announcement comes ahead of the release of Linkin Park’s new album, From Zero, and a world tour. Armstrong, who grew up in Los Angeles, reflected on the influence of Linkin Park’s 2000 album Hybrid Theory in an interview with Billboard. “I was in a band when it came out,” Armstrong said. “One Step Closer was the song for me, and I was just like, ‘That’s what I want to do. As a singer, I want to be able to scream.’ That album was everything—I’ve listened to it a trillion times. I would skate to it. I would mosh to it.”
Despite the challenges of replacing a beloved frontman, Linkin Park remains one of the most successful bands in the streaming era. Their greatest hits collection, Papercuts, continues to attract over 9 million streams per day, making them the only band to feature in Spotify’s top 10 most-streamed albums of all time.
Linkin Park follows in the footsteps of other bands that have replaced their lead singers after the death of a frontman, such as Alice in Chains, Sublime, and notably, Queen with Adam Lambert.
Shinoda addressed the departure of Bourdon, stating, “Rob had said to us at a point, I guess it was a few years ago now, that he wanted to put some distance between himself and the band. And we understood that—it was already apparent. He was starting to just show up less, be in less contact, and I know the fans noticed it too. So for me, as a friend, that was sad, but at the same time, I want him to do whatever makes him happy, and obviously everybody wishes him the best.”
The band’s upcoming tour will visit cities including Los Angeles, New York, Hamburg, Seoul, and London, with additional stops in Bogotá in November. This will be their first live performance tour since Bennington’s death. The new album will be preceded by a single titled “The Emptiness Machine,” and the band performed the song during an hour-long concert broadcast on their social platforms to officially introduce their new line-up.
