The Emptiness Machine

"The Emptiness Machine" is the second track from Linkin Park's eighth studio album, From Zero. It was released on September 5, 2024 at the start of From Zero Livestream event at the same time it was being performed. It is the first brand new music from Linkin Park since 2017's One More Light and Chester Bennington's passing. It is also the first song released to feature new vocalist Emily Armstrong (of Dead Sara) and drummer/co-producer Colin Brittain.

Background

Dave Farrell said that "The Emptiness Machine" is one of his favorite songs on the album, saying, "'The Emptiness Machine' started pretty early on, maybe even couple of years ago. It's gone through bunch of different forms but in the process it kind of started raising its hand like, 'This could be an interesting or cool first song for people to hear.'"^[1]

Explaining the song structure, Mike said, "When I wrote The Emptiness Machine, it was a very very early part of the process. I had done a song for the last Scream movie called In My Head - I think Emptiness Machine was done, I had written it before that. I had a demo version of it, it felt SO Linkin Park. It was one of the things I had written where I was like, it can't be anything else. It's the only thing it CAN be. So I was gonna hold onto it. As I played it for the guys and they felt the same way, we started getting familiar with Emily and Colin. Once the album started really coming together, we made the decision to structure it that way... to me it was like if you're going to introduce me to somebody else, then the first thing I want to do is shake their hand and say 'Hey, it's good to see you,' and then I introduce you, and then we talk."^[2]

The song was about 80-90% complete in 2022 before Emily joined the process, according to Mike, who was showing it to management and other people around the time (with his vocals on it) and getting positive yet middling reactions. Talking about it in retrospect, he said "I actually played a demo of that with my voice on it and the music was almost the same (I think the drums might've been a plug in and not live drums), but I remember playing it for them and they went, 'that's good, it's good,' and the reaction was not 'Holy crap, this is going to be one of the biggest songs of your career!' And there were smart people who pick hits in the room, and because of that I was realizing once we decided to put Emily on it, we reconfigured it so that the second verse happens and she is introduced, and that's a moment. And we shaped the song to make the best of that. Decisions like that can make such a big difference."

When discussing the song, Mike said the song's meaning is ambiguous, but to him the lyrics came from the idea of "an abusive relationship with something that is sucking the life out of you. I don't want to take about it too much because I like people having their own [meaning]."^[3] When they realized the song could potentially be a first single, they rearranged the song into its present structure. Once people heard that version, they knew that was the "real" song.^[4]

Mike during the album listening event said, "Colin recorded the drums from TEM at East West studios in Hollywood."

Tracklist

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1	The Emptiness Machine	Linkin Park	3:10

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1	The Emptiness Machine	Linkin Park	3:12
2	The Emptiness Machine (Instrumental)	Linkin Park	3:12

Music Video

The music video for "The Emptiness Machine" was released at 4:00PM PST, approximately when the From Zero livestream event ended. The video was teased at the end of the countdown teaser, when a still depicting Mike Shinoda breaking into purple dust was flashed on screen for a frame. The video sees the band all working and doing "normal" jobs and activities (Brad Delson as a package deliveryman, Phoenix working a desk job, Emily Armstrong cleaning hotel rooms, Joe Hahn serving food at a fast food restaurant, Colin Brittain using a virtual reality headset, and Mike Shinoda painting) before getting glitched out into a different dimension where they are falling apart into distorted cubes while performing the song.

To prevent information about the song from leaking, the band didn’t place an open casting call for the video. Instead, Machine Shop and LP Underground personnel acted as extras in the video, namely Adam Ruehmer, Lorenzo Errico and Jess Guerinot.^[5]

Joe said about making a video in general and then about this song, "It can be very stressful. I take it really seriously. I owe it to my brothers and sister to do the right thing and try to find something that has meaning. When we did "The Emptiness Machine," for example, I had a hard time trying to figure it out. Part of it was that I wanted to represent some flavors of what makes it a bit nostalgic, but wanted to present it in a whole new way. I wanted to do something visually captivating, but I also wanted to capture the essence of who we are. Talking to Mike, we were riffing on the idea of a multiverse concept, which everyone is familiar with the movies now. I really wanted to show the joy of us doing it altogether."^[6]

Drum Play Through Video

On March 8, 2025, Linkin Park released a drum play-through video of Colin performing "The Emptiness Machine." The song features a different mix of the song which Colin custom-made for the video with obviously no pre-recorded drums in it.^[7]


