Linkin Park has a new co-vocalist in Emily Armstrong, the band revealed this week while announcing their first new album following frontman Chester Bennington’s death by suicide in 2017.
The band made their secret comeback during a livestreamed performance Thursday night, during which they welcomed the Dead Sara co-founder to the mic.
Songwriter and producer Colin Brittain was also revealed as the band’s new drummer. Prior to joining Linkin Park, he had written and produced music for acts like Papa Roach, Dashboard Confessional and 5 Seconds of Summer.
The band also used Thursday’s livestream to release “The Emptiness Machine,” its first new single since 2017.
The news comes ahead of the Nov. 15 release of “From Zero,” the group’s eighth studio album and it’s first since Bennington’s death at age 41.
In a press release sent to the Daily News, bandmates Mike Shinoda, Brad Delson, Dave “Phoenix” Farrell and Joe Hahn said they “quietly began meeting up again in recent years” for talks about getting the group back together. They reportedly approached Armstrong and Brittain to reform as Linkin Park last year, according to Billboard.
“Before Linkin Park, our first band name was Xero,” Shinoda said of the group’s upcoming album. “This album title refers to both this humble beginning and the journey we’re currently undertaking. Sonically and emotionally, it is about past, present, and future — embracing our signature sound, but new and full of life.”
The band is set to play six arena shows across four continents this fall before touring heavily next year. The “From Zero World Tour” kicks off Wednesday in Los Angeles, before heading to Brooklyn’s Barclays Center on Sept. 16.
Linkin Park will also make stops in Hamburg, Germany; London; and Seoul, South Korea before wrapping up in Bogota, Colombia in mid-November.
