Battle Symphony makes me want to give up on Linkin Park

As soon as I did it I knew it was official. When I had to choose a genre for this article to be categorised in, an article about rock band Linkin Park, and I put it in Pop, I knew I had lost the band I loved, and that they have been replaced by a toothless diet version of their B-side selves. A bit harsh I know, as "Battle Symphony2 probably isn't as bad as all that, and I probably am being snobbish, and wishing for the old days, but that's only because I think Linkin Park could be a better pop band than this.

They've been "going pop" for some time so this direction isn't exactly a surprise, it's just that it's lazy, in the same way that The Hunting Party was the band doing lazy rock. They used to be trend-setters, and their balance of genres being one of their biggest strengths but that balance has been gone for years now. This Chester-led song, which is the second release from their upcoming album, shows that the band are happy to be this mediocre. The lyrics are almost of a cookie-cutter quality, shadows of Chester's former sensitivity that, at the very least, sounded more sincere in the past.

"Battle Symphony" is the sound of Linkin Park on auto-pilot and, coupled with "Heavy", paints a bland picture of things to come.