Linkin Park: Chester Bennington’s Second Death
Linkin Park pulls in thousands of monthly listeners. Photo by Owen Whelan '27
After seven years of silence following frontman Chester Bennington’s suicide, famed rock band Linkin Park announced their integration of new lead singer Emily Armstrong.
A worldwide tour has been slated for November 2024, and the band has seemingly stormed back onto the scene. However, criticisms have quickly popped up, denouncing the band’s decision to add Armstrong to the lineup, with emerging allegations regarding her ties to the Church of Scientology, and her public defense of convicted rapist Danny Masterson.
Armstrong’s alleged defense of Masterson parallels Benngington’s struggle with sexual assault as a child. A shocking amount of men, and especially women, experience sexual assault as a child in the U.S., although men’s mental health problems are often not as discussed.
Armstrong debuted in 2002 as the lead singer of the rock band Dead Sara, initially gaining a lot of traction, which led all the way into the early 2010s before the band quietly sunk back into obscurity. Dead Sara was set up to be the stuff of legend — Armstrong’s “creative style” won over Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters, and their Spotify page reports that the band has been recently pulling in over half a million listeners following their 2011 peak.
However, Armstrong’s new venture with Linkin Park has caused a ton of outrage, especially from fans. Even Chester Bennington’s son, Jamie Bennington, has described the reunion as erasing his father’s life work.
Despite this, Linkin Park continues to push through the noise, as they’re slated to become the face of Riot Games’ Worlds 2024 tournament and have dropped merchandise with the band’s new face. Warner Records, the band’s label, had no problem updating their website to reflect the new member, regardless of how betrayed Bennington’s mother feels.
The band’s relevance was dwindling a bit before, and especially after Bennigton’s passing, but has risen a bit since the shift. An outpour of positive attention swarmed Linkin Park in the wake of Bennington’s passing in 2017, but the media has been quick to call out the disgusting irony of Armstrong's addition.
Some fans are on Armstrong’s side, and vehemently so. Jamie Bennington has received messages to kill himself following his personal criticism of Armstrong’s addition, who has become aware of her unwelcome presence, intending to make penance with Linkin Park fans.
Linkin Park’s approach would be understandable if it were the only one, but it wasn’t. Evanescence singer Amy Lee said she’d approach the idea of being with the band part-time, with many fans even hoping for her to be the chosen singer before it was announced as Armstrong. When AC/DC introduced Axl Rose to replace Brian Johnson temporarily, they did so as a means to an end; Linkin Park’s use of Armstrong brings the weight of a replacement, not a temporary fix, while still being the same band-aid solution.
When Freddie Mercury passed away, Queen shifted to becoming “Queen + Adam Lambert” to represent that the titular new singer wasn’t a new member of Queen, but rather an addition. Linkin Park, unlike Queen, is positioning Armstrong as Bennington’s replacement, not as an extension of the band. Additionally, Lambert’s main controversy doesn’t involve him defending a rapist, which already makes this approach more appealing.
We are witnessing the second death of Bennington. His legacy lives, of course, in Linkin Park’s discography, immortalized on streaming services; however, in addition to the tragic death that reflects a greater issue in our society, the deliberate murder of his identity only seven years later illustrates the apathy that underscores why he died in the first place.