^[8] Director: Joe Hahn Producer: W.L. Boyd Production Company: Swartz/Boyd Productions Production Supervisor: Danny Gomez 1st AD: Julian Metter, Chris Gonzales 2nd AD: Chris Gonzales, John Evangelista DP: Adam Evans Cam Op B Unit: Eduardo Capriles Cam Op B Unit: Pat Notaro AC: Blake Collins, Maya Hernandez Gaffer: Zacharia Dalton Key Grip: Carlton Hudson, Chris Bond Swing: Nick Lombardo, Josh Gordon, Chris Waldorf Production Designer: Robert Fox Props: Armando Nunez Art Asst: Jeff Myron Playback: Tim Hays, Ryan Canestro Wardrobe Stylist: Mark Holmes Asst. Wardrobe: Ray Avalos Asst. Wardrobe: Meesh Daranyi Hair/MU (Emily): Carolina Ballesteros Hair/MU (Band): Dusty Starks, Emily Zempel PA: Alexis Espadas, William Jacobus, Danielle Rivera Editor: Igor Kovalik Asst. Editor: Gabriel Ordonez Post FX: Lead VFX and Design by cntrl.studio Jeff Lichtfuss - Project Creative Director / VFX Supervisor Michaela McKee - Executive Producer Max Drenckpohl - Colorist Theo Tagholm - Motion Designer Benny Vargas - CG Character Rigger / 3D Modeler Fernando Fasano - Assoc. VFX Producer Particle FX CGI by Bleed VFX CGI Executive Producer: Lisa Maffi CGI Director: Paolo Cavalieri CGI Producers: Belen Cisneros, Virginia Palacios CGI Supervisor & TD: Nicolas Zabala CGI Artists: Marcos Montane, Martin Peralta Dario Saquetti, Nicolas Zabala, Paolo Cavalieri Markerless Motion Capture and Animation done using Wonder Studio by Wonder Dynamics (an Autodesk Company) Nikola Todorovic Nebojsa Nesic - Pipeline TD Maksim Ljubenkovic - VFX TD Katarina Stojkovic - VFX Production Manager Nikoleta Nikolic - Machine Learning Pipeline Engineer Evgenije Markovic - Animator Ivana Jevtic - Animator Ana Bogdanovic - Animator Nikola Milinkovic - Animator Ines Vujkovac – Machine Learning Engineer Mark Sturley – Witness Camera Operator Nikki Flores – Production Asst. Video Commissioner: Devin Sarno / Warner Records

Versions

Note: Only the date of the very first release of each version is listed.

Title	Album	Length	Released	Notes
The Emptiness Machine	The Emptiness Machine From Zero	3:10	September 5, 2024
The Emptiness Machine (Instrumental)	The Emptiness Machine From Zero: A Cappellas + Instrumentals	3:12	September 5, 2024 February 28, 2025	Official instrumental version.
The Emptiness Machine (A Cappella)	From Zero: A Cappellas	3:05	January 24, 2025	Official acapella version.

Title	Album	Length	Recorded	Released	Notes
The Emptiness Machine (Live)	From Zero (Expanded/Deluxe Edition)	3:16	September 5, 2024	November 15, 2024	Recorded in Burbank, CA, Sept. 5, 2024.

Live

"The Emptiness Machine" received its world premiere and live debut at the From Zero livestream event on September 5, 2024 in Los Angeles. It was the first full song performed with the band's new lineup, preceded by a mashup intro featuring elements of "The Requiem," "Castle Of Glass," "In The End," "Somewhere I Belong," and "Numb." The band entered with just Shinoda, Hahn, Farrell, Brittain, and Feder before Armstrong took the stage after the first chorus. For the following shows of the tour, "The Emptiness Machine" was moved down to the end of Act 1 of the set. During the band's first night in São Paulo, their gear cut out in the middle of "The Emptiness Machine". The band played the song all the way through even with the malfunction, and then the show was paused for several minutes. After the break, the band played through "The Emptiness Machine" in full for a second time.

Personnel

Linkin Park is

Mike Shinoda
Brad Delson
Dave "Phoenix" Farrell
Joseph Hahn
Emily Armstrong
Colin Brittain

Production

Written by Linkin Park
Produced by Mike Shinoda
Co-Produced by Brad Delson, Colin Brittain
Recording Engineering by Mike Shinoda, Ethan Mates
Vocals by Mike Shinoda, Emily Armstrong
Guitar by Brad Delson
Bass by Dave "Phoenix" Farrell
Programming by Joseph Hahn
Drums by Colin Brittain
Mixed by Neal Avron
Assistant Engineering by Scott Skrzynski
Mastered by Emerson Mancini

Lyrics

Your blades are sharpened with precision
Flashing your favorite point of view
I know you're waiting in the distance
Just like you always do, just like you always do

Already pulling me in
Already under my skin
And I know exactly how this ends

I let you cut me open just to watch me bleed
Gave up who I am for who you wanted me to be
Don't know why I'm hopin' for what I won't receive
Fallin' for the promise of the emptiness machine
The emptiness machine

Goin' around like a revolver
It's been decided how we lose
'Cause there's a fire under the altar
I keep on lyin' to, I keep on lyin' to

Already pulling me in
Already under my skin
And I know exactly how this ends

I let you cut me open just to watch me bleed
Gave up who I am for who you wanted me to be
Don't know why I'm hopin' for what I won't receive
Fallin' for the promise of the emptiness machine

I only wanted to be part of something
I only wanted to be part of, part of
I only wanted to be part of something
I only wanted to be part of, part of
I only wanted to be part of something
I only wanted to be part

I let you cut me open just to watch me bleed
Gave up who I am for who you wanted me to be
Don't know why I'm hopin', so fuckin' naive
Fallin' for the promise of the emptiness machine
The emptiness machine

(I only wanted to be part of something)
The emptiness machine, oh
(I only wanted to be part of)
The emptiness machine