Linkin Park have just released their first-ever career-spanning greatest hits album Papercuts, choc full of all your favourite hits as well as some never-before-heard B-sides featuring vocals from the late, great Chester Bennington. Among the rarities is a song dubbed ‘QWERTY’, a legendary heavy cut dating back to the band’s Minutes to Midnight sessions (listen below).
Interestingly, the new LP also arrives on a wave of gossip suggesting that the nu metal legends might have found themselves a new singer to replace Chester, in the form of an unidentified female vocalist…
Linkin Park – ‘QWERTY’
The rumour was started by Orgy frontman Jay Gordon, who shared some of the goss he’s heard about the band’s future plans in a recent interview with KCAL 96.7’s RadioActive Mike Z. for his Wired in the Empire weekend radio show.
“Very, very cool guys and obviously a great band,” Gordon said of Linkin Park. “They’ve been around a long time and they’re still going for it. It’s going to be tough without Chester [Bennington], but we’ll see. I hear they got a girl singer now. That’s what I heard.”
He later continued: “Don’t quote me on that. I’m not sure who the singer is going to be, but I heard it was gonna be female. They might just try to move on like that. That ought to be interesting.”
Linkin Park themselves have yet to comment on the rumours. The last we heard about the band’s future was back in 2022 when founder, co-vocalist, producer and primary songwriter Mike Shinoda gave us some updates via a Twitch Stream.
“The only Linkin Park news I have for you is that, yeah, we talk like every few weeks,” he said at the time. “I talk to the guys, or some of the guys, and there’s no tours, there’s no music, there’s no albums in the pipeline.”
Shinoda added: “Just keep in your minds that that is not happening. I’m just going to say that much for now.”
In contrast, back in January 2018 he tweeted: “I have every intention on continuing with LP. And the guys feel the same. We have a lot of rebuilding to do, and questions to answer, so it’ll take time.”
So will 2024 be that time? We’ll bring you more news as soon as it develops…
Further Reading
Linkin Park Announce Greatest Hits Album, Release Never-Before-Heard Song ‘Friendly Fire’
Mike Shinoda Is Teasing New Solo Music & Reckons Linkin Park Fans Will Dig It
Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda Updates Fans On The Band’s Future
