Music Mayhem Magazine July 2014 : ISSUE #5 | Page 33

There were three singles off the album; “Guilty All the Same” released March 7th, “Until It’s Gone” released May 6th and “Final Masquerade” released June 8th.

The record starts off with the opening track “Keys to the Kingdom”, it’s really in your face, heavy, and sets the tone for the entire album. It seems as they’re going back to their heavier side with The Hunting Party, but in more of a hardcore/punk fashion, not like earlier albums (Hybrid Theory, Meteora). Everything finishes off and rounds out with the relatively mellow “A Line in the Sand”.

There were two stand out tracks for me on this album; “Keys to the Kingdom” being the first. It’s rough, raw, and one of my favorite things about bands that head in the ‘punk’ direction. The second being “Wastelands”; the ‘start & stop’ guitar and the way that Shidona and Bennington’s voices compliment each other on this track is nothing short of phenomenal. All in all it’s great, must listen!

Rating: 4.5/5- Amazing album. I’m very happy to hear them going back to a more harder and edgy sound. For a while there, I’d lost faith (during the albums released basically long with the first two Transformers movies) and strayed away from them a little bit, and didn’t have high hopes for this album. However, I was wrong. The album is phenomenal, the fact Chester went from fronting STP to recording this is amazing and I’m just very pleased with the entire album. Except for the fact every local rock station plays “Guilty All the Same” every 10 minutes; it’s a great song, but cool your jets! If you haven’t picked up a copy of The Hunting Party, I highly suggest you do so! You won’t be disappointed. All in all it’s great, must listen!

ALBUM

REVIEW