Chester Bennington’s son Jaime Bennington has been a vocal critic of Linkin Park vocalist Emily Armstrong. He recently shared his thoughts and concerns about her.
Jamie Bennington opens up on Emily Armstrong
In a new chat with Twenty400 Block Podcast, Jaime was asked how he feels when Armstrong performs his father’s songs. “I think that it’s a nice karaoke job. I think it sounds like someone having fun for sure,” he responded.
He also shared his concern that Armstrong would hurt her voice and explained why.
“I think she’s going to hurt her voice. I’m very worried that Emily in the long run has hurt her voice. I have a lot of respect for people as people I can understand art is art and that people are people and those are two different things. So I can enjoy Linkin Park as much as I detest some of their actions at the moment. With Emily, I’m just kind of worried that she’s pushing it a little hard.”
Jaime then talked about the backing track rumors. Here is what he said: “I realized that there are people saying that they’re using backing tracks but not just for backing for things that you can’t simultaneously play but you’re also just replacing the vocals just in case she gets drowned out. I also noticed that her mic at the Kio Forum show, it sounded like it on the LP showcase on the 5th and the 11th of September, they seemed like they mixed her vocals really low. Even in the arena, it didn’t sound like she was nowhere near the amount the level of intensity and clarity that Chester was.”
The backing track rumors emerged following the final chorus of ‘Heavy Is the Crown’ which kept playing in the background while Emily Armstrong wasn’t singing during a live performance.
“It’s definitely a vocal backing track,” a user wrote about the footage but supported the singer instead of slamming her.
“A lot of artists use this as a way to bolster the vocals live. You can hear that she is actively singing still, so atleast she isn’t lip syncing. Lots of artists use backing tracks for affects, backing vocals, extra instruments ect. It’s usually on sync with their click track the band would use. I don’t think it’s too big of a deal, atleast things aren’t being lip synced and fake playing, atleast 90% of everything is being played live.”
Moreover, some fans seem to agree with Jaime’s comments about hurting her voice, and some even think she doesn’t fit the band. However, with the release of ‘Over Each Other,’ others think she proved that people can finally appreciate her voice.
“This song was Emily’s song, showing the world what she can do with her voice, not just the growls and screams, but the emotional beauty to break our hearts, I loved this,” a user wrote in the comments section of the song on Instagram. Another user added saying people can finally ‘appreciate’ Armstrong’s voice: “Finally a song when we can appreciate Emily’s clear voice. She has such a beautiful tone.”
“‘The Emptiness Machine’: Introduction to Emily. ‘Heavy Is the Crown’: Shut down the ‘fans’ complaining she couldn’t be aggressive. ‘Over Each Other’: Shut down the ‘fans’ complaining she can only do raspy vocals,” another user wrote.
The new Linkin Park album ‘From Zero’ is set to be released on November 15th.
