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It is not about erasing the past,” Mike Shinoda told the audience at the LA Forum last week, during Linkin Park’s first public show in seven years, “it is about starting this new chapter into the future.” It’s a chapter that was always going to be subject to scrutiny – the long-awaited return of arguably the most loved millennial rap rock band. A group whose 2000 debut Hybrid Theory sold 32 million copies and helped define the nu metal era, but who tragically lost their singer Chester Bennington to suicide in 2017. Already, though, this new plotline seems drawn from a dark and turbulent courtroom drama.
Heard on hits such as “In the End” and “Numb”, Bennington’s anguished rap-rock lyricism and persona, often coloured by his experiences of childhood abuse, depression, and addiction, were definitive cornerstones of the band for many fans. Replacing him was always going to be a bumpy process, as it is with any charismatic frontperson; Queen, for example, never really stood a chance.
But Linkin Park’s choice of singer to co-front the band with co-founder Shinoda – Emily Armstrong, singer with Dead Sara, underground favourites on the LA rock scene – has proved deeply divisive due to her previous support for her one-time friend, That 70s Show actor Danny Masterson, during his 2023 rape trial.
According to the band, who had trialled working with several singers in the years since Bennington’s death, Armstrong is the perfect fit for his formidable sneakers. Having first auditioned over three days in 2019, she finally clicked during recordings last year and is now taking some of Bennington’s original parts on older songs on tour. “When I started to hear Emily’s voice on things, it was like the first time that my brain would accept it as a Linkin Park song,” Shinoda said. For the band’s DJ Joe Hahn, it was Armstrong’s signature guttural scream that sealed the deal: “That did it.”
Critics and fans initially welcomed her arrival. Reviewing the comeback single “The Emptiness Machine”, the first new Linkin Park material to feature Armstrong, New York Times critic Jon Parales noted that she “shares Bennington’s facility in pivoting between melodic belting and throat-shredding screams”, while fans on Reddit described Armstrong’s addition as “a worthy reboot” and “the best step they could have taken”.
But no sooner had news of her induction broke than serious objections were raised, not least from Bennington’s son Jaime, who posted a lengthy statement on Instagram protesting against the choice. In his post, he questioned and reminded everyone of Armstrong’s links to Scientology and her support of Masterson, who was sentenced to 30 years to life last year after being convicted of two out of three rape charges against him.
Jaime wrote that Shinoda had “quietly erased my father’s life and legacy in real time” by hiring Armstrong under these circumstances. “You have betrayed the trust loaned to you by decades of fans and supporting human beings including myself,” Jaime continued. “We trusted you to be the bigger, better person. To be the change. Because you promised us that was your intention. Now you’re just senile and tone deaf. Insane.”
Most recently, Bennington’s mother, Susan Eubanks, called the news a “betrayal”, claiming that her late son’s bandmates had previously assured her they would let her know if they ever planned to reform. She also echoed Jaime’s comments, telling Rolling Stone that the band are “trying very hard to erase the past”.
Their objections have been backed up by The Mars Volta singer Cedric Bixler-Zavala, whose wife Chrissie Carnell-Bixler was one of three people who accused Masterson of sexual assault (he was not convicted on the charges relating to her). In light of Armstrong joining Linkin Park, Bixler-Zavala re-shared a post he’d written on Dead Sara’s Instagram page back in 2023, reading: “Do your fans know about your friend Danny Masterson? Your rapist friend.”
Overnight, Linkin Park’s new era was launched straight into the gutter. Armstrong responded to the controversy in an Instagram statement of her own last Friday (13 September). “Hi, I’m Emily,” she wrote. “I’m new to so many of you, and I wanted to clear the air about something that happened a while back. Several years ago, I was asked to support someone I considered a friend at a court appearance and went to one early hearing as an observer. Soon after, I realised I shouldn’t have.”
Armstrong claimed her mistake was trying to see the good in people. “I misjudged him,” she wrote. “I have never spoken with him since. Unimaginable details emerged and he was later found guilty.” She finished by stating: “I do not condone abuse or violence against women, and I empathise with the victims of these crimes.”
It certainly doesn’t help that, just days earlier, the band’s founding guitarist Brad Delson had announced that he wouldn’t be joining the reunion tour after all, preferring to work with the band “behind the scenes”. That so many of those involved in this dispute have ties to the secretive Church of Scientology (Masterson is a member; Bixler-Zavala and his wife former members; Armstrong was born into the church but has not publicly clarified her involvement since) inevitably adds to the murkiness of the situation.
Masterson’s trial included testimony from his accusers claiming to have been pressured by church officials not to report him under suggested threats of expulsion and familial dislocation. The Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Charlaine Olmedo had concluded that church doctrine prohibits members reporting each other to the police. While the church denies any such policy, the questions remain: was Armstrong’s attendance at Masterson’s hearing connected to such a protectionist ideology? And did her support of him go any further than that single appearance?
The controversy has brought out some backing for Linkin Park’s decision, though. Brent Smith, lead singer of Florida rock band Shinedown, defended the band’s right to decide their own future. “The entire world knows [Bennington] will never be replaceable because he was one of a kind,” he wrote on Instagram. “But…there is an audience that miss this band, and their presence, and what they represent… Give them the opportunity to not close their chapter. Allow them to celebrate their legacy, and also the opportunity to create a new one.”
Considering the information available at present, this seems a fair response. Many musicians have links to Scientology, and those born into the church – such as Armstrong and Beck – have often been limited not only in their life choices but also their ability to comment on the matter. Membership is no barrier to rock stardom, nor should it be. And online discourse itself often has very limited empathy for those it wants to attack, prone as it is to brushing aside human traits such as regret, self-education, and ideological growth.
People do not automatically share the guilt of criminals they might once have called friends – nor do they necessarily think the same as they did 20 years ago, or even last week. It’s quite believable that Armstrong heard shocking and damning evidence during the Masterson trial that opened her eyes to his true character, in which case she should be allowed to admit and learn from her mistake without lifelong censure.
Jaime does have a point, though, that Bennington’s – and by extension Linkin Park’s – legacy as an honest, relatable, and righteous force in rock is under threat. There are questions to be answered that won’t be stonewalled by brief online statements and attempts to dodge them will only make Armstrong and Shinoda’s position seem shadier. Submitting themselves to a frank, open and honest interview on the matter seems the very least amount of fire-battling necessary here.
Ultimately, it’s in the band’s hands – not those of Bennington’s family – as to who they feel will best serve their music going forward, not to mention who they’d be happiest sharing a tour bus with for years on end. Reviews of Armstrong’s performances with the band have thus far hailed her as an exciting and inspired successor to, rather than a replacement for, Bennington. But unless these valid criticisms are swiftly and comprehensively addressed, the Linkin Park comeback might well be doomed from the off, in danger of stalling in the quicksand of public opinion.
