Okay. I love Linkin Park. I really do. And when I found out that they were going back to their full band, rap-rock style, I was pumped. Then I heard the first single, “Guilty All the Same.” The song wasn’t awful, but it wasn’t good either. The lyrics and vocal melodies were lazy, the instrumentals sounded like they were coming out of a tin can, and the song lacked any real feeling.

Usually when I hear an LP tune, it gets me pumped, gets me angry, and some can make me kind of sad, but this song just didn’t make me feel anything but disappointment.

The second single released was “Until Its Gone”. Repetitive as it may be, I actually liked this one. The melodies and lyrics were still a bit lazy, but they definitely had more feeling than “Guilty.” Plus, it was a slower song, still heavy, but not quite a ballad. This song gave me a spark of hope for the album.

When I heard the rest of the Hunting Party, I was very upset. The first song “Keys to the Kingdom” started off with distortion and feedback from amps, computers, and what sounded like Transformers and Chester (lead vocalist) screaming the words. And I was like “YES! This is what I want!” It sounded like good ole Linkin Park. The rest of the song had Mike (guitar and backing vocals) rapping and Chester screaming and the band jamming out. My hope had been risen again. But after that, the entire album went downhill. The lyrics, the vocals, the band, even Mr. Han’s (DJ, turntables, mixer guy) mixes sounded like little work was put in.

The band had a lot of other artists in their songs such as guitarist Page Hamilton, rapper Rakim, and guitarist of Rage Against the Machine, Tom Morello. You would think with Mr. Morello in the song, it HAS to be good. No it doesn’t. Even System of a Down’s guitarist and backing vocalist  Daron Malakian was in a song. That got me excited. I love SoaD and was really hoping Daron would be singing along with Chester. But they only used him for his guitar playing, which wasn’t even distinct from Linkin Park’s guitar playing from Brad or Mike.

Finally, after the longest half hour of my life, “The Hunting Party” threw a good song at me. The song “Final Masquerade” was actually good. It was a slower song and as I’ve said before, I’m a sucker for the slower tunes. The song radiated some kind of feeling that the rest of the album failed to present to me. It was a mixture between serenity and sadness and that, in my opinion, is the best feeling a ballad should give off. All in all, this album, not so great. We all knew Linkin Park was going a little downhill, but they were still good. I must say, I’m pretty disappointed about the band’s performance on this album.